| 01 | The Chieftains | 46.4 |
| 02 | Doc Watson | 40.5 |
| 03 | Trimble Gilbert (Gwich’in) | 35.0 |
| 04 | Woody Guthrie | 31.9 |
| 05 | Béla Fleck | 30.0 |
| 06 | Paddy Moloney | 29.2 |
| 07 | Ravi Shankar | 26.7 |
| 08 | Joni Mitchell | 26.4 |
| 09 | Bob Dylan | 25.3 |
| 10 | Ali Akbar Khan | 23.7 |
| 11 | Alison Krauss | 20.3 |
| 12 | Lead Belly | 19.3 |
| 13 | University of Alaska Fairbanks | 19.2 |
| 14 | Altan | 16.9 |
| 15 | The Clancy Brothers | 16.3 |
| 16 | Tony Rice | 15.8 |
| 17 | Padma Vibhushan | 15.6 |
| 18 | Bismillah Khan (Shehnai) | 15.4 |
| 19 | Norman Blake | 15.4 |
| 20 | Ralph Stanley | 15.0 |
| 21 | MacArthur Fellowship | 14.7 |
| 22 | National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship | 14.1 |
| 23 | M.S. Subbulakshmi (Vocals) | 13.5 |
| 24 | Bill Monroe | 12.5 |
| 25 | Guitar Guitar | 11.9 |
| 26 | Classical Music | 11.9 |
| 27 | Pete Seeger | 11.5 |
| 28 | Bruce Springsteen | 10.8 |
| 29 | Earl Scruggs | 10.5 |
| 30 | Seán Ó Riada | 9.6 |