Jean Ritchie and Edna Ritchie definitely must be mentioned as Americans who do their family variants of British ballads and songs from the hills of Viper, Kentucky. (Edna is on Folk Legacy & Jean is on Folkways/Smithsonian and MANY other labels.)

Jean's husband, photographer George Pickow, was credited with having actually STOPPED BIG BEN (a near catastrophy in Britain) when he was doing a photo shoot of the innards of that venerable clock. But that's another story...