I grew up in a rural area of Southwest Mississippi (Amite County) which I still love and visit whenever possible. This part of Mississippi was American frontier after the Revolutionary War when it began to be settled by mostly recently immigrated Scots, Irish, and loyal Tories that fled when the American patriots whupped-up on the British.I had an uncle who was a local musical draw, primarily 50s country music and who frequently appeared on local radio. I think a lot of my musical interest stemmed from that early exposure to him and his friends who performed. Also, we listened the Grand Ole Opry every Sat. night until we got a TV set in 1958. I heard a lot of old-time music on that program that has stayed in the back of my memory for the rest of my life.In college, I got hooked on folk music during the generation when it came to the fore. That's when I discovered Ian Tyson, Gordon Lightfoot, Tom Rush, Pat Sky plus a lot of others too numerous to mention.In the late '70s, after penning a lot of songs on my own, I tried to cut a demo (they still made 45s back then) and get some interest. That flopped, so I pretty much stuck with doing my own stuff for myself until the last few years when I began writing a lot of lyrics again, this time focusing on stories of my ancestors in the Confederate Army. Although I've written a few things in total, most of my Confederate songs use Celtic folk songs as the music.Now in the last few years, with the improvements in home-recording technology, I've started putting some of my stuff in audio form. I'm not necessarily looking to become a performer per se but just want to get some of this in a listenable form while I can.I'm still working, going into my 35th year with a state agency. Hope to be able to retire soon so I can do more with music and other things.
One of my favorite web sites with database of lyrics and discussion of old songs both traditional and folk-style:
What's your inner spirit?
Dragon
You love shiney things, and are often messing in human lives. wether ur peaceful or evil u love soaring the sky, and killing princes(U know princess gets napped by the drgon)
How do you compare?
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