Good question, Nathan. I first started writing songs when I was in highschool in the early '50's (you've probably read about those days.) The first couple of songs I wrote, long since forgotten except for the titles, were The Curfew and Foam Rubber Dice. Foam Rubber Dice was in the style of Yakety Yak, and The Curfew was along the lines of other songs about getting your date home late. I loved the early R&B vocal groups from the well-known like the Platters and the Orioles, to the obscure who had only one minor hit on a local label. I still love that music and wrote a gospel song a few years ago patterned after a lesser-known record by the Penguins (one of my very favorite groups who recorded a ton of great stuff, including Earth Angel.) In college, I became more aware of folk music and wrote a corny western ballad, influenced by Do Not Forsake Me from High Noon, and a song about an escaped Slave. Neither made any sense, but when you start out, that's usually the case.

My songwriting really kicked into gear in 1960 when I came to New York City to go to Columbia University grad school and discovered Greenwich Village and traditional folk music. I wrote a couple of songs early on, including one titled The Words Of A Bum, in my socially sensitive phase and Drunkard's Last Advice, a finger-picked country blues influenced by Cocaine Blues. I wish that everyone had forgotten Words Of A Bum and I don't remember it at all. Unfortunately, I pereformed it in Pittsburgh in the early 60's and a couple of people learned it and sang it for many years. Hopefully it's finally been forgotten completely. I still do Drunkard's Last Advice. It's held up well and is fun to play. I was taking guitar lessons from Dave Van Ronk for awhile and had met Luke Faust. We were performing together, drawing on the Anthology Of American Folk Music collection heavily.

In 1964 I moved to Stamford, Connecticut and my songwriting picked up steam. I started writing songs about growing up in southern Wisconsin including several songs drawn from my parent's memories. I produced the bulk of my folk material during the next twenty years.

In 1996 I became friends with the director of a male chorus at a black Baptist Church, and joined the Chorus and church. I'd been writing gospel music for about ten years, mostly southern mountain and Carter Family influenced and had recorded a gospel album by then, which I never released. Shortly after joining the Men's Chorus I started a gospel quartet with three friends in the chorus, and that led to writing a batch of gospel songs building on the tradition of old black gospel quartet music, which was just another branch of the R&B vocal group tree. (Or the reverse, actually.)

Yesterday I finished my most recent gospel song, which has much the feel of slow, bottle-neck blues. The previous gospel song I finished has a feel and structure very similar to The Drunkard's Last Advice that I wrote almost fifty years ago.

And the wheel turns.

That's a long answer, Nathan, with a lot more information than you asked for. But then, I've been around a long time.

Jerry

And great to see you stop by, Janie. It feels like old times!