Hello Everyone...!

I'm a 21-year old college student from China and I LOVE the "folk" kind of music... Maybe it's more accurate to say "contemporary folk singer-songwriter". I think I'm probably the youngest Mudcatter - some Mudcatters are even older than my grandpa!

I listen to folk music every day. My friends listen to Chinese pop music, but my iTunes is filled with artists like Bob Gibson, John Denver and Phil Ochs. I've always wanted to play in one of the folk clubs, but there is no folk club here in China! My dream is to meet and play with Tom Paxton and/or John Prine - two of my favorite artists that are still alive and well.

I've learned to play the guitar for more than 3 years, and I've tried to learn the guitarstyles of Bob Gibson, John Denver, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan, John Prine, Patrick Sky, Mississippi John Hurt... I even bought a banjo and tried to play like Pete Seeger, but I failed... Can't play it!

I have a YouTube channel. The link is My YouTube Channel.

At first I only upload live songs by folk artists. But about 3 months ago, I began to upload my own cover of songs to YouTube. I've uploaded 13 John Denver songs, 12 John Prine songs, 15 Phil Ochs songs, 16 Tom Paxton songs and 6 Bob Gibson songs so far. Every once in a while I have the feeling that I should try to write songs, but the only song I've ever written is called "Early Morning Blues in B" and I haven't uploaded it yet...

Most of the songs I would play exactly like what the original artists did. It's what I like to do. I think I've almost mastered the guitar style of Tom Paxton and Phil Ochs and John Prine now. I love Patrick Sky's guitar style, but I find his songs hard to play. He's learned the guitar from Mississippi John Hurt and is a very wonderful and skilled blues guitar player. I'm thinking - if anyone is going to issue a book like "The Authentic Guitar Style of", I'd possibly be an editor.

Here are some of my cover versions of songs on my YouTube channel - I used my iPhone to record all of them. Hope my singing and guitar playing is not bad!

Early Snow (Tom Paxton Cover)
This Old Guitar (John Denver Cover)
Darcy Farrow (Steve Gillette Cover)
How Lucky (John Prine Cover)
Sing Along With Me (Phil Ochs Cover)
Changes (Phil Ochs Cover)
Civil War Trilogy (Gibson & Camp Cover)
Ramblin' Boy (Tom Paxton Cover)

Several weeks ago, my performance of Whispering Jesse and Darcy Farrow (taken from YouTube) were played on a WAVR (American Veterans Radio) program called John Denver's Music. I was so thrilled to be featured!

One of my favorite artists is Tom Paxton. If you also like Tom's music, you probably know Jason's Tom Paxton Chords Collection page. I've been a constant contributor to Jason's website and I'm also the one who encouraged him to do a Phil Ochs Chords page on his website.

I've always had the ambition to blend Chinese traditional instruments into Americana music. We have hundreds of traditional instruments in China. But I cannot play any Chinese traditional instrument... So it may well stay a notion.

I've never performed in front of an audience, but I've always wanted to. Few people in China are interested in this "folk" kind of music. I plan to take a trip to the U.S. later this year, but I still haven't decided which cities I'm going to visit. Now I'm wondering: if I have the opportunity to visit the U.S., will I be able to perform in some of the folk clubs there?

I'm not an native speaker so my English might not be very good... Hope you can understand what I'm saying!

Greetings from Beijing, China!

Boot Leg