I'm with Jerry, the best part of the THE GREAT FOLK MUSIC SCARE was that it encouraged so many of us to dig deeper. There are songs that need to be sung, not just because they are old, but because they have something important to say. I just found out that Childs' criteria for ballads was if he could trace them prior to 1475(the date of the introduction of the printing press to England). These songs have lasted that long because they mean something! And to most of those youngsters hearing them for the 1st time, we are as close to the tradition as they are likely to get. Jerry, as to what you say about dating someone by their musical taste, last year at a Canadian festival, I bet Ken Perlman who was leading the banjo workshop, that I could tell within 2 years when another player started learning the banjo by his performing style. I won. The fellow sounded "so '60's" that it was so obvious that he had started playing around 1964. His presentation made that obvious.

Mark Ross