As a very young child, I'm told by my parents that I sang all the time. I absolutely yearned, this I remember very well, to learn to play something, and this resulted in my being given a guitar on my 8th birthday. It was a plywood guitar from Sears, had decals of the Lone Ranger and Tonto on the front, and multi-colored nylon strings.

I also attempted to play the piano wherever I found one, just trying to play the melodies that I heard constantly. I thought everybody had music in their head and was surprised when my older sister told me no, I was simply nuts--which I believed, briefly. I pretty much played whatever I could get my hands on as a child, winding up with guitar because, well, it was the thing to do in the mid-60s. I remember my mom asking me how I'd learned to sing harmony--I didn't know that's what I was doing, and it again puzzled me that she didn't hear it. No one else in my family listened to music really; that I was still playing folk music in my 30s was of some concern to both parents--at 12, it was cute; at 21, a great outlet; at 35--wasn't I ever going to go back to school?

Some days, all I want to do is sit and play and sing, it's like food to me.