Mick and Beer, I'm glad you liked my feeble attempt to articulate myself about Canada.

And Beer, I have to agree with you about influences, it's never cut and dry. I think I'm mostly influenced by folk influences from the southern US-- bluegrass, blues, country, gospel, old-time, jazz, etc. At least those are the styles I feel most comfortable in, and those are the styles I turn to for my own musical inspiration.

I know there's Canadian influences in there -- after all, I've lived here since I was fourteen. Certainly Rick was one, and Ken Whiteley is another (ironically, both of them brilliant musicians in a wide range of American folk and roots styles).

But what I hear when I listen to myself is pretty darned American. Guess I can't help it, 'cause that's where I'm from (never mind that I grew up in a secular Jewish household in New England and somehow I love all that southern music...)

And I'm loving this discussion about Ward Allen and King Gannam and Hank Rivers, et al. I wish I knew more about THAT kind of music, maybe I'd feel more authentically Canadian...