[New 12 String Mike]

I've probably told this one before, but it started when my younger sister bought IYCRMM album, not long after I got my first guitar.

I was a HS sophomore. My music interests ran to acoustic playing and not barr chord noise making. My sister liked to play her records on the family stereo and rock in the living room rocking chair. She preferred doing this alone.

Of course I'd heard IYCRMM on the radio, but as I heard the rest of the album's songs, it hit me that this was the kind of music I really wanted to learn to play. The variety of tempos and playing styles was wonderful. The intelligent lyrics were equal to the Simon and Garfunkel I'd been listening too, but didn't have the "too urban" tone that S&G had. At least too urban for this boy living in Roanoke, VA.

When my sister would play it, I'd come in to hear it, which would break her solitude. (What 15 year-old brother and 13 year-old sister want to be with each other when they're at that age?) Sometimes she'd leave, because I was there.

Anyway, her interests moved on, mine didn't and here I am.