There was a thread recently about elite sessions, and with that in mind I went to a BG festival here a couple of weeks ago, which was principally jamming, with a concert on Saturday night. There were so many individual sessions that I found it easy to find kindred spirits as BG is not my very favourite form of music. The quality of the vocals blew me away, often on songs that were not BG standards.

There was a lady there called Jane Saunders who has written and recorded in Nashville. I haven't heard her on CD but on the basis of a session and live performance I would recommend her for quality singing.

There is a great group from Perth (Australia) known as The Sensitive New Age Cow Persons who do BG versions of everything from ABBA to the National Anthem. Spike Jones - ish if you like

As other contributors have said, large sessions tend to be dominated initially by show-offs and/or resort to lowest common denominator pieces. As we all know the best sessions move beyond this to something more diverse. I like BG more than I used to, mainly because I respect the quality of many of the muso's, and their right to enjoy their own type of music.

Regards, John