The 40 or so people assembled in the Coffeehouse in Mary Low already had been treated to fiddler John Khuene (information technology services) and his bluegrass band, and singer/guitarist Elizabeth Leonard (history) was waiting in the wings. Filling the middle of the inauguration weekend bill were math professors William Berlinghoff and Thomas Berger. "I'm Bill and this is Tom," Berlinghoff said, giving his guitar strings a last tweak. "We're from the math department, but we have other lives, too."

Three years ago the pair attended a math department get-together at the home of another member of the department. Berlinghoff brought his guitar, folk music was played, and a chapter in Colby Coffeehouse history had begun. Every Tuesday night since, they have hosted a hootenanny in Mary Low Hall. (Berlinghoff, who teaches every other semester as a visiting professor, comes even during terms when he is not teaching.) They typically attract 20 or more students, and a sprinkling of area folk musicians, for two and a half hours of participatory music. "One student was interested in playing the harmonica," Berger said, "so I gave him a harmonica. I have a variety of [Hohner] Marine Bands. They just play and play and play."

And so do Berlinghoff and Berger, nearly 40 years after each first picked up an instrument. Now their repertoire includes songs by Bob Dylan, Woodie Guthrie, Gordon Bok, James Taylor and a lot of artists in between.

This acoustic music from before the beginning of recorded–at least in terms of CD burning–time might seem the last thing that would appeal to the generation of rap, hip hop and techno. But Berlinghoff and Berger find that today's Colby students have folky roots. "Often what we'll hear is, 'Oh, yeah. I know that stuff,'" Berlinghoff said. "'My parents had those albums.'"