What has Pete taught me? Let's see...

In 1951, he taught me to sing "Goodnight Irene" and "On Top Of Old Smokey." Ten years later he taught me a lot about accompanying folks songs on guitar with his "Folksinger's Guitar Guide." He gave me my first introduction to playing the banjo, he gave me many hundreds of hours of enjoyable listining, he is a personal inspiration to us all, he reinforced a whole new value system for me, he taught us you don't have to compromise. He also demonstrated that one can fill a hall with thousands of people who don't know or care about each other and get them all holding hands and singing together inside of twenty minutes. I've never seen anyone with the sort of magnetic hold on an audience that Pete has. He is truly a national, no a WORLD treasure.

Happy birthday Pete.

      - Mark