Ah, now you're onto my specialised subject... Good place to start: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1903582032 This is the book of the album of the documentary series Here's the album: http://www.musicscotland.com/acatalog/MusicScotland_com_Bringing_It_All_Back_Home_2390.html By American music, do you mean strictly US? Or North American? If the latter, then Scotland had a much larger impact on Canada than the US. If you want to pick artists, you'd do worse than picking any of the following (off the top of my head): * Dylan * Woody Guthrie * Natalie McMaster * The Everly Brothers * Alison Krauss * Gillian Welsh * Emmy Lou Harris * The Byrds * Bruce Guthro (canadian - now sings with Runrig, one of the more influential Scottish Gaelic acts of recent times) I'd also look at the likes of Boys of the Lough's relationship with Garrison Keillor. Cheers Martin