Occasional Austin City Limits shows crop up on things like "The Learning Channel", or our Buffalo PBS station.

Bart..couldn't agree with you more. The third (and forth) generation of practitioners of this music SHOULD be given some exposure. God knows they play it superbly..but other than Ricky Scaggs, who gets TONS of exposure and Marty Stuart, NONE of the other people who've actually paid their dues in the way I suggested in my first, post get any at all. The Dixie Chicks are very talented ladies, but they don't do anything for me on the kind of emotional level I was speaking about.

Ha! Ha! Alex. Ya ain't gettin me on THAT one! I used the word "defined" and "the sound Monroe 'created'!! I've been down that "what is folk music" road too many times. You could tell I was simply hyper-ventilating with emotion when I wrote that last night.....BUT...an amazing EXAMPLE of AMERICAN folk music was "locked in" (still stayin' away from "invented") on the Opry, that night in '44.

Mark..thanks for the article.

Rick