Sandy - I like your definition, and especially Richard Dyer-Bennet's - "singer of traditional songs" . Also, I see myself as a "prolongist," rather than a "revivalist"!

It just seems that in this day and age, with people moving around so much, it is hard to find a traditional community. In a song-circle I attend here every week, of 8 to 10 people, only about two of us are native born Montanans, and I moved around a bit in my early days.

Last weekend, however, I discovered that I may be from more of a "community" than I realized.. I went to a bluegrass/old-time jam session down in Wyoming, about 350 miles from here. The mandolin players got into playing some fairly standard fiddle tunes. I drug my fiddle out and started in on a couple I thought were also pretty well-known. Blank stares -- they hadn't heard of either the titles, or the tunes. (And my fiddling is OK - in tune & in time) It made me realize that the tunes I've learned from fiddlers here, are not what they play the next state over.

Of course there's a difference between what fiddle tunes bluegrassers know, and the old time fiddle repertoire, but I really thought I was in the overlapping portion!?!