I sure wish I could remember my life better. I was singing _somewhere_ right after Stan died, and hadn't learned Mary Ellen Carter yet - I needed to do something, he was a friend and an influence, and I think the only song I knew well enough to perform was Barrett's Privateers, a fine song but not a good memorial.

IIRC I was performing at Mystic the following year - staying aboard the Conrad. I remember that Lorraine Lee was also performing that year - and at one of the workshops I finally _did_ sing Mary Ellen Carter, with a fairly straightforward frailed banjo accompaniment, in an attempt to pay tribute.

JR