Richard — IMO, Foster and Root would related to old time music about the way the Beatles did to folk music. They would with the same notes and similar instruments, but there's a whole different feel to their music.

I think when I hear the term "old time" music it conjures up The Carter Family and a lot of the early Grand Ol' Opry people like Uncle Dave Macon or The Greenbriar Boys. I might even throw some of Woody's and Jimmie Rodgers's stuff in there — at least musically, if not lyrically — along with some of the Ozark fiddlers and even some of Doc Watson's simpler stuff. I don't necessarily connect it with great technical expertise on the instruments, but it still has a lot of musicality. And a lot of it is definitely "folk" music in its purest form.

Admittedly, the boundaries get blurred if you try to put too fine a point on it, but I agree with an earlier post about the instrumentally defined difference from bluegrass. The latter also uses a lot of blues-influenced chord progressions that don't usually show up in old-time music.

Damn! Outta worms. I'm goin' home...

david