1. Hanging out at the Gris. I grew up in coastal Connecticut. Cliff Haslam has been performing on Monday evenings at the Griswald Inn in Essex, Ct., pretty regularly for over 30 years now. I spent several years as a young man leaning against that bar every Monday night doing field research.

2. I believe I've collected the majority of my repertoire, listening to and singing with other people. Of course once I started getting paid to do this music, I'v relied extensively on collections and oral history to document or legitimize my material. Today I collect music from almost anywhere although I would venture to say that I rarely learn songs from recordings.

3. I hope so, and yes you do Barry, although I can't think of any versions of chanteys being sung out there in which I can recognize myself as the source. There are folks out there singing this music that have been listening to me for a long time now. I will do school groups and workshops from time to time as the work is available.

4. Isn't this the same as question #2

5. I don't think the internet is helping or harming the traditional sea music. I don't believe there is anything available on the net that is not in the collections we've been using for the last 1/2 century. I don't like to use the net as a research tool, I feel it deprives one of a tremendous amount of peripheral information that was taken in through traditional forms of research, Books, card catalogues, singing with old men... Don't get me wrong, if I want to sing a specific song at a specific gig tomorrow night, I'm quite likely to come to mud-cat and get the lyrics. The internet is alot quicker than looking for it the old fashion way. But I can't say that I use it for actual building of repertoire or research. There is no substitute for singing with old men