Judith says, "Grandpa Abe tried to sweeten our childish palettes towards his beloved classical music by giving Howard and I his entire set of Gilbert and Sullivan 78's.  Before you knew it, we were breakfasting on Bach, bingeing on Brahms and Beethoven, munching on Mozart and Mahler, supping on Schumann and Schubert and lining up on the street for hours with Mom for the coveted $1.75 standing room spots in the nosebleed section of the old Met, where we imbibed the interminable delights of Wagner et al."

"Apart from impromptu family sings and social gatherings (while Esse strummed her old Martin), I only got serious about folk music while studying voice at the High School of Music and Art in the 60's.  Joan Baez was my idol and I spent many an agonized adolescent hour disciplining my unruly mop to better resemble Joanie's lank locks.  But in vain.  I particularly enjoyed her Child ballads, Carter family songs and the bluegrass numbers she did with the Greenbriar Boys (except Banks of the Ohio)."

"Abandoning folk music for many years while pursuing Buddhist studies in the halls of academe, I returned by default when it was time to put the kids to bed.  Certain songs were demanded, others forbidden, compliance was total, resistance was futile."

"I had never performed professionally before being conscripted by Dick Staber one sunny July day in 1993 to play on a scenic railroad ride in the Catskill Mountains of NY State.  There the duo of Staber and Chasnoff was suddenly born."  "You will learn to walk in the ways of the master Bill Monroe", said Dick.  

"And I have."