ORANGE COUNTY CHILDREN IN THE ARTS : ‘Big Fish in Small Pond’ OK by Mirkens

The Mirkens became interested in what Margie Mirken calls “white, folk-ethnic-roots music” in junior high school and their interest “just grew and grew and grew.” They met at UC Santa Barbara where Margie studied English and Greg was a biology major, married in 1972 and worked non-music jobs before deciding to launch Shade Tree, through which they sell and repair instruments and give lessons. They have two daughters, 4 years old and 4 months.

The Mirkens haven’t been tempted to branch out into non-folk music, they said, although they occasionally play some ragtime tunes and special requests at weddings and parties. Recently, they’ve added music from the British Isles to the American tunes they’ve played for so many years.

“The feel of the British Isles music is very different from what happened when that music came to this country and got infused with African rhythms,” Greg said. Learning to master both American and British styles is “enough of a challenge for me,” he said.

“I could probably play the same 20 tunes for the rest of my life and be happy,” Margie said. Someday she might like to take “The Greg and Margie Show” on the road, she said, but not nonstop. Constant touring, she feels, would be too rigorous a life.

“I like being a musician of local importance only,” Margie said. “It’s the ‘big fish in the small pond’ syndrome. I don’t need to be Whitney Houston. I don’t need that adulation. I get plenty of response to my music in a small community setting.”