Woody Guthrie issued records on Victor that are listed in Tony Russell's discography of Country Music. His cousin Jack Guthrie recorded Country hits in the Western Swing genre including a reworking of "Oklahoma Hills" The relationship between commercial Country music and Folk music has been an off and on thing for many years. I do remember seeing both Johnny Cash and Bill Monroe on ABCs "Hootenanny" show (which was an attempt by mainstream media to cash in on the Folk music "fad" of the early 60s as those of us over 55 remember).

I don't know exactly how Folk purists all feel about Country music, as I hang out with non-purists and Old Timey players who are very aware of the early commercial Country records. There is more than a generational gap here. Political or apolitical considerations, religious, regional and class differences are all involved. All of the young musicians I know well are playing Rock or Country-Rock or Rock-Gospel. With Old-Time or Bluegrass, you see a fairly big number of young performers at festivals that have a format for showcasing new artists. I live in suburban Southern California which isn't a hotbed of that kind of music. I go to a Folk/Old Time/whatever jam that is made up of mostly guys my age. We'd love to get some younger guys & gals into the circle but I guess we just don't want to work at it. (I don't run the group, and maybe they are trying to expand it more than I know.) I don't get any invites to go to younger musicians' jams. Maybe they think I'm a lousy player, or that the stuff I play is weird. (Well as a matter of fact I like weird, so there!)

Joe R.