response 1 of 26:

Aug 3 17:27 UTC 2001

        It's usually voice and guitar.  Or can be reduced to voice and 
guitar and the essence of the song survives.  
        Adding drums, fiddle, harmonica to a song makes for good 
production values in an album, but the audience does not feel cheated
when they hear it live with just voice and guitar.  
        Generally, it's been 'passed thru ages' type of music.  Now
we have better means for tracking authors and origins.
        This past week or so, I was listening to Woody Guthrie's music.
His songs on the Columbia river and the Grand Coley damn where message
songs of the day.  He was commissioned to write those.