Dear Mudcatters,

Haven't posted for ages, now living on the other side of the country, but I simply MUST post to this thread, as I've been singing "Key of R" for years and know the source. So HERE is the REAL story!

The group, "Women, Women & Song", was based on Vashon Island, near Seattle, Washington. I grew up on the island and heard them (Velvet Neifert, Libby Anthony, & Mary Litchfield Tuel) at several concerts and the open-air stage at our hometown festival every summer. They even performed on a public radio show once or twice. They produced two recordings before the band broke up, but Mary Litchfield Tuel is still songwriting & records an album from time to time.

The way they tell it, the three of them were attending an open mike somewhere in the Seattle area, and, upon hearing a pitch-challenged singer at the microphone, one of them turned to the other two and said, in an angst-ridden voice, "WHAT key is he singing in?!?" And the song, "Key of R", was born... (probably on a cocktail napkin, with help from all three women & later refinements by Mary.)

I've heard them perform the song countless times, and have sung it myself (a cappella) at gatherings in Alaska, Colorado, Maine, and even at a ceilidh on the Isle of Iona, Scotland! I know it a little differently than the DT has it (i.e. starting out, "I'm an earnest young folksinger..." and, yes, it is AMBER waves of grain!), but you have it mostly right, allowing for Folk Process. My only wish is this: could the DT entry be edited to reflect Mary Litchfield Tuel as the REAL author? She's a splendid songwright and deserves all the credit she can get.

Moran Taing/Muckle Thanks,

--yir auld Scots freen & sangster-lass, Cuilionn