I'd have to say it was my parents, who listened to Linda Rondstadt, the Eagles, and the Beatles. Except that they also listened to Tom Jones, Englebert Humperdinck, and Conway Twitty, so maybe I'm just so awesome I figured out the whole rock and roll thing on my own. That and I have been in love with the idea of the musician alone on stage with his/her guitar. There's something really romantic in the image that I've always liked. A few of my family members play guitar and some of my favorite childhood memories are of them playing guitar while various others took turns singing.

After getting over my horrendous Debbie Gibson/Tiffany phase, I picked up Queen, Guns and Roses, REO Speedwagon, The Motels and Joe Cocker from an uncle who had them lying around. Talking Heads and then, later, 90s grunge was the first rock I got into that felt like it was not inherited from someone else, and now I'm inclined to pretty much give a listen to anything at least once, because who knows what might be out there...

Current favorites at the moment: Death Cab for Cutie, System of a Down, Yeah Yeah Yeahs (though most of the new CD is kind of a drag), Weezer, Silverchair, etc.

saw em live, in 89'....Houston
The Bulgarian Women's Choir was locked behind the iron curtain until 1989. They were the official women's choir for state sponsored radio and television in Bulgaria before a French music scholar discovered them and before Stevie Wonder and Frank Zappa and Linda Rondstadt popularized them in America. The music is exotic and strange, haunting and ethereal.