I started getting lost in folk clubs in 1968 - The Lower Lip in DeKalb, Illinois. It was a college based coffee house where we could try stuff out in anticipation of the audition for the BIG TIME - the university sponsored and sanctioned Coffee House that took place once or twice each term. Mostly though, we met at the Wesley Foundation basement and sat and played until they threw us out. The dorms weren't coed at that time and you couldn't hope to touch the heart of the other gender in your dorm room. That was a long time ago.

Since then it's been a lot of bars (too smokey, noisy, drunken and indifferent), an occasional college, and now the phenomenon of the coffee house in the big bookstores. Everyone learned to play last week and they have a CD of their own stuff. Some performers are truly excellent. In my opinion the best thing that's happened in the past few years is the return of the real coffee houses. The music is never a function of the money. You meet the largest cross-section of people of all ages. You can do what you want as long as you entertain the owner.

But when you come down to it, I'll play anywhere, anytime.