Barry, while it is true there are a lot of 'amateurs' who post here from the US, many of them, you included, are definitely performers with some expertise in either the lore of the genre you are involved in, and also with some musical 'technique.' I don't think there are as many opportunities for many of us in the USA who are strictly 'back porch' singers or instrumentalists to congregate in public domains like pubs or folk clubs. We don't have the tradition. And so there is not as much to post about. I tend to agree with Tootler's remarks on how this may effect the number of music threads posted by USA'ers.

Geoff, Your point is well taken. I notice there are not many of us who tend to respond to threads about banjo or 'stringband' or jugband music. My sister is a fiddler. She is a bit of a purist when it comes to the style of fiddling she does (old-time Appalachian, especially West Virginia style fiddling.) Although she likes lots of different music, she limits how much other kinds of fiddle she listens to, because she says it unconsciously influences her own fiddling. This really isn't a bluegrass site, and other stringband musicians tend to be pretty narrowly focused. Also, this is much more of a song site than a tune site, and a lot of fiddle and banjo music are 'tunes' with any lyrics or singing very secondary.

So, there is a large contingent of folk musicians in the USA who are not much drawn to this site.

Janie