<p>I grew up in the mountains in East Tennessee and started playing guitar when I was 16. I learned the basic Maybelle Carter guitar style then along came the folk music revival and musicians like Joan Baez were singing the songs that mother sang to me and playing fingerstyle guitar (Travis picking, though none of them were anywhere close to Merle Travis). My finger picking style developed from listening. Never had a lesson in my life. Didn't have much access to television or live concerts up in the mountains so I ended up listening to Peter, Paul and Mary on the radio and trying to reproduce their sound--not even thinking about the fact that there were two guitars producing that sound.</p><p>I went to graduate school, earned a PhD and have been a biology professor for 32 years. The music was just living room picking until about 20 years ago when I started performing in public occasionally. About 15 years ago, I wrote my first song. I'm not a prolific songwriter. I tend to wait for the Muse. However my song production has accelerated over the past 2-3 years.</p>