pict, are you familiar with African American folk traditions, passed on orally since slavery? There is an excellent book called Black Culture And Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought From Slavery To Freedom, by Prof. Lawrence W. Levine. It was written in the late 70's by a reknowned history professor, and is a pioneering work in that he was one of the first professional historians to publish a major work on what was previously the realm of the folklorist. It is a real eye opener. It is a major study of many forms of singing and games, from African roots through American development. One of Levine's points is that the same treatment can be done with other American ethnic groups. It would be hard, though, to find folk music here that doesn't owe alot to its various ancestral homes - but that's the nature of our traditional folk music. As Thyme2dream say's, it becomes something uniquely American.