Let me echo all the accolades for Rick's wonderful essay. He does seem to have a way of getting right down to the crux of the matter.

Like most folks who frequent these parts, I enjoy many different types of music. Still when I listen to folk music, I get at least as much pleasure from listening to LOC field recordings and "primative" singers as I do the slick commercial folk-oriented acts. Probably more. I listen because I'm attracted, musically, to the work of those long ago artists, not because because of some percieved historical importance.

I don't care what motivates people to listen to (or eschew) any particular music but, from my point of view, if the Carter Family or John Carson, or Eck Dunford, or Charlie Patton, or Dave Macon or Ma Rainey or Blind Lemon Jefferson or Huddie Ledbetter or Robert Johnson or LOC field recordings or... don't just reach out and grab you, then I'd say your interest in folk music is more as an alternative pop music and has very little to do with honest expression in a folk idiom.

"Of course that's just my opinion..."""I could be wrong."

      - Mark