The most important thing about Lonnie Donegan was he introduced us to something entirely different and to Leadbelly, Woody and the rest and was more than happy to do so. And he got us playing - those who could, that is. His music still sounds fresh today which I think is not the case with some of the other skifflers of his time. It seems to be thought both a good thing and a bad thing that he went out of the skiffle tradition at times, if you can define that! However some of Leadbelly's material was hardly in the folk tradition.
DocH