Tunesmith - I never said Lonnie's version was the best - subjective at best - I said it was the only version I had heard.

His value in attracting people to traditional music would be hard to quantify but must be judged as significant.

Just for the record I never bought any of his recordings - one single a fortnight was the limit of my available expenditure at that time. I did have friends who were more affluent and of course the radio was available even though in our household (gas lit) it came to us via rented cable.