Has been over 8 years since Tom's passing and I think of him almost every day. We drifted apart as lives will do, but his affect on me was profound and lifelong. Recently someone posted pictures on Facebook of Tom, Mick Scott and me performimg at the Old Town School Of Folk Music's all night party in 1981. It was really a bittersweet moment to see them. We were performimg A Delicate Balance. We were really on that night and tore it up on several songs. Mick had a great song called "The Pinball Game".

Tom had a tour scheduled and asked Mick and me to go along. We all had a substantial catalog of songs and it was Tom's intent for us to be a band and work out setlists featuring the best of our individual compositions in a band form. I was going to play acoustic bass, not an upright, but an Ernie Ball Earthwood, guitar and harmonica. Mick on guitar and mandolin, w/Tom as the draw and playing guitar and harmonica as well.

We had started rehearsals, but forces pulled us all in different directions and it never came to fruition. Sad, really. Mick and Tom were established, well respected songwriters and I was just beginning to forge a reputation. Whenever I'd write a new song Tom would be the first person for whom I'd play it. He had 2 phrases he used: "Yeah, now yer tawkin'" or "I thnk you need to dig deeper".

When Tom got the go ahead funding for his album 'A Delicate Balance' I was the first person he asked to be involved. My contributions were arrangement suggestions and playing on 6 or 7 cuts. As a result he gave me a co-production credit.

My personal favorite Tom Dundee song is 'If my Life Were A Book"

If my life were a book and all my time were the pages
Of all the chances that I took in all the chapters of my ages
The pages would fall open to the times of me and you
The corners would be folded from the times I read them through
And that's how my time would look if my life were a book

Once while recording his LP we took a break and went around the corner to have a beer. Buster Ursini, the engineer, Tom and me. We ended up playing pinball and getting really, really drunk. So we staggered back to the studio singing the Jim Reeves song "He'll Have To Go" at the top of our lungs arm in arm for support. We got back to the studio and Tom wanted to sing 'You're So Pretty When You Smile". So, he goes into the vocal room and proceeds to peel the paint with his vocal. It was SO bad Buster and I told him he'd gotten it in one take and we didn't even want him to hear it until tomorrow. So, he agreed and when we all came back the next day...hungover of course. We played the track and it was even worse than we'd remembered. Nobody laughed louder than Tom. He was a devil of the practical joke, but could take as good as he gave. I loved Tom. Still do. Always will. He was my friend, brother, co-worker, hero, mentor and friend.

The reason it's taken me this long to post is because it took me this long to fully grieve his passing. There's a part of me ripped out that simply will never be replaced. Much more than a songwriter he was a singular life force whose collected works will be taught as literature in the future.