Vic. Don't forget the greatest of them all. Dillard Chandler. So far as I know, the only commercially available recordings of DC are on Smithsonian Folkways, so they can be obtained by searching for him at http://www.folkways.si.edu/.

And of course there's Horton Barker, Bascom Lunsford, Roscoe Holcomb and many, many others (Sorry, that's a blind to hide the fact that my memory is having a senior moment, and cannot recall Aunt Molly Jackson, Hedy West or Nimrod Workman, to name just a few).

But if it can still be obtained, the Rounder reissue of the very first of the Library of Congress LPs, Anglo American Ballads, AAFS L1, is stuffed to the brim with golden goodies.

Similar remarks for Child Ballads Traditional in the United States, AAFS L57, and Anglo-American Songs and Ballads, Congress, AAFS L20.

Guest. All but one of the singers I've mentioned, in fact pretty well all the singers mentioned on this thread are deeply authentic, and you may have a lot of trouble getting to grips with them at first. But stick with it. When you've opened your ears to the wonders of American ballad singing, the world will be totally transformed.