I was fortunate enough to have parents who had very wide tastes in music... I have been interested in all kinds of music, including folk, since I can remember. Dad always got out different records from the Hamilton library, and so the first taste of folk music that I can remember (I call it folk, some of you might disagree) was the Gracelands album by Paul Simon. My first sentence was "Diamonds on the soles of her shoes" which may just be a myth of my dad's but I can remember this album as being one of my first memories and therefore is very special to me. People who come to my quiz night at Dicey's may notice I sometimes slot in a question about songs on that album. (Thursday nights from 8pm... Dicey O'Rileys, High St Dunedin.... Be there!) Anyhow... when I was about five, my mum, who loves music but who never had the opportunity to learn when she ws young, was learning beginner piano, and had just played Greensleeves. She left the room and I climbed up on the piano stool and started to work out the notes of the tune she had been playing. So luckily for me I was given piano lessons from about the age six onwards. After that I kept listening to the records that dad brought home. I LOVED the John Renbourn group's Maid in Bedlam among others . . . and one of them was Van Morrison and the Chieftains . . . Irish Heartbeat. That was the start of the Irish thing, and when I got to Intermediate and tried to figure out the violin, and the flute, and the whistles, it seemed the next step was the bodhran so that one day I could be an entire band on my own in a recording studio (heh, heh, dreams). But what is it that interests you in the music enough to ignore the 'friends' who think it is 'uncool'? Well for starters, I live for music. I can't imagine how boring my life would be if I didn't have it. I see people, even my best friends, who didn't have the opportunities I did, and I see how boring it is not to have a passion at all, especially for music. For years I have listened to CDs on a discman in bed just before going to sleep and imagine myself singing that Joni Mitchell song or being the solo violinist in a Mozart violin concerto. I just love it. I was born loving music, and I'll have it till I die. To me music appreciation is an innate quality. You cant learn it, it just has to be there. I was learning classical violin when I was about 15 - 16, trying to correct all of the bad habits I had from teaching myself, when my teacher said that someone was looking for a member of an Irish band to play at a local pub. If anyone told me they thought it was uncool to do that, I would come back with the fact that I was earning $125 for four hours work which was more than they would ever earn at Woolworths, so that shut them up! This same teacher also taught a few members of the St Johns Collegiate ceilidh group so she got me into that. Also, I think most of it had to do with the fact that I have always stuck out a bit (I have unruly curly blondy hair that is wild and was an afro.. which made me look like a boy) so I put up with teasing when I was young and learned to make fun of it and not be offended at all! So I guess I have always accepted the aspects of my personality that are different to other people my age, and one of them is my interest in music. ALL music, not just folk. What (if any) aspects of "folk" music do you not like? I think that sometimes folk communities have been going with the same core group of people for so long that they are used to each other, they know how each individual plays, and therefore they are hesitant to change and accommodate new people, new aspects, new interpretations. Folk music hasn't stopped being written! If people don't allow change then we are making it pretty damn hard for our great great great grandkids to have something to look back on. Folk music is a place where we can all be ourselves. Not worn-out facsimiles of a previous person's interpretation. Love Laura When she was in her last year at high school, Laura played in the Te Awamutu band Shenanigans. At the time of writing this, 2004, Laura is a 3rd year Zoology student at Otago University. Other folk beginnings Songlist- Home Page made 17th August, 2004