Norman Blake's flat-picking style was an acquired taste, although not for the obvious reasons that you might thing that an ocean view yankee small city (Olde Saco up in Maine, for those who are interested) dweller might have hesitated over previously.  I had heard Norman Blake's music for years, from way back, from way back at least to the 1970s and the old Hillbilly At Harvard program aired on Saturday mornings where I, passively, learned  about mountain, cowboy, and western music  when I was, like my old friend, Peter Paul Markin in something he called his "country" minute.