I picked up Erbsen's "Front Porch Old Time Songs" on vacation last summer at Ft. Laramie, Wyoming. Amazing what you can get in those Park Service stores. A few years ago I got a book at Mammoth Cave (Kentucky) called Foxfire 3, which had among other things instructions on building Appalachian banjos and dulcimers. I guess I'll have to order some of Erbsen's recordings.

I still feel cheated that my wife made us leave early from the music festival where Skip Gorman was playing. We only stayed for his first three or four numbers. She claimed to be worried about the kids but I suspect she didn't appreciate real cowboy music. He certainly seemed to have done a lot of research and tried to make his stuff as authentic as possible. What's a cowboy doing in New Hampshire?