Bugger!!! I DID say "invented"! Damn you, Moriarty! Oh well at least I said "literally". (Thanks for the "mulled wine" site, by the way)

Actually, I've been thinking (over the last few minutes) about other "apocalyptic" moments in "folk". Here's a few that come to mind that might be significant.

When jean Ritchie first came to new York to teach school in the mid 40s....and brought her dulcimer (P.S. says he'd hardly ever seen one before) AND her family's vast trad repertoire from Viper Kentucky.

Pete himself, says a defining moment for him (he'd played tenor banjo up til then) was seeing Bascom Lunsford and Samantha Bumgarner play five string in Ashville N.C in 1939 (or 40). What Pete brought back is simply incalculable.

Certainly when Ewan MacColl(then primarily a playwrite) first met A.L. Lloyd and his hundreds of trad songs, the winner was a whole British folk song revival.

Hmmmm, must be others....

Rick