I guess you could say Amede Ardoin was the king of syncopated playing. Most of his songs have very rhythmic playing, such as he'd play the 16th note right before the beat note like

(waltz)
beats 1--2--3--1--2--3
notes o oo oo oo oo oo

I know that's not perfect but he did that alot.

thanks, y'all; probably goes with what someone told me recently who had given me a 1-on-1 lesson: that I was playing the melody side like/or with the bass side. I was encouraged to really try and master the bass side to the point where it was automatic. Makes sense for a struggler who's not looking to get anywhere fancy or complex, but wanting to be able to play some of the simpler traditional tunes decently. Seems like the bass side is really the hard part :-) at least i hope it is.