I'm very late in posting this. I don't think a lot of people interacted with him much on Mudcat, but he was a long time Mudcatter, very knowledgable, and a fine guitar player. Some of you may also belong to the Facebook he started, Music Along the Crooked Road.

As noted in his obituary, when he was younger, he was in the Grand Ole Opry's house band, and also played in Marty Robbin's band.

We struck up a little bit of an on-line friendship as the result in our shared Appalachian upbringing and interest in Appalachian music, though I will not claim to have known him well. Our conversations also turned to other issues related to life in the southern and central Appalachians. He was thoughtful, and while we often had different points of view, I think we learned a lot from one another.

I had some guitar sound files he sent me on another computer, that I lost in a crash.

Thanks to Greg Ward, who may or not be a Mudcatter, for locating the obituary for me.


Tribute to James R. (Jim) Pate