Although we didn't make homemade music in our family, my parents listened to lots of different kinds of music as I was growing up in the 60's and 70's- classical, opera, pop/folk like Simon&Garfunkle, etc.,

When I went away to college, one of my boyfriends was an engineer for the college radio station with access to their record library, and he also did sound for the Oberlin Folk Music Club concerts, keeping tapes of the concerts that he liked. Between Scott's tapes of stuff from the library and the concerts, I got exposed to a lot of eclectic stuff, like Barrand & Roberts, Boys of the Lough, Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention. Being a rock fan of Jethro Tull, Genesis, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The Strawbs, etc., I gravitated more to the British folk/rock stuff, but also liked the "weird" acoustic stuff John & Tony sang.

Fast forward to grad school. Instead of studying for my Cell Biology mid-term, I'm trying to find the lyrics to "Crazy Man Michael" on Fairport's Liege and Lief album. Thinking (incorrectly, it turned out) it's some kind of traditional folk song, I go to the University library, and check out volumes 1-5 of something called "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads" by Francis J. Child.

It was all downhill from there. Once I found the originals of the songs my favorite British folk/rock bands recorded, I started buying records by Martin Carthy, Nic Jones and other revival singers that were more "traditional". I joined a ceili dance club to meet men, and started buying records of Irish music by Planxty, The Bothy Band and De Danaan. I started buying books of songs, again, mainly from the British Isles.

Then a couple of my ceili friends dragged me to the FSGW's Open Sing, and here were whole bunches of people actually singing these songs for fun! I stayed in the background for a couple months, singing on choruses, then finally screwed up my courage and sang "The Female Drummer". People actually clapped, and everything. I was lost.

More records. Haunting used bookstores for ballad collections. Joining the FSGW and running for the Board. Digging ditches to drain a field for our local festival (which is how I met my now husband and musical partner).

I don't have the long history and knowledge of folk music that some of my friends have, but it's added a depth and richness to my life. I'm trying to learn more about our own American traditional musics, from Appalachian to blues to conjunto to ...zydeco!, but my first love will always be for the English and Irish songs I fell for in my 20's.