I really have two "home towns," the one where I grew from youth to adulthood, Fresno, CA, and my present home of San Diego. In the former, major names were not frequent visitors. I did meet and hear Jesse "Lone Cat" Fuller, Gene Bluestein, Randy Sparks (pre-Christy Mistrels), The Kingston Trio, The Limeliters, Mark Spoelstra and The Diamonds, among others.

In San Diego, where I've spent the last 40 years, I've seen (in no particular order) Gordon Lightfoot, Chet Atkins, Garth Brooks, The Doobie Brothers, The Pogues (just recently), The Romeros, (who live in the area along with Ravi and Anoushka Shankar and violinist/fiddler Mark O'Connor), Tom Paxton, Sam Hinton, Mike Seeger, John Stewart, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers (with and without the First Edition), The New Christy Minstrels, Joan Baez, Paul Simon and many others. We have many large performance venues and several colleges and universities that attract a wide variety of acts. It is a privilege to have such access.