PattyClink,

You're having the trouble that I sometimes have as a New Jersey girl... check out Rounder's recent reissue of Folk Music From Wisconsin, from the Library of Congress Archive of Folk Culture for some inspiration.

What I find frustrating about the field of American traditional song (and tunes) is that there's some assumption that the only interesting stuff is southern Appalachian. There is so much more, but it's sure a lot harder to find recordings and other sources (though they're certainly out there). Maybe it's because of John and Alan Lomax's focus. And, that influential Anthology was pretty strictly southern material, too.

One could argue that the southern stuff is more uniquely American, that the years of isolation in the rural mountains had created something extra special. Some stuff collected in the northeast, for example might be characterized as sounding like stuff from the British Isles merely sung in an American (or Canadian) accent. But I think that's selling it short. There's certainly a lot of material that was written in North American, in the logger's camps, for example, that tells a whole other set of wonderful stories and is clearly American in its own way. And the stuff that was imported and and then adapted by northeasterners has its own charm.

So, yeah, more American trad!!

~ Becky in Tucson