One thing that must be considered whenever recommending music to someone is that there are two parts to the equation - the music and the listener. The person listening to the music has to be ready to hear what is there to be heard. If someone's whole experience of the guitar is Jimi Hendrix, they are not going to think that Wildwood flower is that impressive. There is a way to connect people to styles of music that are totally outside of their normal listening range, but it has to be done in increments. I think of it as "tuning your ears back".

Listening to updated renditions of the old styles is one way to help the process. What you want to do is develop the taste for what is essential in that music, and that your ears might not yet be attuned to. Part of the problem with listening to source material is often the quality of the sound. Unless you're lucky enough to get re-mastered recordings of early performers, the "tonal" quality is often lacking. The recordings themselves can sound flat and put you off. Your ears hear something recorded on an old 78 (and transferred to tape or CD) and compare it to modern recordings and finds it lacking.

I find that a recording like "Will the Circle be Unbroken" is a good connecting link to acts like the Carter Family and Merle Travis. I think the Dirt Band did a great service by getting some of these source artists to revisit those songs. It helped to attune a whole bunch of people to that music. How many of the people in this forum discovered the pure joy of Hank Williams songs through covers of Hank by the Dirt Band and Linda Ronstadt? Or Muddy Waters through the Stones? Or Robert Johnson through Eric Clapton? Eventually, if you follow the process and pay attention, you inevitably begin to like the originals better than the covers. The ungrateful among us then turn around and criticize the son because he doesn't measure up to the father.

Two of the most difficult things in this world are to swallow something brand new whole and to put yourself in somebody else's shoes. You got to ease into these things. At least that's the way it appears to me.