Excellent point McGrath, without preservationists, those who have cherished, collected and reproduced old forms of music, I would not have had the opportunity to enjoy and be influenced by so many of those obscure artists. Their music would have been lost to me and all those like me who love those early forms of folk and blues, hillbilly and jug band etc. What a treasure to lose too! I admire those who have felt compelled to keep traditional forms alive. I too try to do my part to keep certain traditions from fading away.
I've been to a few sessions. The last one I attended was led by someone who had written a book about traditional Irish music. He had his own bible about how to play it right down to the chords and notes of songs, what instrumentation was to be used. At this particular session three percussionists showed so he was the only other musician, he brought his banjo to play. Since there were no other folks there with other sorts of instruments he canceled the event. I guess he figured it was impossible to have a real traditional session with three drummers and a banjo. I offered to play my saw along with him but he scoffed at the idea of a saw at the session. I engaged him about his particular point of view regarding traditional music. We went back and forth for about an hour. I didn't understand his unwillingness to try something different but he wasn't about to change his stripes. Those who did show up to play that evening just ended up going home without even trying to have some fun playing together. It was sad to me that this guy was not even willing to play just for fun. It was his way or the highway.

You can please some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time but you can't ...well you know. Me,I'm just trying to make as many people happy as I can. Reg