I must agree with Bert, In the fifties when Lonnie Donegan came onto the scene not many people had heard much folk type music and even less people played a folk instrument. Lonnie inrtoduced American Folk to the UK audiences but as Bert said he also encouraged them to play their own music. Prior to Lonnie Donegan instruments were mainly Brass or piano and violin and to buy a guitar was almost impossible. Skiffle groups grew up in almost every village and town with Washboards, Tea Chest Bases, Grandad's old Banjo, and the new Guitar. Having started playing in the fifties guitarists branched out into either Rock or Folk in the sixties and encouraged other younger musicians. When Lonnie Donegan was on the TV show "This is your Life" he was credited for the careers of Lennon and McCarthy, Elton John, and Rolling Stones among mant others. So it is my opinion that the most important influence to music in the last century, at least in the UK, was indeed Lonnie Donegan Cheers Bill