I met Rick on the Mudcat and decided to risk letting this perfect stranger stay at our house in Branford based on his posts. He and Heather came down twice and stayed with us both times. The second time, I knew he had been sick but I didn't know how bad because he never let on. He just waltzed in merrily, refused the pizza I had ready for them (with ONIONS on it! --hey, I didn't know-- ) and graced our house with his charm.

A measure of his generosity was that he knew Frank and I had a debut CD recently produced, and he hawked our cd at his show! Imagine this giant of a musician telling people about our amateur effort... Another measure was that when he called us up to join him in a couple of songs, knowing how limited I was on the bass, he chose to do simple songs in G, which he knew I could manage.

I knew I would like the Rasmussens because Rick told me so. He spoke so highly of them both, that I barged up to them after Rick's show determined to introduced myself. Within 2 seconds of meeting Ruth, she gave me a warm hug and told me how much she enjoyed our playing. Jerry and Ruth are truly fine people, and I'm very fortunate to have met them through Rick. Our gospel workshop with ShoreGrass and the Gospel Messengers was a delight which I hope we get to do again. Jerry's threads are always interesting, always thoughtful, always worth reading.

So sorry I never got to meet Art. Based on the company he's kept and the people who love him, he must be quite a man.