Like fogie, I also assumed that we were wondering why people played ragtime banjo. I was about to spring to the defence of cylinder recordings of Fred Van Epps and Vess L. Ossman and their respective bands.
If anyone is not aware of these two players, try to track down some way to hear their recordings. I have one LP compiling recordings by each of them from the twenties or thirties and there is some interesting stuff contained therein. I also lifted a couple of tracks not on my LP from Napster before it shut down operations. I view that as a legitimate reason to use stuff such as Napster, as there is about as much chance of some record shop trying to sell me the originals as the lifespan of the proverbial snowball in hell.
If you haven't heard Ossman or Van Epps do so!
Qack!!!!!
GtD.