Another report.....
The show was held at the Acoustic Harvest, which Rick helped found a decade or so ago, at the church near their house, in the basement. There was a long lineup to get in, and at one point they threatened to turn people away -- which was (ahem) mostly solved in innovative ways. In the end, people were standing. There must have been 150 people there or more wedged in. It was a happy evening, no one did anything too lugubrious. And it went on till 1 a.m.   
    Highlights: well, one highlight was Mudcatter Big Mick who regaled the place in his usual expansive -- is that the word I am seeking? -- style. He sang "Voices of Struggle" and then a song of Mudcatter Jeri's, which is a sweet song. It is more than ordinarily pleasant to see how many of Rick's students are, five years on, just getting better. (Slackers like me are deteriorating). Anyway, Mick just cheered everyone up. He also talked about a famous day in the Fielding's backyard when a group of us, for some Rick-centred reason, just bonded.
   Another of Rick's students , Eve Goldberg (who has just posted) did a very moving version of "High On A Mountain" , the last song Rick ever did. And her own signature tune "Watermelon Sorbet". And Paul Mills and Joanne Crabtree (I am going with Mudcatters here) did their usual superbery - and stopped everything with "Till I'm Too Old To Die Young". Joanne also did an especially moving job of "Over the Rainbow".   And many other people did tunes, like Glen Reid from up north; Chris Coole the banjoist; and Rick's old pals, Grit Laskin, Wendell Ferguson, and Bill Garrett. Matt Watroba(if I have the name right) came up from across the border, and was very complimentary towards the Toronto community, but even more winningly, did one of the loveliest songs of the night, Miss the Mississippi and You.
   Nice tributes flowed, especially about Rick's kindness, his belief in how much better people were than they thought they were, and his encyclopaedic knowledge. There were also some nice posters of photos of Rick's life and works.
The evening was designed to have a house band on stage most of the time (Tony Quarrington, Frank Barth and others) and a kind of laid-back set of musicians swapping songs, all of which were gobbled up by the audience -- who really didn't get out of there till after 1 am, just after a colossal group finale ("A Handful of Songs").
CIUT, the radio station, has promised to broadcast their recording of the show at some point.
Rick would have been pleased......mildly abashed, but pleased.

yours,

Peter T.