Janet Smith of Berkeley, CA

She has been a pen-pal of mine for years and she gracefully and succesfully supported me with some obscure music I was searching... BUT, to a much, MUCH broader extent, she's one of the most well-kept secret of whole '60s acoustic music scene in Berkeley and SF Bay Area and the fulcrum of some fond rediscoveries.

Steve Mann, Will Scarlett, Dale Miller, Country Joe MacDonald... these names give shivers to everyone into music since '70s and Janet - despite his TRUE interest is now more in the ancient, B.C. lyra music - is still fondly active with acoustic guitar and related.

BTW... she also lived in Rome, Italy, back in early '60s and collaborated and played with some (later famous) young italian musicians, at (now defunct) Piper... thus her "Bella Roma Music" (Beautiful Rome;-)))

Have a look here and here

... not many words have to be added, but Janet Smith recorded some discs in the decades, and one, that "The Unicorn" on John Fahey's Takoma records is a true masterpiece, also containing a stellar "Maple Leaf Rag" duet-rendition with Bob Wilson of Canned Heat-fame.

Wonderful!

... and don't forget browsing the a.m. links at yr. convenience... a gold-mine!