I'm a recent inductee and I am hooked! I'm older than I look (I hope), have a husband and a cat, and I hope they never fall out of a rowboat together, because they'd both drown while I was trying to decide who to save first.

I've long been a collector of folk lyrics (a broad definition I make up as I go along). I play button-box (or chromatic) accordion. I learned by ear as a little girl (at first I only played when my father was not home, because I was not allowed to touch Dad's squeezebox. "It's not a toy" Pretty sneaky on his part, but he knew me well because I quit formal piano lessons after 2 years. I also torture two dulcimers, hammered and mountain.

I am of Ukrainian ancestry and in fact my grandmother's 7 brothers escaped Eastern Europe by forming a dance band and inching their way west. We did lots of singing and music playing in our family. Dad on accordion and harmonica; my brother can play anything with strings and my Mom is a great yodeller. Her thing was always cowboy music.

I find my self checking in to this site daily, and always find at least one thread of great interest. The first couple of weeks I thought you were all a clickly little bunch, but now I find myself right at home. (But I always thought "mudcats" were crawdads. Keep on the Sunny Side, everyone.