Oh how I wish I'd known ahead of time that this was going to be on tonight. I'd certainly have tried to let any folks here who want to know what REAL American folk music is, have a chance to see some.

Two episodes of "Austin City Limits" from the eighties, featuring Bill Monroe and his guests. No Dylan, no punk-country rock, no slick "New Country" mush, just the true folk music from that first generation of musical pioneers who defined it in the 1940s. Mr. Monroe, Jim and Jessie McReynolds, Mac Wiseman, Ralph Stanley, Curly Ray Cline, "Tater" Tate, Jack Cooke, the truly magnificent Kenny Baker, and a number of the really serious young singers and pickers who've learned so well from these old men. They were all showing their age to some degree when these shows were taped, but the pride, the absolute insistance on playing this music with respect, as well as technique, was as strong as it would have been almost fifty years ago. No "dressing down" of course..Sunday best suits, (contrasting hilariously with the laid back Texas audience) and of course that inevitable "tip o' the hat" from Mr. Monroe at the end of each song.

After two incredibly disappointing (to me) A&E pseudo-country programs this week, I'd just about given up hope that something like this could still be shown (and interest a sponsor) but get shown it did, and the chance to see some of the folks who literally "invented" this wonderful music, might not come again for quite a while.

I love so many kinds of music including Classical through Jazz, but there's just SOMETHING about the sound that Bill Monroe created when he walked onto the Opry stage in 1944 with Earl Scruggs, Lester Flatt, Chubby Wise and Cedric Rainwater. Soon they'll all be gone..but what a legacy they've left.

Rick