For all that he was such an authority in his field, Rick was as unassuming a guy as you could shake a stick at. In fact truly exceptional in that respect. And I could never fathom where he found the time to be so passionate about a whole range of other interests, going far beyond folk guitar and blues. Quentin Crisp and Kenneth Williams spring to mind of course, but I lost count of the times he would enlighten me on the background to some small point I'd made. In particular I appreciated his perspective on how the brilliant and eccentric Bach pianist Glenn Gould was received in his home town of Toronto. I never got round to erasing all Rick's PMs, thank goodness, so now I can print them off as a lasting memento of as decent a spud as I never met.