  Wanna tell me the dorset and english west country accents sounds like the southern twang? I know the UK quite well my man. Never heard anyone/ region speak anything close to the southern twang. Fischer like all whites who hate the idea anything they do or like is credited to blacks will go to any length to prove otherwise. Even lie. That is why people like that have put alot time and effort into finding out the origin of such petty terms like Jazz, blue, Rock 'n' roll, Banjo and so on. Sometime coming with such crazy theories that defy logic. But deep down ya'll know the truth. :D  John, didn't the dorset and english west country people settle up north?  Johnny Joy Tree is right me lad. The Southern accent, the twang, does not have anything to do with Blacks, that's just going to far sheesh. Those hillbillies and the cajuns down in Louisiana and people all over the South have been speaking with that accent since Lord knows when. Blacks didn't have any influence over their accent at all. Once the Blacks were freed from slavery they became almost entirely assimilated to White southern culture did you know that?     About me quoting from the wikipedia, like I said usually I don't trust that site when it comes to music, they say Whites hadn't laid hands on the banjo until after the slaves were freed, WRONG! Whites had been playing the banjo since the 1700s check that one out. It also says Bluegrass wasn't around before the 1940s, yeah right, it most certainly was, perhaps they didn't use the name Bluegrass back then I don't know about that. But I remember reading from a much more reputable source than wikipedia that Bluegrass music has been around since the 1700s, the hillbillies have been playing it practically since they arrived. So yes the wikipedia can be a very shady source of informaton. But...if the parts I use on here include references and the references seem accurate to me I will use it. Many things on the wikipedia do not cite any good references, if any at all, some other things seem to check out. Like this.....       [ edit ] Etymology     The phrase the blues is a reference to the  the blue devils , meaning 'down' spirits, depression and sadness. An early reference to the blues can be found in  George Colman's farce   Blue devils, a farce in one act  (1798). [1]  Later during the 19th century, the phrase was used as a  euphemism  for  delirium tremens  and the  police ,  and was not uncommon in letters from homesick Civil War soldiers.  Though the use of the phrase in  African American music  may be older, it has been attested to since 1912, when Hart Wand's Dallas Blues became the first copyrighted Blues composition. [2] [3]  In lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a  depressed mood . [4]     George Colman, an English writer used the term the Blues all the way back in the 18th century, and I'm sure it had been in use since before that time. Also, Washington Irving wrote about having the Blues in one of his writings from around 1806 or something like that, I've read it before and it checks out you can look that up yourself if you want. Washington Irving of course is best known as the author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. The Blues has always been a White originated expression, not Black. And Whites were singing about the Blues since the Blacks were still picking cotton on the plantations. The Blacks learned it from Whites.   This is another thing from wikipedia that seems to check out......  [/B][/FONT]   At the time, there was no clear musical division between blues and country,  except for the ethnicity of the performer, and even that sometimes was documented incorrectly by record companies. [22]  Studies have situated the origin of black spirituals inside slaves' exposure to their white  Hebridean -originated gospels.  African-American economist and historian  Thomas Sowell  also notes that the southern, black, ex-slave population was acculturated to a considerable degree by and among their Scots-Irish  redneck  neighbours.     Even a Black man admits that the Blacks became almost completely acculturated aka culturally assimilated to the rednecks and hillbillies. Isn't that what I've been saying all along? And in the beginning of the Blues there was no distinction between Blues and Country as I've always maintained. Whites played Blues, Blacks played Blues, Whites played Country, Blacks played Country. The line between what was Country and what was Blues was very vague. You're right, wikipedia is usually not a good source at all when it comes to music, but if you read between the lines they have some truth on their still. Just a little food for thought if nothing else, as you can see I'm not the only one who says Blacks learned the Blues from White Country singers, and that Blacks were culturally assimilated to White Southern culture not vice versa.