I play fairly often with a group that does mostly old-time country (40s & early 50s stuff). There is little objection to changing the key if someone needs it to sing, but we play quite a lot of these tunes in E and/or F. It seems to fit our male singers pretty well.

I seem to have heard somewhere that the F chord is particularly troublesome to (some) guitarists, so our guy who thinks he knows how may be just showing off, too.

I've been looking over the "new" Definitive Dillon songbook recently and note that he includes quite a few in F. (And a few in B.)

I'm not sure why, but lots of "blueseys" seem to be commonly played in E.

There is a definite advantage in the "convenience" of the fingering on fiddle or mando for tunes in G, D, or A - and to some extent E. G and D sit comfortably on the open strings, and A/E are the "simplest" keys that take you off of the open strings without going to "high postitions." Bluegrassers tend to put everything in these keys, but I don't see any reason why folk - especially vocalists - should worry about that.

John