Here are 3 videos from 2 Western Kentucky Thumbpicking legends. The first is from Mose Rager (thank you Bankley for transferring my cassette to cd on this one). Mose Rager taught Merle Travis and is regarded as the Father of Western Kentucky thumbpicking. I searched all over and couldn't find any of Mose on youtube so I put this one up
The next generation down was another picker that really had a huge influence on the sound and direction of the style. His name was Odell Martin and if you mention his name hats pretty much come off haha. He was mind blowing. He took what Mose, Ike Everly, Kennedy Jones, Arnold Schultz (Schultzy), and others did and upped the ante a few notches.