I was six years old when I picked up a guitar; I wassix and a half when I quit. There was one chord thatfrustrated me to no end and it was another eightmonths before I was willing to try again. I held on tothat second try through childhood, playing with myDad’s pedals and recording into a mini-cassette playerI borrowed from my mom. I entered my teen years andplayed electric guitar in a band; we worshipped noiseand uncomfortable sounds and when that banddisintegrated, I found an acoustic guitar, a bunch ofother instruments, and my own sound with a more folklike twist. I recorded a couple of albums in a coupleof years; I operated on the principle that if none ofmy tools sounded professional, I would emphasize thathandicap. After high school I left my small New Yorksuburb for a small college town upstate. I got lostthere, and when I returned for the summer I decided Iwouldn’t go back. I finished out the next semester,moved to New York City, and began playing shows. Mymost recent album “Uprooted” was recorded in my tinynew apartment, which might explain the claustrophobicfeeling of my new songs.-Peter