My parents made me take piano lessons and practice every day from age 7 to 13; it was always a big fight. At about 16 I discovered my dad's old Stella six-string guitar sitting around and decided to learn it. Since I was into '70's punk rock at the time, that took about a day.

When I was 19, I discovered the acoustic folk and blues that was being played around my college town, and immediately traded in all of my electric gear for a cheap acoustic guitar. A year or so after that, my car stereo died, so I thought it was a good time to learn harmonica. That was when I started up my blues band, singing and playing guitar and harp.

About a year ago, I decided that since I no longer have time for a band, and was in a real rut in my playing, I would sell my guitar and get a mandolin. If you know one stringed instrument, you know a little bit about them all, so it didn't take me long to be able to pound out some rough cowboy chords while howling my favourite Guthrie, Prine, or Dylan song. I've found I'm having a hell of a time getting past that point, however.