In 1977, I sang several times at the annual Northwest Folklife Festival, held at the Seattle Center over Memorial Day weekend. It's a massive festival, with as many as 2,000 performers, with performance stages all over the Center grounds and vast hordes of people wandering around and listening. It always draws huge crowds, but this year, one of the big draws was Elizabeth Cotton, who had been brought in as a featured performer.

In the evenings, multi-performer concerts were held in one of Seattle Center's many large theaters and broadcast over our local NPR affiliate. Each performer was allotted about fifteen or twenty minutes. I had the honor of being selected to sing in one of these. The theater was packed, and it was all a bit overwhelming.

The most overwhelming thing about this particular concert was that Elizabeth Cotton was also singing there that evening. A living legend -- right there! And my wife, Barbara, and I were backstage, watching and listening from the wings.

And guess who was scheduled to immediately follow Elizabeth Cotton?!!?

The audience wanted a lot more of her, but realizing that the situation gave a whole new dimension to the expression "a tough act to follow," they were kind. I was well received, for which I am very grateful.

In the meantime, Barbara had a chance to chat with Elizabeth Cotton backstage. And when they finished chatting, she hugged Barbara.

It took us awhile to come down from that evening.

Don Firth