(Uh, Kendall, cause you hit it twice? What happens if you only hit it once? You don't get any visual response from the screen, just immediately hit the back button and then refresh to see if it went through...just a guess.)

As far as the topic at hand...I got interested in playing guitar when I was 14, 1970 or so. My parents who had moved to Ottawa from the Maritimes shortly before I was born, had a stack of records of Ed McCurdy, (only clean ones) Tom Kines, Allan Mills, Omar Blondahl etc. as well as Kenneth McKellar. I just always thought those songs were neat and learned a bunch of them like Lukeys Boat, Kelligrews Soiree, Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor. Imagine my surprise years later when it got cool to like this stuff!

Fortunately for me, I fell in with a Unitarian youth group (LRY) where playing guitar was a social plus, and to this day, I use it as a crutch and occasional weapon (see my post in Gigs from Hell).

Of contemporary songwriters, I started off learning John Fogerty (CCR), Dylan, Murray McLauchlan and Bruce Cockburn. Those guys still hold up. Somewhere along the way--early to mid 80's--I finally started to find my own voice, initially in the early Celtic revival, influenced at that point mostly by Archie Fisher and Dick Gaughan. Now I eschew genres, sort of--I just look for songs with a lot of heart and guts (pleasant image that), and if a song speaks to me in that way, I can usually Cameronize it to suit my limited range and overly busy guitar style.

Bill