I didn't meet John until a Press Room gig in January or February 1981, but John and Curmudgeon (Tom Hall) had been friends for ten years at that point. It was a quiet, mid-week gig. Afterwards John and Jay Smith (who owned the Press Room) and Tom and I sat around trading songs. The first of a number of such evenings.

One year Tom introduced Nowell Sing We Clear at the Portsmouth Music Hall. John razzed him for ages about the fact that Tom was wearing a brown tweed sports jacket.

And, of course, he was often a performer at the Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival.

Though I sang with him in groups at after parties and at Indian Neck, it was a big thrill for me to share a "stage" at the Portsmouth Athenaeum with him at the 2019 Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival.

It's a real slam to the heart. And so soon after the passing of Maggi Peirce and Heather Wood.

Linn