Hamish was great. I read his autobiog. It was quite fun, but I'd love to have understood what made him that sort of musician.

Is it just some great gift that is revealed to you? That unique touch. he was such a neat picker.

You know I saw him just once . I was 19 years old and I was doing this horrendous teaching practice in the coldest winter I can remember in Boston Lincolnshire. Blizzards and black ice for weeks. I woke every morning in my digs and watched the steam from my breathing make a cloud in front of my eyes.

In Boston , they have this Arts Centre converted from an old priory - Black Friars Arts centre. that's where i saw Hamish. that night he played Matchbox Blues by Blind lemon. Nothing like Blind lemon - that's what the traddies never understand - British guitarists make that stuff their own, it becomes British folk music.

i think Hamish must have got the song from Rabling Jack Eliot. Anyway that night I learned the Texas variation on the twelve bar in C (which involves a C9th and A flat and a soprano run - sort of like BLJ's falsetto voice.

I'm still working on it forty three years later, and one day it will be good enough for me to play in public!