Bonnie, A good, thoughtful, topic. I have been playing for 18 years with Margaret Nelson. We met when she came up and criticized my set at an open stage. I was flattered that anyone was paying attention to what I was doing. At the time I was a decent guitarist and so/so singer; Margaret was a good singer and a so/so instrumentalist. It became obvious as soon as we did a pubil performance that the two of us were a lot more interesting as a duo than either of us was as a solo. The only criteria for keeping the band together was that we determined that we would get good at what we did and that it be fun. We still determine arrangements by what goes over with the audience rather than any other reason. We also discovered that we travel well together and get to gigs early. Audience members still take bets on whether we are married (we determined that we could do better shows if we were not arguing about whose family to spend Christmas with) but have remained good friends and business partners over the years. We have played with other people over the years and the big criteria again is reliability and committment to what we're playing. And, yes, we have encountered some folks who are good musicians but not appropriate for backing us up for whatever reason. And it's hard to say no,but necessary. So, 18 years later Margaret and I as a duo and with Kate Early as a trio for the last five years are still having fun doing this type of music. Thanks