Hi! Yes he IS for real. Jake is fortunate in that his parents run a music shop so he comes to it through heredity as well as inclination. I HAVE played with Melvin Wine and have a couple homemade tapes to prove it-- well maybe not because you can certainly tell it's Melvin, but backup guitar sounds like backup guitar. I have some friends (who I keep telling about Mudcat but haven't seen them post yet) who know Melvin a lot better than I do. I don't recognize the name Lester McCumber, but I certainly know (and know of) Dwight Diller. He plays a very wonderful straight clawhammer style (which fits wonderfully with those crooked tunes) Part of the fun of Clifftop is getting to see some of the incredible people in the Senior division. I also have some secondhand tapes from about 1965 of Wade Ward in his 80s playing with Jimmy Edmonds who was about 9 at the time. I'm beginning to hope that the music will survive unto the next generation. Sure hope so.