Wow, what a great thread.

When I was five or six (circa 1960) I went to a party at my uncle's house. His son, my cousin, was a college student. He had a guitar and played three songs I remember (and as I recall it was out of earshot of the adults). Malvina Reynolds' "Little Boxes." Shel Silverstein's "Boa Constrictor" and ""25 minutes to go." My first encounters with subversive songs.

In college I went to the Middletown NJ Folk Festival, my first encounter with that phenomenon. At one point the MC said "We had this guy here a few years ago. We think we have recovered enough to have him back." And out came Utah Phillips. He played "Goodnight Loving Trail," and "Old Buddy, Goodnight," I think. I was hooked.

A few albums by people I never heard of that I picked up in a used pile and fell in love with: Si Kahn. Ad Vielle Que Pourre. The Wrigley Sisters.

At various Vancouver Folk Festivals I discovered Ani DiFranco, Moxy Fruvous, and Bob Snider. Several years went by in which I heard no one who excited me. I wondered if it was them or was it me? Maybe I was too old and jaded to get excited by a new performer. Then I heard David Francey. I concluded it wasn't me.

Oh, but I forgot one. One year at the Vancouver Folk Festival, Friday night concert, a blues musician was playing. That's not my favorite stuff so I was heading off to the food. The man sang a traditional sounding tune with lyrics that went like this: "You don't love me like you used to do... the feeling's so much stronger now." I remember spinning around to gawk at the stage. A blues musician singing about true love and marital happiness? By the time I got to the album tent all his CDs were sold out. That was my introduction to Eric Bibb.

And now the most recent. My wife and I go to Port Townsend (Washington) Fiddle Tunes workshop most years and this year there was a fellow there named Mark Simos.   I only head him playing backup guitar so I wasn't that thrilled by him. On the way home I opened his CD that my wife had purchased, "Crazy Faith." By the end of the first song I had my notebook out, taking notes. This guy knows traditional music backwards and forwards, but he writes modern, inciteful lyrics. The closest comparison I can make is Dave Carter. Wow...

Fifteen Iguana