Humble little experiment?????
The Mudcat's the best thing to happen to me, and I reckon to a bunch more of us, in a long time!

I'm Kathy Westra, Kath to my friends (that's you guys!), and I live in Silver Spring, Md., about a block away from LaMarca, her husband, and her singing cat. (Trust her, you don't want to hear Val sing!)

I've been hanging around this place about three months now, egged on by Sandy Paton, Rick Fielding, and other addicts. In 1971, I discovered folk music when I met Sandy and Caroline in Grand Rapids, Michigan, my hometown. They rescued me from the Calvinists in 1974 (another long story), and since then I've lived on the east coast.

I sing and play guitar, mountain dulcimer, and cello. (Once in a long-ago life I was a cello major in school and played in a symphony orchestra. It wasn't nearly as fun as folk music.) I've played "folk" cello on recordings by Archie Fisher and Helen Schneyer, and done a nationally broadcast public radio show of holiday songs with my former husband, Joe Hickerson. I'm an unabashed romantic, partial to traditional lyric songs from England and Ireland. Musically, there's nothing I like more than a room vibrating with a chorus of voices in many-layered harmony. The song can be old or new, obscure or well-known. What's important is that there are people REALLY singing. I also love to dance (contras, English, and waltz -- more about that in another thread).

I'm honored to be a part of this terrific community.
Kath