Coyote Breath: Why didn't you tell me? The Gospel Messengers sing Hallelujah Side. We would have sung it and Dave Para at Cathy Barton's Big Muddy Festival when we were out in Boonville last Spring. You're the only one I've met who knows the song. You bring up a good point. Many people don't even know what you mean when you say that you sing folk music. And yet, they enjoy the music when you sing it. Only goes to show how unimportant labels are. In the black community, very few people have any conception of what folk music is, but if you sit down and play it for them, they love it... and have heard a lot of it. The music is basically rural, so anyone who grew up in the country has heard at least some folk music, whether they call it that or not. Through people like Uncle Dave Macon, DeFord Bailey (the first black performer on the Grand Old Opry and a wonderful harmonica player, and later, Grandpa Jones, people heard folk music over the radio throughout the south. I doubt that Uncle Dave would have said, "here's an old folk song I want to sing for you." They were just songs.
Jerry