Er... my parents chose it for me. I was a bit too young to object a the time.

Not any more. I did a lot of live playing in my youth but with age comes the understanding of what is meant by the old saw, "discretion is the better part of valour".

It is fantastic! The opportunity for shameless self promotion is enormous. I only wish we'd had something like this when I was trying to break into the music industry, all those years ago....

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! Not very likley, though, is it?

I began by playing in Folk Clubs in the early 70s and built up a following and strong reputation on the South Coast of England. I got a bit lost in the 80s as the acoustic scene nosedived. I returned to serious composition in the 90s. Live performance is not something I'm too interested in any longer but composing and recording songs is still part of my life.

When you get to my age, this is not a short answer!

My earliest musical memories are Lonnie Donnegan singing "My Old Man's A Dustman", and Peter Sellars and Sophia Loren duetting on "Doctor I'm In Trouble". Another song which made a great impact on me at an early age was Tom Jones singing "Green, Green Grass Of Home" (which is on my album but for copyright reasons I can't post to Soundclick.com). It is the first time I realised that songs could tell a story. I suppose that lead to the realisation that I wanted to sing and write songs.

My earliest folk influence would have to be Peter, Paul and Mary - and the plethora of song writers they introduced me to, such as Bob Dylan and Gordon Lightfoot.

Since then the list is long and never ending... including the Beatles, Kinks, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Bert Jansch, Ralph McTell, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Jonathan Kelly, Ry Cooder, Steely Dan, Lyle Lovett, Richard Thompson, Steve Earle, Nanci Griffith, Gillian Welch....

And that's not to mention the big band and Jazz phase I went through when I was listening to Woody Herman, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Lester Young and Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

Right now I'm just as likely to listen to Hot Club of Cowtown as I am to kick down with QOTSA.

Eclectic is probably the best word to describe my tastes and influences.

Portsdown Hill (I wrote a song about it, after all!)

My main acoustic guitars are an Avalon A320C acoustic and a David Anthony Reid vault back guitar. I also own an Ibanez Joe Pass semi-acoustic for Jazz which I play through and AER acousticube.

I've started some recording again after a 10 year hiatus and the result is some new material which will appear from time to time.