One of McGrath's questions was "Any competitions?" I can imagine Sorcha slapping her forehead in unison with me as we recall that one of the key aspects of the Walnut Valley Festival (Winfield) is the National Flat-Picking Championship. (No, it's not a contest about choosing apartments, it's using a flat pick rather than finger picks on a guitar.) People come from all around the U.S. and sometimes from overseas to compete. There are also contests for finger-picking, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, autoharp, and others that elude me right now. But the Flat-Picking Championship, as I understand it, is a fairly huge deal among bluegrass-style guitarists.