GUEST, Woody might take umbrage at being labeled "commercial." True in his later years, but much of his work was done during his travelin' days.

Also, sitting here in Idaho in a city of 50,000 or so, I'd tend to agree with you about polka bands, etc. But I'd expand it to include the singing and strumming on the ranch porch on a summer night, or the group in the kitchen who are singing chuch hymns, and even the kids on the playground.

As for your casual dismissal of the term "folklore" -- what term would you use?

I sometimes feel about "folk music" about the way I feel about the folks who claim that St. Augustine, Flordia is the oldest city (1565) in North America or that Jamestown (1607) is or whatever -- conventiently forgetting about the pueblos or the settlements of the Pacific coast and even the settlements the English found in the East.

American folk music has taken from so many sources that it is developing (if it hasn't already) its own genre. Peel back the covers and you'll find African, Irish, Scots, English, German, Dutch, Cuban, American Indian, Subcontinent Indian, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Caribbean, Hmong, Polynesian, and Welsh influences -- among a host of others.

American folk music, like the American cowboy, flourishes. You just don't see a lot of either from the Interstate.