WesleyS said,"Vastly underrated as a singer too in my opinion. What a distintive voice," and I agree. I loved his voice, but he was very humble about it. When asked how he decided what key to sing a song in, he said he just picks where it sounds best on the banjo, 'cause it's never gonna sound great on his voice. One of his songs was called FALSE-HEARTED TENOR and spoke about how he'd love to sing like those high-wailin' Kentucky tenors.

I wasn't aware that he was ever on the Smothers Brothers, but I do remember seeing him on the Glen Campbell show. I think that when I mention his name to non-John Hartford afficianados, they mostly think of Gentle On My Mind.

I've seen him live a few times. The first time was about 30 years ago, at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario before he started dancing and he played sitting down. I saw him at the Mariposa festival about 12 years ago and he put on a great show. I've never met John, but my wife ran into him at Mariposa and asked him to autograph a picture for me. He said I'll do it if you'll come and be my partner at the dance tent, so my wife got to do some folk dancing with John Hartford, and I got an autograph that said,"Thanks for the loan of your dance partner, Jim."


A little more on topic; is Linebaugh's still around?