I could list dozens of musicians and performers who have influenced me but my greatest mentor would have to be my eldest brother who spent all his pocket money on vinyl records and showed me how to play my first chord.
He isn't a great musician or performer but even now, well into his middle years, is still finding and introducing me to interesting music and bringing me songs he thinks I would like.
As a child he carried me into a world previously unknown to me and we would sit together for hours listening to records, studying those wonderful L.P. covers and working out how to imitate what we heard on a cheap, unplayable guitar.
I'm sure that music would have still been a great source of pleasure to me but his influence turned it into something to enjoy from the inside rather than just a pleasure to buy into occassionally.
Every time I visit him one of my first questions is "What have you been listening to recently?" and, quite often to the despair of our significant others, he'll pull me into his music room for something I "must hear".
As the eldest he broke a lot of ground for the other four of us that followed, especially in the cultural revolution that was the sixties, but the biggest gift of all was his willingness to share that which excited and inspired him most and for that I will be eternally thankful.
To my brother Dave. Cheers!!

C-flat.