P.T.,

I didn't think I was off topic at all.

Folks, what I was striving to show was that THERE IS NO WAY TO DIAGRAM IT. It would be a shame if there were. Everyone must get out and experience it in their own way. You invest in traditional music by following both the road less traveled and a road more traveled. The road more traveled (to me) is the road of the tradition---where the old ones walked before we came here-- and they brought their songs and their styles for us to learn from. The road less traveled is the road that is your own. It's the uniqueness that you/we/I bring to the music---those things that are added to the tradition or deleted from the tradition just because it's reflecting the drum you hear in your head---and after all, it is a different drum that determines the way any individual might tap their foot---or pick their strings. It's why Earl Scruggs is different from Snuffy Jenkins---and why John Hartford, as much as he admires and has emulated his friend Earl, is so different from Mr. Scruggs.

Art Thieme