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From the time I saw Joan Baez walk out on a stage by herself with just an acoustic guitar and mesmerize an audience for two hours, I've been fascinated by those who use their guitar playing styles to complement their vocals/lyrics, so I suppose my biggest influences have been: 

Joan Baez
John Denver
Gordon Lightfoot
James Taylor
Kris Kristofferson
John Prine
Darrell Scott
Fred Eaglesmith
Scott Miller

DE

Other than family get-togethers the only other thing I usually do is go fishing.  The last couple years though, Jen and I have been invited to join friends at a local campground for a cook-out, fireworks and jam session.

DE

Thanks for the kind words but my "campfire" style of playing cowboy chords and caterwauling can never be confused with someone that really knows how to play and sing.  For a couple years I hung out with singers/songwriters in a NSAI group.  Unlike my friends who were always praising my songwriting efforts, the NSAI group were never critical of my efforts but they were always brutally honest.  I soon learned my weaknesses in songwriting and singing/performing.  I know where I stand and it's not very far from the bottom of the ladder.

DE

Good story Doug.  I once saw a grizzly run through a crowd of photographers to get to the river in Yellowstone Park.  Looked like a bowling ball knocking down pins as the folks scattered. All my encounters have been with black bears, mostly on kayak or canoe trips on mountain streams in remote areas of West Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina.  Of the 22 canoe trips I've done in Canada, a handful have been during years when berries didn't develop well and hungry bears were looking for food.  usually making noise keeps bears at a distance but in those years it was like ringing a dinner bell. The bears have learned that canoers carry packs of food and the packs get left at the end of a portage while the paddlers go back across the portage path to bring over more gear.  To avoid making two trips I'd carry my packs and canoe together.  It's a spooky feeling to look behind you and see you're being followed by a bear while your weighted down with about 100 ponds of gear and couldn't run if you wanted to.

On one trip we were being harassed  daily by bears trying to get to our hung packs while we were out fishing, then lurking nearby when we returned to camp. The four of us decided to move to an island in the middle of a large lake on our map as it only required one short portage  On the way, my buddies in the other canoe caught a couple walleye for supper. We carried our gear across the portage and my buddy Joe and I loaded our canoe and waited offshore while Ernie and Tom carried the fish about 50 yards away from their canoe to fillet their catch. Suddenly we heard the guys yell "bear!" and saw a sow and two cubs come out of the woods and jump into their beached canoe which still had the smell of fish in it.  She broke a rod and paddle and the boys started throwing rocks to hopefully scare her off. One of the rocks hit a cub which began squealing. She came at them on a dead run with hair laid back and teeth clicking.  We had been told before by a park ranger about bears making "false" charges in which they try to size up their opponents.  I suppose they want to scare off the intruder but don't want to get into a fight in which they would be injured and their cubs starve.  Anyway, she was charging the boys, they put their hands over their heads to look bigger and yelled and made noises. Meanwhile Joe and I were paddling over to where they were in case they ran and jumped into the lake.  However they held their ground, and she put on the brakes about 20 feet from them and ambled back into the woods to check on her cubs.  Talk about a few exciting moments!

While canoeing on the Buffalo River in Arkansas last year, wild hogs could be heard grunting and rooting in the woods a couple times near our river camps. One morning we ran into a young man who was doing a solo float.  Twice during the night a pack of hogs came down to the sandbar he was camping on.  He said he counted 16 of them.  Those critters are not to be messed with either.

DE

I think my heart would just completely stop    Now THAT is a camping story worth telling around fires for years!

A friend that has floated the river a couple times  has warned us to look out for rattlers, scorpions and mountain lions.  Thankfully, unlike some of the other adventures I've been on, bears are a rarity.

DE

Hopefully I'll be heading your way next month Doug.  A couple buddies and I are planning to float and fish the John Day River in July if water levels permit.

DE

Funny you should mention that TF.  Several years ago i quit taking photos of all the big smallmouth bass I've caught.  Other than wearing different clothes and me looking a little older, the fish all pretty much looked the same. The walls of my music room are lined with framed pictures of fish caught from rafts, canoes and kayaks on streams all over the US.  My son believes bringing a camera along is a curse that prevents him from catching big fish.  He says he'd rather catch 'em and have people not believe him than bring along a camera and not catch any bigguns.  Kinda like bringing along an umbrella seems to keep it from raining.

DE

Congrats to Julian.

Sounds like we have a lot in common Bill, we're the same age and we both have grandsons graduating from high school this weekend.

DE

At an open mic I used to play monthly,  there were several Taylors and Martins being played but to my ears the best sounding guitar was an Epi DR-500 one of the singer-songwriters played.  Great choice Russell.

DE

That is so Kool !!