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MS:  Yes, at least. I mean, in various incarnations. Again, it's quite like the journey of
    blues itself, moving from a country blues, moving from the rural blues to the electric

    blues in Chicago and that's a volume issue as much as something else.

    BP:  That's true, that's kind of what we did when we graduated to electric. I never
    even looked at it that way.


    MS:  I mean, it kind of followed the same
    journey without particularly having that as
    the design. It wasn't a grand plan. It was a

    natural evolution as things go.

    BP:    It  wasn't  an  immigration,  economic
    immigration. We stayed in Dublin.


    MS:  But also, I suppose what might be of
    significance,  over  my  lifetime  I  sang  in

    choirs,  and  I  also  sang  traditional  songs,
    and I sang a lot of folk music. So there was
    also  a  connection  there  to  the  nature  of
    blues. One thing that I felt most strongly

    about  really  was  when  I  met  Brian  and
    when we began to just jam together and

    learn songs and listen, as much as anything
    else to listen to music, one of the things that
    I felt was that blues was where I felt very
    at home. That's because of my heart. That's

    because of what I feel blues expresses and
    there are a lot of elements but it's not about

    adopting  something  that  is  an  American
    sound. I would hope that I bring something
    that is of my Irish experience and my Irish

    belief and sensibility as well. So, over time,
    it was part of what we did at every stage.

    BiTS:  We'll talk more about the record in just a moment, but I've got a question that

    I want to ask you both. Over the years, those 30 years that you've been playing, you've
    accompanied practically every big name anybody has ever heard of in the field of
    the blues. Is there one name that's outstanding? I mean, was there one that you think

    back on now and say, wow, that was really something?

    BP:  Oh, John Lee Hooker. John Lee Hooker in New Haven, Connecticut. First of all,
    he ordered everyone else out of the dressing room except Mary and me. Then some

    heads came in. I think it was Guns N' Roses. He ordered them out and he sat and
    talked to Mary for about an hour before his gig. Of course, we met B.B. King and Bo
    Diddley, Fats Domino. I mean it's been an honour.
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