Mouse, it's that snobbish, elitist, holier than thou folk purist thing again that dictates that if it is poorly sung by someone with no teeth, and no one made a nickel off it, it's the only folk music that mattered.

The recordings in 1927 by Ralph Peer of the Carter family were the essential folk recordings. Those were "essential."

All of this other stuff all came after. The longevity of the Carter Family music really trumps all other Americans who came later. As far as English folk music goes, the first guy who brayed with a lute was the most essential.