Dicho: You're absolutely right. It would take a boxed set of ten CDs to give a true overview of American folk music. I make the mistake of saying that I love African music. That's as specific as saying "I like food." Two years ago, my wife and I went to Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Ghana, in comparison to how large Africa is iw like Rhode Island in comparison to all of the United States. There are 52 different African dialects in Ghana, alone. I couldn't accurately say that I love the music of Ghana, because I've only heard a very small portion of it.

A few years ago, I performed at the North Country Folk Festival in the upper penninsula of Michigan. I was amazed at how many different folk traditions there are in such a sparsely populated area of the country. You'd expect Scandinavian music, but it was far, farm beyond that... mostly mid-European and Russian music, with full bands playing music from countries that don't even exist anymore. I didn't eat anything the whole weekend whose name didn't have at least 12 letters in it.

That said, I don't think that it's missleading to label a CD American folk Music, or English Folk Music. No one would be foolish enough to label a CD ALL the folk music there is in America.

Jerry