I first met Joe as a little kid, his mother and mine were friends and Joe was this incredibly dashing dude with a cool german sports car and a rumbly baritone voice who would take me for fast rides and cold root beer. I got my first delta blues lp's from Joe as birthday presents when I was 5 or 6. My dad helped construct the rickety cafe tables that lined the perimeter of the original club and hauled recycled Northwestern U chem lab salvage to make the counter. Later when the cafe moved to Lunt it was only a block from my gradmother's apartment on Sheridan rd, Joe was there to offer a refuge from my relatives constant sniping, and hot cider on chilly afternoons. He encouraged me to take up guitar and become a performer, and when I was 14 let me have my 15 minutes on Wednesdays, treating me as a serious performer and not as a ridiculous little punk trying to sound like Leadbelly.