In keeping with my reputation for vassscccilation & mispellling stufff) I cannot settle on one person!

As a performer who brought the music to so very many, I must choose Pete.

As the collector who brought so much to Pete Seeger, I must choose A.Lomax.

As the one person who brought Southern Appalachian mountain music (and the MOUNTAIN DULCIMER) to prominence I must choose Jean Ritchie.

As the person who set the standard for writing songs that were most like the story songs & traditional stylings, Woody Guthrie is the one.

As the revival singer of traditional (and other) songs who is to my mind the most significant, I must choose Michael Cooney.

As the single person who was BOTH the academician as well as being a wonderful purveyer of the music for so very many, I must choose the recently retired former head of the ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN FOLKSONG At The Library Of Congress, Joe Hickerson.

As the most significant person for me, personally, I must choose Sandy Paton! (Caroline & David & Robin Paton & Lee Haggerty also.

The blues singer who most communicated with me was Lightnin' Hopkins.

The elderly mentor who influenced me most is Paul Durst, the totally unknown Wobbly hobo singer and fiddler I tape recorded back in 1960---when he was 93. Paul, if he is still out there riding the shiny irons, is now 132 years old...

Ewan MacColl & Bert Lloyd & Martyn Wyndham-Read & Lou Killen & Alan Mills & Johnny Carignan--all incandescent singers (except Johnny--a, no, "THE" fiddler)

The guitarists whose styles were the most accessible, and most influenced the pickers of this century were, for me my cohorts, Elezabeth Cotten and Mississippi John Hurt.

And there are so very many others----the forementioned folks are only the tip o' the iceburg.

Art Thieme