Spaw- greetings! But- being a Berean, you must know that there was some knowledge of Appalachian folksong before the sixties. Nu? Several of us "eventually came out of the Appalachian hills" decades earlier- and even garnered a bit of notice... just teasing. I know you know better.

If any of you live near Lexington, there's a John Jacob Niles Center on the UK campus- very elegant. I won't go into criticism nor praise of JJN here (our paths crossed many times; I knew him and especially his wife Rena pretty well). If you visit the Center, the curator there, UK Professor Ron Pen, probably understands Niles and his music more than anyone else now living. I'm sure he was never taken in by the man's anticky lifestyle, but they were neighbors and got along, so he certainly knows what's real about the onstage and offstage Niles.