Greetings:

Some of you might know that I am one of Pete's friends -- take a look at that Appleseeds column and you can see that he starts off by quoting me -- and yes, I have seen Pete slow down quite a bit of late. I was there at the Andover concert this past January when he forgot a verse to a song, but the remarkable thing is that he got up on stage in front of several hundred people and did four songs, more than he has done in concert recently. When you ask Pete how he's doing, he will nearly always answer, "Still here!"

So in spite of his very real memory lapses -- remember how he left his banjo by the side of the road once? -- and his retirement from Sing Out, it looks like we'll still have Pete around for a little while longer. He's supposed to be at the People's Music Summer Gathering in Walden, NY, from June 4 to 6, and then at the PMN Winter Gathering in New York City next January 28 to 30. I suspect he'll have a song or two ready to share with one and all at each.

--- Steve