I arrived at college and promptly fell victim to the "folk scare" as the trend was dubbed by Pete Seeger and other elder statesmen of the genre. But hey, the Kingston Trio looked really cool sporting their striped shirts with topsiders.  And co-edly Joan Baez in faded jeans and man's white shirt, with her impossibly clear soprano, was irresistible. Then of course Mary and the other two guys......oh yeah, and what about Ian and Sylvia and Tom Rush and The Journeymen and some scruffy dude named Bobby Dylan........well anyway you get the drift. I was then and I still am, hopelessly hooked on folk music.

Nothing for it but to go immediately to Ray Costello's music store, purchase a Stella Six string for about twelve bucks, and form a folk group. Two guitars and a banjo blended with three chords and dazzling one part harmonies and The Voyagers were born.  Skip Major, Dave Withers and I had three truly unforgettable summers as The Voyagers before events of the sixties overtook us, and we went off to figuratively conquer the world, each in his own respective fashion.

These days, I've got a more expensive guitar and I've learned another chord, but the music is just as fresh to me as it was at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival. Maybe the greatest unexpected gift I've received from folk music has been the priceless network of friends made along the way......sadly they appear to have aged considerably....but we ignore that minor concession to the passage of time.  For a dyed in the wool folkie, the music weaves an ageless, delightful tapestry that is always new and yet somehow always familiar.  So tomorrow I plan to learn another chord, and at long last, master the finger picking part to Railroad Bill........

Jim Clare