My tongue was in my cheek when I talked about pre-natal influneces on my kids. But we must remember that a lot of musical cultures combined to create "American" music. We mustn't ignore the powerful influences on our music that came from Africa, from Northern Europe (Germany, Scandinavia, etc.), from Spain and Mexico, and all the rest. Some of the most important ballad singers I recorded in the Appalachians insisted that their heritage was German, and certainly the tales that I collected down there had similarities to those published by the brothers Grimm. The Scots-Irish influence in the region was profound, of course, but not exclusive.

Pete Seeger once observed that folks came from all over the world to enter the great "melting-pot" in the United States, but all were expected to come out WASPS. Our music, however, really did achieve some "melting-pot" magic. Let's enjoy it all. Sandy