Matt Keen

Some of us have it lucky. My teenage years were between 1968 and 1975. As you know, this was one of the most vibrant, explosive and just plain fabulous  periods in modern cultural times. So I was growing up thinking that the Who, Beatles, Kinks and the Stones were "normal" or what we could expect. That musicianly greats like Bert Jansch, Hendrix, Steve Cropper, The Band, Ry Cooder were what to expect in a musician. 

Song writers like the aforementioned plus Dylan, the woefully under appreciated Bill Withers, Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman, Brian Wilson, Neil Young, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder and all the great Motown writers, and Carole King, Tom Waits  -   this was what we were used to; thought was normal, and what we thought would continue.

Thats not even considering the singers! - Aretha, Joe Cocker, ensembles like the Beach Boys. It was simply fantastic.

The ordinary stuff is I am the youngest of 7 children born 25 miles north of London; I went to university in London and now live 30 miles north of where I was born.