When I was first listening to radio in the early fifties(!) it was the first stirrings of rock and roll that got me. And got me it did! That stuff reached all the way down into my soul and took me prisoner. The stuff I was listening was very raw, emotional and it was music I could FEEL. I discovered country at about the same time and I'd slip my radio under the covers at night so as not to get busted for being awake and tune in the far away stations that played it. WWVA in Wheeling W.Va. and I don't remember what else. During the folk scare and blues revival I found some of the same qualities in new (to me) kinds of sound and I was in love all over again. By the early seventies I found myself in the Ga. mountains and heard real old time banjo for the first time. I've played one ever since.
I still love all the music I ever loved. I keep adding new things to the list but the old stuff doesn't go away. Now I want to hear a little more Cajun!
The common thread for me is the same as Jerry, I guess. Emotion & rythm. Just add Little Richard, Howlin' Wolf And Aretha and you got my attention. But Old Time has become my passion for many years now.
I think music stirs us on so many levels. I think music can make inner connections in us that we need made.
: ),
Chip