Kiwi: I appreciate your graciousness in allowing me to enter the circle; as my mother would have said, it is mighty thoughty of you. I am a Professor of English and Linguistics at a regional university on the Tennessee River in northern Alabama. I, also, am a musician (banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, vocal), and for the most part I stick with music in the Appalachian tradition. I call it my heritage music, as I am the fifth generation of my family to be born within a 25-mile area in the mountains. All five generations were musicians, and I grew up surrounded by the music which today is called -folk- music. I learned from my parents, from my paternal grandparents, and from friends and neighbors. I don't read music, but I enjoy playing it. Naturally I feel a strong emotional bond with the music of the mountains, and I have thoroughly enjoyed playing and singing it. Enough of the biography. Digitrad is one of my favorite sites, and I check it first thing each morning when I arrive at my office.