I started going to the local folk club (at the tender age of 43) because I wanted to sing in public & I couldn't see where else to do it. I got on well, but I was never that much into the music I heard there; I used to do songs by people like Peter Blegvad and Robyn Hitchcock (unaccompanied), and as time went on I started writing my own. I gradually started getting a taste for traditional songs; we used to get two songs on a singer's night, and I'd typically do one trad and one of my own.

Then two things happened. One was hearing John Kelly do a set, and realising just how good traditional songs could sound. I started concentrating on the trad repertoire and catching up on some of the recorded music I'd been missing. Then I started going to a mostly-traditional singaround. What tipped me over the edge was a song I'd never so much as heard of before, which (as far as I could work out) was called Ranzo. Ranzo, sung by every bugger else in the room, and sung loud. With harmonies. (And it was a small room.)

I never looked back.