Like a lot of people here, I never met Rick, and also like a lot of people, I felt like we were friends. Over the years, we went back and forth about a lot of stuff, but most of all, music. We liked a lot of the same music, of course, but if he liked something or someone that I hadn't heard of, I'd make a point of checking it out, because always knew it would be good.

The thing that most impressed me over the years though, was his willingness to help anybody who was trying to learn, whatever their skill level--Mudcat wouldn't be half the place it is, if he had not been here, jumping in with support, advice, and instruction, every time somebody posted a playing question--

A lot of musicians don't have any patience for people who are learning, and a lot of others have no patience for people who don't play exactly what they play--Rick's example kept that kind of attitude out of Mudcat, and brought a lot of good musicians and aspiring musicians in--

I have some of his recordings, and I always meant to come up there and hear him play, because I know there was lot that he could do that he never got a chance to record--I thought that when I he saw me come in, he'd smile and shout out a greeting--and that he'd come over and chat at the break, and ask me to come up and play "Eight More Miles to Louisville" or some such thing, and afterwards we'd talk and play music all night--sorry that it'll never happen--