Communication of genuine human feeling is important in all forms of artistic expression, but it's especially central to the performance of "folk" and/or "traditional" music.

Virtuosity, in the sense of an ability to play especially demanding and complicated music on one's instrument, is less important when the musical form of the pieces being performed is generally simple.

That isn't to say that instrumental skill is unimportant. In fact, the simplest compositions really require that the player exhibit extaordinary skill in maintaining a consistent tone, that the performance somehow keep up the appearance or "flavor" of absolute truth. This can require considerable skill, even though this particular kind of skill isn't obvious and does not involve easily-perceived "showing off." When the sequence of notes being played is noticeably simple and slow, the requirement for sounding consistently "true" may in fact be more demanding than when executing a flashy, pyrotechnic "run."

I just finished reading an interesting new biography of Fats Domino, who always employed a large and highly talented horn section, despite the ostensible simplicity of his songs. One of his critics commented on the presense of one or the other of the fine saxophonists in Fats' band ~ and there were many of them over the years ~ by saying "What a waste; it was like hiring Coltrane to back up John Lee Hooker."

Well, there was some validity to that criticism. The player in question, like many accomplished jazz soloists, was certainly capable of playing more complicated music than either Fats' or Hooker's, and playing it well. But the simple, basic folks-blues or roots-rock performances of the two bandleaders in question truly did require skilled and sensitive ~ if not highly complex ~ accompaniment.

Certainly, what John Lee Hooker could do was highly unique and pretty much unmatched by anyone else, ever: he could create a deeply compelling seven- or eight-minute performance out of a song with no chord changes.

On the one hand, such breathtaking simplicity is the very opposite of "virtuosity"; on the other hand, it's an example of the very highest (or perhaps deepest) level of performance skill.