Jerry Rasmussen's thread, "Who was your musical mentor?", is (as is the norm with Jerry's threads) a fascinating bit of buisness. It begs, however, that the question be asked in the other direction. For whom have you been a musical mentor?

   I may be a bit more sensitive to this side of the coin than some due to the fact that I have spent a good deal of the past ten years as the host of one open mic or another in Madison, WI. It has made me a bit more aware of my responsibility to younger or less experienced musicians.

    This is also a more difficult question to answer. We don't always know who has gained what (if anything) from us.

    To answer the question myself I'll confine myself to just one Although I've been told that there are others who think of me as a mentor, I don't actually know who they are. Also I should point out that I have not set out to be a mentor to anyone. It's just that part of an open mic host's job somtimes involves being a cheerleader and teacher as well as an enabler. That tends to make me a mentor largely by default. There is a gentleman here in Madison by the name of Eric Hester (and I aologize to Eric if I have misspelled his name)who is more direct and aggressive mentor,by having founded the Madison Songwriter's Group. The MSG does some wonderful work.

      Aaron Nathans is the only one who has actually used the word "mentor" in relation to me, so I'll confine myself to discussing him. I first saw Aaron about eight or nine years ago, when I was hosting the open mic at a place called Mother Fool's Coffeehouse here in Madison. He had only been on stage once or twice before so he needed polish and to spend more time with his guitar. He did a servicable job on a couple of Jim Croce tunes. After his set he came up to me and rather than asking me what I thought of his performance asked me what he might be able to do to improve it. I was a bit surprised and impressed by the question. That level of self-awareness in one so new to performing is, at the most, highly unusual. I told him three things:
1) Relax! The audience doesn't bite (very hard).
2) Haunt every open mic in town. Grab every opportunity you can to get up in front of a crowd with that guitar.
3) Listen to the audience. Thier responses will tell you where they want to go. Follow that path just enough to let them know that you're on thier side. After that you can usually lead them where YOU want to go. Besides, where do you think timing comes from?

    I don't think that I've given him any other (I don't have any more than that anyway). He has, since then become a darned confident singer, an inventive and creative songwriter (his song "I Remember Howard Dean" spent several months on the open mic page of the All Songs Considered website just before Howard Dean was named president of the DNC), and is evolving into one heck of a comedian. I'm very proud of him (even though it's still a bit jarring to hear him use my name and the word "mentor" in the same sentence).

      And now, as my barber always used to say, "Next!"