From my humble startings out as a naive untrained enthusiast of folksong I found myself learning the practice of song collecting by travelling across the British Isles in search of the last keepers of oral song and story. Despite all the academics at the time telling me that all the old ways had long since passed and that all the old singers who knew any old folk songs were dead and gone my youthful intrepidness found me visiting Gypsy Traveller sites seeking out the elders in the community. What I discovered was dozens upon dozens of never before recorded Irish and Scots Travellers and English Gypsies who still could remember the old times, the old ways and very often the songs and stories that they had inherited from their elders. Along side my SCC team we recorded thousands of hours of singing, tales, memories, language and lore was recorded from some of the most extraordinary, hospitable and generous people I’ve had the pleasure to meet. My song collecting was partly to make sure that this rich heritage mostly ignored by the outside world was documented before it disappeared but also an opportunity for me as a singer to be blessed in absorbing the old ways and enrich my own practise to be a carrier of this song and maintain the integrity of its origins while also bringing it forward into the modern age. To the people who I met and the time and song they gave I will always be truly grateful and my life journey now is ultimately dedicated to the enriching and continuing of this tradition and finding ways to propagate it and make it.