Just because various folk-art forms are simple should not preclude the possiblity that genius might blossom within their confines, regardless of DVR's opinion.

For example, I'm reminded of a Mudcat thread from a month or so ago, where someone discovered an old music-hall-type song with long and detailed lyrics about having one's grave kept "green," and proposed that this number was superior to, and must have preceded, the blues classic "One Kind Favor (See That My Grave Is Kept Clean)."

I didn't bother to respond at the time, but my opinion is that the succinct, understated blues lyric ~ whether composed by Blind Lemon Jefferson, who first recorded it, or by some unknown earlier artist ~ is far superior, and closer to "genius" than the wordier song. Just my opinion, of course, but I'm not alone in feeling that there is such a thing as "the poetry of the blues," that said poetry consists mainly in subtlety, implication, and understatement, and that the very best practitioners of this art can indeed be considered "geniuses."

(I also thought that it was at least as likely that the composer of the long-winded version might have heard the blues song first and then elaborated upon it, as that Blind Lemon heard the more convoluted lyric and "copied" it in simplified form.)

And, oh yeah, let me add one more name to the list of proposed muscial geniuses, a man who has often been described as a genius: Ray Charles.