Yes - I know the record of the African women - wonderful!

As it happens, my grandfather worked on steam locos and my great-grandfather drove one - many years ago. And several ancestors dies of TB! Must be in the genes...

It;s difficult to explain why one feels an affinity with one particular style of music and not with another. As far as upbringing goes, I was born in Lancashire, raised in Glasgow, returned to Lancashire, at college in Leeds, back to Lancashire, off to London in my mid-twenties, and then in Sussex for 40 years. But through all that time, I loved jazz, blues, early country music, ragtime and other American musical forms - as well as English music-hall, opera and classical music.

I've never had much time for folk songs from Great Britain - but I love folk tunes from Great Britain, and spend a huge amount of time playing them in sessions and for dancing.