Here's an interesting quote from Missouri fiddler Bob Holt, from an article in Musical Traditions:

"They're a passionate people. They work hard and they play hard - and if they dance, they want to dance hard. They want, like I said, the good, hard-drivin', foot stompin' rhythm: somethin' that winds 'em up, somethin' that stirs the blood up. As Alvie always says, "The fiddle wouldn't'a been called a devil's box if they hadn't a played anything but waltzes."   But when you get these old foot-stompin' tunes, you see people start pattin' their feet, and they kinda get wound up. It's the very same thing on a lesser scale than voodoo - and voodoo drums - or religion. You take anything, and build it and build it and build it, and you get people wound up tighter 'n an eight-day clock. Like these old voodoo guys workin' up into hyperventilatin' and all that stuff. Or like a holy roller meetin', where they all get happy and go to shoutin' and rollin' on the ground and talkin' in unknown tongues."

Any thoughts?