art, my name is orville johnson and i also played on the julia belle back in the early 70's and it was certainly one of the coolest gigs of my career. in fact, i was playing a couple of john's tunes in my set ( steamboat whistle blues and areoplain ) and denny really liked the songs and was unfamiliar with john's work. i explained about his love for the boats and i really dug his music and wanted to meet him so i suggested to denny to invite him to come down. being the man of action that he is, denny found a phone number for john's agent i think and issued an invite. why, within two weeks,as soon as he got a break in his touring, john was there, hanging out,playing music and piloting the boat. denny agreed to mentor him for his license and that was when john started studying in earnest for his pilot's qualification and the rest is history. i guess it's all history really. i got my wish to meet, play with and become friends with a superbly talented muso and it worked out pretty well for everyone. i attended a reunion on the Twilight a couple of summers ago with many of the folks from that era of the boat including john and had a wonderful time. you were very highly spoken of and i'm sorry i didn't get a chance to meet you. the trones are wonderful people and i treasure my memories of those times.