Posted on the Mudcat facebook page:

To friends and fans of Jed, below is a beautiful message from our friend Brian McNeil. Posted to Jed's page by Jaime Marum.

Jed Marum

The sudden loss of Jed Marum to the world - and to the world of traditional music in particular - is huge, and very, very hard to accept. On the one weekend of the year when, for decades, he and I could always be sure of meeting up and letting our respective streams of music mingle, I finally feel calm enough to write a few words.

To say that Jed was gifted doesn’t come anywhere near the magic this man could produce, on stage and on record. As a songwriter myself, I found myself in unfailing admiration of his songs. The lyrics were finely honed, to the point, and never sentimental. The melodies which carried them always caught their mood exactly and reinforced them without fuss or frill. It’s no exaggeration to say that I’d find myself, on the journey home from the Texas Scottish Festival at Arlington, humming them to myself in departure lounges, at baggage claims, in security queues, letting them give me some kind of touchstone of sanity in the strange world we professional musicians choose to inhabit. Chickahominy River, I remember, stayed with me for months after I first heard it – I was still singing the song three tours later in Germany.

He was generous to a fault with his time and his talents, always enthusiastic, always ready to jump up on stage in someone else’s set if asked, and always willing to help a fellow musician in any way he could. I particularly remember him during the marathon fiddle sessions John Taylor and I used to end the Scottish Festival Saturday night with. Even if he didn’t know the tunes we were playing – and God knows, ninety per cent of the time we had no idea of what was coming next ourselves – he played along, learning as he went, improvising, letting himself get caught up in the exhiliration and the anarchy of it all. I’d turn round to find that huge grin of his behind me, and a nod of approbation which told me that Jed Marum, that most affable of men, was having a ball.

Politically, we were as different in opinion as two people could be, but it was never a bone of contention between us. We liked each other enormously, and we were both content to leave our differences untouched and concentrate on both our friendship and the easy dovetailing of our music. He did me the great honour of recording some of my songs, and the even greater honour of having me play on some of his own recordings.

That was always an unmitigated joy. To sit with the headphones on, listening to that awesome voice as I waited to add my fiddle or concertina for him, from the other side of the Atlantic, is a big and significant memory to me.

I hope what I played for him did him and his exceptional music justice.

I can only offer my sincere condolences to his loved ones. I miss him greatly, and I always will.

- Brian McNeill