Typically, I am horribly late picking up on this thread but as I've come across it, here's my pen'orth.

I met Jack for the first time at Pinewoods 2005 (which, for those not so hot on geography, is near to Cape Cod on the eastern U.S. coast) when I was there with Sylvia in the summer of the year he died.

We became, I'm very proud to say, great friends and mutual admirers for that short period. So much so that I was invited by his family to attend his Memorial Service and Celebration Day in Jackson Heights, N.Y. a year later. I have to tell you - I felt severely robbed, having met him so late in his life and then gone....what a travesty...

I have every one of his CD's and his voice (and indeed, his very self) will remain an inspiration to me for as long as I live. Any folk or other singer looking for inspiration or even not, should listen to some (if not all they can get hold of)of Jack's recorded performances - he has much to teach us from the grave and I echo, absolutely, Susan's closing comment. I believe he touched the lives of everyone he came into contact with in some significant way - a truly great man indeed.