I'm just listening to a recently purchased CD of Lou's: Ballads and Broadsides. I know I have seen Lou perform back in the Toronto Fiddler's Green Folk Club days (1970s), but I was a child then and admittedly merge all the iconic ballad singer performances together in my memory. Fortunately my father taped several of these concerts on reel-to-reels, so by the time I reached adolescence, and when all my peers were listing to The Police and AC/DC, I was immersing myself in the likes of John Roberts & Tony Barrand, Lou Killen, Peggy Seeger, Eric Bogle, The Friends of Fiddlers Green, Frankie Armstrong and the like.

It was on one of these reel-to-reels I heard Lou, performing with his then wife, Sally. It must have been a concert near Christmas time, judging by the wassail songs, and of course, the classic "Geordie Nativity" mentioned above. I still play that recording (which I copied onto a cassette tape before leaving home.)

I wonder, did Lou ever make recordings of this or any of the other Pitman's Bible stories? I would LOVE to get a copy if she did.

Anyway, I never got the chance to thank Lou personally for helping to shape my career as a balladeer. But I have certainly been grateful and I am honoured to carry on the tradition however I can.

Moira Cameron
Yellowknife, NT Canada