Bob was honored last year by the National Endowment for the Arts with a National Heritage Fellowship for his contributions to contradance music. He shared that honor with the likes of Jean Ritchie, among other folk notables. The highlight of the award program (held at Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC) for me was when Bob and his band, "Old New England" (a group that includes Amelia's mother), played "Amelia" to an audience of several thousand while the real Amelia, now a lovely young woman, waltzed onstage to the tune with her partner and a handful of other dancers. It was a beautiful, beautiful moment. And a much-deserved honor for Bob, who has written literally thousands of tunes. He writes waltzes like nobody else and, because he's played for dances for so many years, plays them so that you can actually waltz to them. I'm a real fan, needless to say.
Kathy