Based solely on opinion and best guesses it seems to me that folk music historians face a task that may be 100 times more voluminous than that of classical music historians. The classical music historians I knew seemed to write a prestige check they could not cash.
The inner resources of Mudcat Cafe are indeed tremendous in scope and in fact quite prestigious in my eyes.

I'm not proposing a 'my dad is bigger than your dad' argument but rather just mentioning the obvious for what its worth which looks like a fortune.