Though I don't play or sing old-timey music, the NLCR's were an early inspiration to me for listening to and appreciating it, and for awhile in the 1970s I was seeking out any Gid Tanner/Uncle Dave Macon/etc. recordings I could get my hands on. Only in the last few years has my interest in old-timey music been re-ignited, when I attended a music camp where Bruce Molsky taught fiddle. His fiddling AND singing are nothing short of breathtaking, and inspired me to seek out field recordings of vocals on CD. If it is now in a rut, my experience suggests to me that it could take a great musician like Molsky to start people into a re-discovery, or a first-time discovery of this music, to introduce it to a new generation. There is a young fiddler here in California, Brittany Haas, who is a protege of Molsky and is a brilliant old-timey fiddler, in the Bruce Molsky mold. Maybe it's a new generation of instrumentalists and singers, inspired by master teachers and performers, who will get it out of any rut it might be in?

-chanteyranger