in a folk club, the first song i ever sang unaccompanied, solo, on my own before an audience was 'the wager' from an old 'johnstons' lp, circa 1968.

then about 1970, my 1st proper guitar- with 6 strings! i'd also fiddled around with a 'c' mouth organ & could play along to 'temperance 7' 'jazz' records.

some of the 1st songs i did with guitar was 'toms dooley'& 'shoals of herring'

in between fiddled about with tin whistles- not enough puff- no sucking!

but i got to play 'the lincolnshire poacher' + ''greensleeves'+ more.

then a big gap- college- more college- child rearing- more college.

then morris dancing- then learning melodeon- 'skip to ma loo' + 'in & out the windows'

so i've been singing songs, playing tunes, ever since.

tonight, [monday 8 july 02] i was at wiggy's house with my other pal jim. we were having a gay old time[ like the flintstones] playing songs together.

wiggy's recently acquired a concertina[ his other instruments are 5 string banjo- broken skin at the moment - some pliers fell on it- mandolin,& bogdrain]

anyway, i had a go on his concertina- anglo g/c - & found i can pick out tunes reasonably easily- even with accompaniment!

strangely it was like 'deja vue'- i found myself playing 'skip to ma loo' + 'in 'n out the windows' again; but was also able to provide some meaningful additions to franks mandolin 'n jims banjo 'n guitar.

most satisfactory!