"Has there, in your experience, ever been an urban audience in the States for singers like Dillard Chandler the Hammonds or Ted Ashlaw -if so, was it just festivals?"

Oh yes. I think you could say that it was the interest of urban audiences to discover the rural music that led to the folk revival. When you look at people like Pete Seeger, Mike Seeger, Ramblin Jack Elliot and others - these were all city kids or people from middle class homes that were trying to learn from source artists.

Everything is in perspective though, I doubt if Ted Ashlaw would have sold out Carnegie Hall if he had the opportunity, but there were enough people interested in his music for record labels like Rounder to release LP's in the 1970's. We aren't talking huge sales, but there was and still is enough interest to generate sales.

What would also happen back then is that people would learn a few songs and then start sharing them, and perhaps one of the "name" artists would record it.

I actually see a lot of younger people starting to do the same. There are groups like the Mammals who will turn a trad tune on its head so that people of our generation might not recognize it, but I sincerely think they are doing the same thing that other generations did before them - learn from the source and take something to make your own.