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was a big bluegrass fan, which is unusual for Jews from Maryland.
J: But there was a big interest in roots music generally at that time because of folk music.
It wasn't that, he had a roommate in college from Alabama and he just grew to
really like it. So there was bluegrass around, Creedence was really big, Dylan
was really big. And then later, my mom, she went to Stony Brook back when it was one of the hippest places in the universe, and I remember when I was in high school, I brought home a copy of Rock and the Pop Narcotic by Joe
Carducci, and I put it on the kitchen table, and my mom walked over and took a look at it, and there's a quote on the back by Richard Meltzer, and she said, "Oh,
I wonder if that's Ritchie Meltzer?" So through her friends in college she also
had exposure to John Cage and John Fahey, and so these records were around
my house and I didn't think anything about them. I distinctly remember my
mom one day making me listen to Indeterminacy by John Cage -- I think I was
like 14 at the time and thought "This is pretty cool." And my grandparents were
very into jazz. So it was always around.