My guitar playing partner,Keith Behner somehow booked the two of us to play a sort of "half-time" show at his eighth grade dance. We played a Kingston Trio song, "South Wind". Despite a very obvious (to us) false start, it actually went pretty well. But then the sisters (it was a Catholic school) insisted that we follow up with a song that everyone knew. Well, we only really knew the ONE SONG together. But I quickly broke into "Red River Valley" which Keith followed along with adequately. We managed to get through it okay and even had people singing along with us. Fortunately they didn't demand a third song. I am not sure that we could have complied.

But confidence was Keith's long suit. He immediately booked us to sing a birthday party. I don't know about Keith, but I have been performing with remarkable irregularity ever since.

The first booking I remember getting any money for was also a birthday party. It was during my senior year in high school. I was part of a short-lived trio at the time which contracted to do about a forty-five minute show. I have only a vague recollection of singing songs like "Bamboo", "The Water is Wide", and "You Can Hear It If You Try". We split the fee three ways and earned seven bucks apiece!