Thanks for the information folks. I`m sure that I, like many non US`ers have found this very enlightening. Unless you were brought up with this music or have subsequently made some kind of a study of it, then much of the discussions and debates about the two styles go over your head.

Having the oportunity to listen to music on the web via Folk Alley has opened me up to lots of new styles and this thread has allowed me to feel that I can start to draw some slightly more educated comparisons with music styles that I come across here in the UK. I can certainly grasp the "its dance music" concept and how that dictates much of what makes "Old timey" seem long winded and repetative when it is listened to away from a dance context.

I have a question about Bluegrass, which maybe should be in another thread, but I will start it here for now..........Where does the improvisational influence come from in Bluegrass?..........those first players who developed what became Bluegrass after WWII, had they come from a Jazz background? Old Time?....where? If Jazz, then the influence and technical skills in Bluegrass have obvious roots, if elsewhere then it is not so obvious to me and would be interesting to know.

I will make a stap at guessing that, as the rootes of Jazz were African American, and then heavily developed and influenced by eastern european imigrants to the US, so Old Timey had its roots in English Traditional music of several hundred years ago........so where was the development source for Bluegrass? The impact of Celtic influences? From Jazz again?

Anyone care to enlighten me?