As I listened to the recording session for this album in our living room, so many thoughts came to mind.

I cannot imagine family life without music. From the earliest age, I remember my mother playing the piano in the family living room. While I learned to play piano and violin as a little girl at St. James Grade School, violin became my instrument of choice and a source of great pleasure through high school and in the University of Wisconsing Symphony Orchestra.

In the years after WWII Dave's dad played the harmonica in a "Harmonicats" type band in amateur talent shows all around the Wisconsin River Valley. When Dave was a sixth grader, his dad taught him to play his first song on the "harp," Silent Night as a Christmas present for his mother.

Our boys, Craig and Doug, grew up with music all around them. It has been one of the "ties that bind" our family together. It has also opened windows in our lives to new friends.

About the Capitol Offenses
This band started with Scott Lilly of Missouri and two Soth Dakotans, John Holum and Harlan Severson. When Scott started working with Dave in Congress, he found out that Dave played the harmonica and invited him to "sit in." Dave played classical, folk, and popular music since his childhood but never playe dbluegrass until then. He loved it from the first moment. Through the years, as Craig and Doug grew and took an interest, they also began sitting in with the "big guys" and today are full-fledged members of the band.

Joan Obey - July 1999