The influences upon the musical styles of North America are wonderfully diverse, and none more so than in the area of the Appalachians. The immigrants to this massive and diverse area of mountains, hills and plateaux were similarly diverse.

English, Scots-Irish, German, African and Dutch only begins to tell the tale. Cecil Sharp went to the Southern Appalachians and collected over 1600 songs derived from the English tradition.

The Melungians (this is a term that many people are not happy with, but which others will happily apply to themselves) are another little known group. As a group they usually referred to themselves as Portugese and have been shown to be of Portugese/Turkish/Moorish origins mixed in with the local Cherokees. They are a very interesting group found in the mountain regions (seemingly mostly in Tennesee) and predate English and other European settlement.

To try to characterise the music of the Appalachians as "Celtic" or "English" (a massive influence and interestly not mentioned so far in this thread) or "German" or "African" is a diservice to what actually happened.

They came together to form distinctive styles that were sometimes closer to their European/African/Native American antecedants, but were overwhelmingly a testament to the new American "melting pot".

The tracing of the "Celtic" roots of Appalachian music is more of a comment upon C21st society than real history. In the same way that the C19th and early C20th wish to show the superiority of (or the more interesting/exclusive/nation building nature of) WASP culture is a comment upon American society of that time.

This is something worth looking at as an easy to read starting point;

Music and Dance of the Appalachian Mountains of North America, a very good little essay that traces the influences upon Appalachian dance and music traditions.

A bit of a search on the web can bring up many more academic sources as well.

Andrew.