OK, so here's an interesting puzzle for you:

I'm ethnically (genetically, that is, DNA-wise) Scottish and Polish. There were some Irish on the Scottish side of the family, but the Polish side is almost 100% Polish as far back as anyone could tell.

The conundrum arises when I mention that I was adopted at age 2 and have no memory whatsoever of my biological family. My adopted family is German/Hungarian/Romanian on my father's side and Polish (again, almost totally as far as I know) on my mother's side.

I grew up listening to a lot of different kinds of music from early childhood on, and then I discovered folk music and, more specifically, Irish and Scottish songs. The tradition of "rebel songs" and ballads about the heroes of the Irish Republic especially moved (and still move) me.

So, is my love for Irish music and history rooted in my Celtic ancestry, my individual discovery of said music, or both? Why am I not likewise drawn to playing polkas, or chardas or oom-pa songs?

Am I "affecting a persona" when I sing and play, or is some latent, native, organic "self" slowly being realized as I learn and perform more and more of the songs in that particular tradition?

By the way, I can sing the hell out of some blues... and I know whereof I speak. Besides, both Howlin' Wolf and Son House made it clear that ANYONE can have the blues; those whites who were not poor country folk just didn't know what to call them yet.