Frank - you said it the best of all, I heard on radio the other day that most BG festivals are 80% Gospelmusic but audiences never notice.

Also I have heard Harmonicas in OT bands and that would be the way they do it. OT grew out of housedances, like celtic did before it, and the rough and ready frontier life style created that unique melodic sound that BG today so lacks, so perhaps the real music is not being played except at sideshows? I have not heard anything original in BG Banjo since Earl Scruggs, indeed nobody I hear is even close to Earl's precise and correct timing! Small wonder then to see more folks turning on to OT Banjo!

Perhaps BG Banjoism is a myth? if so there are a lot of Earl clones out there still banging away at the same old same old?

Perhaps BG Banjo is far harder to play, but Clawhammer is capable of far more variety? Certainly, to begin, OT is harder to get right, but after a few decades it begins to make a little more sense.

Gee chip fall off of it! and if I had your checker I too would appear to be a perfect copycat! But OC you know I am kidding, and as good or as bad as the next musican when it comes to tha kaybroad.. oh hell or is it well!