Anyone interested in listening to some American Folk could do worse than listen to the folk channel on Netscape radio. Free download - Lots of good channels. Dunno if it representative but I realy enjoy the (mainly) American Folk on there.

Parochialist - I dunno if your post was tongue in cheek or not. Am I loosing my 6th sense;-) Just in case it was serious, from my last trip to the States (Chicago, St Louis, various bits other bits of Illinois and Arkansas) there are some great bars there! Most with good beer and all I visited had live music at least twice a week - More often with most.

Perhaps I was just lucky or had a good guide :-P

Cheers

DtG