Topdown... I have to agree. The blues created what is now thought of as "American music", and Ray Charles (along with a bunch of others) really brought the blues to the forefront. Listen to the "Crying Time" album to hear how some of our popular country hits sounded before they were "country".

I can't recall any Hancocks at the moment... My wife was born and raised here, I'll ask her.

I'm an Ohio Buckeye by birth, Virginian by marriage.

I seem to remember a Ronnie Hancock, but can't remember from where...

Thanks, Southpaw...

I thought time started to go by faster when I got out of High School.

Having her has increased the speed of time exponentially.

I know this is an old post, and probably forgotten about, along with a lot of the other "who was the best" threads, but I thought this one was interesting.

It began asking about the most "influential" which, to me, brings up an entirely different set than "most famous".

I was surprised to see that Neil Young and Bob Dylan were not mentioned here...

(I looked again, and did see Bob Dylan listed once, sorry.)

These two, along with John Denver, were, in my humble estimation, among the most influential artists of their times. Not necessarily for the songs they recorded, but for the music they wrote which is often credited to other artists (Peter, Paul, and Mary come to mind because they were mentioned before) because they made the songs popular.

On another note, I saw that Guy Davis was also mentioned here. While I am a huge fan of his, I really don't know if he could be said to have influenced a lot of music. I rather think of him as an artist of tribute to some of the pioneers in blues like Robert Johnson and Son House. Guy once said that he never picked cotton, but he listened to a lot of cotton pickers growing up, and I think he is doing a tremendous job of carrying on their traditions.

good thread. made me think a little