When I first came to the Mudcat in 1998, I had hardly even picked up my guitar for nearly ten years. After slightly more than a year on the Mudcat, I made the statement in my post to the Brief Biography thread that "I am starting to think that maybe I will get out and do a coffeehouse gig or something soon. We shall see." In December that year I made the first stage performance I had done in nearly twenty years. It was only for two songs; but it was an important new beginning for me. I had never heard the songs before that year. I had learned both songs by way of the Mudcat. In April of the this year I joined with a friend to do a half-hour show. A little more than a month later I made a road trip covering thousands of miles with another Mudcatter (Bill Sables, an Englishman whom I would not have known but for the Mudcat,) during which we each played for as well as with small groups of Mudcatters and made one coffehouse performance and one large stage performance. We met with as many as 75 other Mudcatters during that adventure. Later, we performed on the Mudcat Radio Show before a huge, international cyber audience. Just last weekend I performed before a crowd at the Getaway.

The point is that the Mudcat, (which is to say the people who are the Mudcat,) has given me the self-confidence and assurance to do all of those things. There is no way to convey the level of trepidation I had developed about the possibility of performing. It had at one time been doubtful that I would ever redevelop the courage to share my music with any more than the few friends who graced my livingroom from time to time. I have the Mudcat to thank for so much that has happened since May of 1998.