"When I was in Durham in the 70s at University I found that a surprising number of people knew a good number of their regional songs and I heard them in the pubs. In the USA scarecly anyone knows the lyrics to a song and especially no one knows local folk songs. Nobody."

That's Durham, Germany, right? Yup, singing in bars is relatively rare in the USA. The Lomaxes probably wouldn't have found much in local bars in many parts of the country, either. And they collected before tv and internet. When confronted by a boozy, dirty person standing in front of a really odd vehicle, I wouldn't be singing any old-timey songs. As an anthropologist, what techniques did you use to collect songs?