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I got my first guitar in June of 1962. It cost $25 and the strings were 6 inches off the fretboard. The very first song I attempted to learn was Greenback Dollar by The Kingston Trio. I had an album called "Play Along with The Kingston Trio" or something along those lines that had the chords to all the songs right there on the inside of the double album cover. I remember the tips of my fingers bleeding a lot as I tried to hold down those chords. I also took guitar lessons for about six months, and decided to quit around the time I finished Alfred's Basic Guitar Course, Volume One. I was learning songs faster than they were teaching me how to read music, so what was the point? I had no idea at the time how valuable knowing how to read music would become later on.

So I knew some Kingston Trio songs, I basically (very, very basically) knew how to read music, and I was learning songs by listening to records and trying to replicate the chords I was hearing. And then came December of 1963. The guy who lived next door to me got the album Peter, Paul and Mary-Moving for Christmas. Knowing my interest in the guitar, he charged over to my house and told me I had to hear this song called 'A Soalin'. My concept of how to play the guitar hasn't been the same since. I attacked the finger-picking techniques on that album for all I was worth, and haven't stopped to this day.

A few years later, I was in my first band. Motown was hot, and we covered music by The Temptations, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Wilson Pickett and others. Even though I was caught up in the "Soul Music" movement, I remember listening very carefully to the music of Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons and The Beach Boys. These guys had modulations going on in their music and I was new to all that. And, of course, the Beatles. I think I tried to learn every Beatles' song that Lennon, McCartney and Harrison ever wrote. Incidentally, I never had a good electric guitar to use in the band. One of the other members played the bass and lent me his Gibson. Man, how I wanted one of those. All the while, I'm still playing the $25 guitar at home. Sadly, the band broke up before we all finished high school. I never did get a good electric guitar, although I've lied about it over the years telling people I used to play a Gretsch "Country Gentleman".

My father-in-law, twice removed, got a five-string banjo for Christmas somewhere around 1971. It came with a short instruction booklet, and I fooled around with it. He also had the album Hard Travelin' by Flatt & Scruggs. I fell in love with the song "Randy Lynn Rag" and somewhere in the back of my mind I decided that I needed to learn this instrument. I had no idea what I was in for. I purchased a banjo, along with the Earl Scruggs book, had a pair of 'D' tuners installed, and stepped out into the world of bluegrass. Let me tell you, finger picking a banjo is significantly more difficult than finger picking a guitar. To this day I consider myself a novice, although my technique has gotten cleaner over the years.

I had a lot of fun playing songs at parties - and one of those parties is where I met John. He and his wife sang along to every song I played, and in fairly short order he told me he would be interested in learning how to play the guitar. Thus started a friendship that has endured to this day. After giving John guitar lessons for about four years, we decided to take our act to the next level and start an acoustic music group. We played the music of The Mamas and the Papas, Seals & Crofts, America, and Crosby, Stills & Nash to name a few. Got pretty good at it, too. But not good enough. Eventually, we all parted company.