I think that I may have posted this but don't see it here so if I have, please forgive me. Sandy, Valucha and I were a temporary folk trio in Chicago in the Fifties when Sandy was visiting there. Sandy and I did a folk concert, both as separate acts there. Sandy was one of the most informative Americans on the singing styles of the British Isles that I had ever met. The last time I saw him was in the Eighties at the SMU Eistedfodd at the extraordary "Dirty Songs Workshop" with David Jones, Cliff Haslam and Louis Killen. It was an amazing workshop where after the songs were completed you could look about at the sea of red faces laughing with embarrassment. I think this is an important aspect of folk music. People like folklorist Ed Cray (Ramblin' Man: bio of Woody Guthrie) covered in his book the Erotic Muse.

Sandy could demonstrate the difference in singing styles from the UK to the US. One song I associate with him is a version of the Hangman ballad which has a great chorus:

"O the prick-e-lie bush,
It grieves my heart full sore.
If I ever get out of the prick-e-lie bush,
I'll never go there any more."

Then onto: "Hangman slack your rope............"

Sandy was a wealth of information about all kinds of folk music and a terrible loss to the folk community.

Frank Hamilton