David Behm, dedicated musician, devotaed friend and grand person, departed peacefully this morning, after a sixteen month battle with cancer.

Most of you here on Mudcat prbably never had the fortune to know, let alone meet David, unless you came to one of the Friday night sessions, or were at the one Sunhearth festival or the single Getaway he attended, or the Portsmouth Maritine Folk Festivals that he was part of prior to this year.

David was one of those rare musicians who was entirely eclectic in his singing, moving smoothly from Sovay to Barrett's Privateers to The Lightening Express to A Capital Ship. His guitar work was simple and straightforward, and always firm as one would expect from a German. When David was in a session, no one was allowed to mess up the tempo.

In addition to his wonderful singing, David was a most accomplished instrumentalist performing as part of The Angel Band throughout the Northeeast U.S. and twice, by invitation, at O Carolan festivals in Ireland.

When his affliction was first diagnosed, David adhered to medical advice and underwent months of debilitating chemotherapy. But in April, the nausea, tiredness and overall weakness was interfering with his life. Deciding that quality was more important then quantity, David ceased the treatments and commenced to really live the rest of his days.

During the summer, David along with Bob Frost and Emery Hutchins, spent lots of hours in the recording studio of the late Chip Chase, putting together a collection of his favorite songs, staories and recitations. At the completion of this work, David arranged to have a limited number of CDs produced to give away to friends. In similar fashion, he declared that there should be no memorial, but rather a party to celebrate his life and times, "No tears!"

David often opined that, if you were good, when you died, you would get "the chicken dinner." Lets hope there's an ample supply of chickens wherever he may be - Tom Hall