"Mister, you can sing anything you want. I could listen to you all day!" They didn't know categories from canteloupe. They just were enjoying live music.
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I love playing for and with people (it's usually "with" because I'll badger everybody in sight to join in) because there is this thing that happens to people when you hit on a couple of songs that they remember. You'll see this guy standing on the edge of the jam looking all serious and at some point in one of the songs the dude will just sort of melt. His face will light up, his posture will go all relaxed and there will be this sort of look in his eyes that is happy and sad. A moment later he'll be singing along, talking about how somebody in his childhood used to sing that song, introducing himself to everybody in the jam and asking, hesitantly at first, if he could give one of the instruments a try because he'd "always wanted to play".

If any of you are in Salisbury, Maryland on the first Saturday of the month there is a jam session / hootenanny at the big Banres & Noble store from six to nine. I did a couple of book signings there a few months ago and we drew enough of a crowd that they give us the run of the place one night a month. We get an interesting mix of folks (the guy who plays bass with us is a blood relation to Lightning Hopkins) and anybody who wants to join in is welcome. I always bring a couple of extra guitars and banjos for people to borrow - and if you've never played before somebody in the group will go off to one side with you and help you get started.
The really interesting thing about the jam is that we catch people by surprize. You don't expect to run across a bunch of people playing and singing in a place like B&N and it's kind of cool to see kids dragging their parents over to listen to the music and guys in business suits running over asking if we know this song that his grandmother used to sing.

People don't care about genres. They just like "folk music".

-Patrick