I personally feel a very profound loss. When we held the Mystic Sea Music Festival Fundraiser at The Borderline last April Barry was the first to volunteer his services, driving 6 hours each way from NH to perform gratis. While we were in the planning stage Barry would PM me at least 3 times a week for an update and to ask me what else he could do to be of assistance. At the fundraiser itself, Barry's performance was memorable. He also joined in on stage with many of the other performers in the choruses and to do background vocals.

I last spoke with Barry at the Mystic Festival itself on Sunday. He was standing near the boat shed at Lighthouse Point during the final concert. He asked me when I was going to book him for a paid gig at The Borderline and knowing my requirements in advance he handed me his latest CD to take to our booking committee. This past Thursday night we were working on our schedule for 2010 and we tentatively penciled Barry's name in for our March 7th show. I was going to get word to him on Friday morning or as soon as I could reach him. However, when I booted up my my computer on Friday morning I received the shocking news of his passing and I felt as if I had lost a family member. It affected me the entire weekend.

I communicated with CeltAddict last night via Facebook and suggested that we might fill that date with a Barry Finn Memorial Tribute concert. She thought it was a great idea and was going to contact some musicians from Mystic to see who might want to participate and would get back to me later this week. At the time Mudcat was down and we did not know when it would be back on line. Now that it is back up and running I expect to hear from her soon.

SOL