I heartily concur about Norman Blake. There are a couple of things he does that NOBODY else seems to be able to emulate. My student Banjo Bob was getting into cross picking (on guitar) and brought Norman's "Church St. Blues" for me to dis-assemble. Holy shit! I'm not usually flummoxed by a bit of guitar playing (nothing's REALLY hard if you're willing to put in the work and have average skills) but this was diabolical!

Norman has a combination of a VERY strong AND very loose right hand. His cross picking is more like "cross strumming". I figured out what he was doing for Banjo Bob, but I ain't learning how to do it myself. Won't live that long!

By the way (another aside to our original questioner) marty D, had you asked "Can I cross pick like Norman Blake? SERIOUSLY". I wouldn't have jumped in so optimistically. I'd probably have said "when you learn how, teach it to me. Doc's stuff is much more logical.

Rick