I've been getting into Richard Shindell, Hugh Blumenfeld, Andrew Calhoun, Greg Brown, Vance Gilbert, John Gorka. Have you listened to any Jack Hardy? Try our own Rick Fielding and Art Thieme--(I just got my first CD of each, and I'm delighted with both).

Lest I sound gender-biased, for women-folks, I've been listening to Kate Wolf, Nanci Griffith, Shawn Colvin, Cheryl Wheeler, and Indigo Girls.

They're not strictly folk in the traditional sense, but in the sense they are writing songs that are accessible and memorable, they're doing it.

Just so you know what my early musical pleasures were, I was raised on Woody, Pete, Weavers, Zimmerman, Joan, Joni, Leadbelly, and Odetta.

V