I heard the news this morning before I left home. I knew when I got to Mudcat tonight there would be a thread with many posts.

When I first started hearing Pete on the radio, it took me a long time to connect his name to the familiar voice. I don't know why that was: I'd certainly also heard his name many times. It may be because my parents didn't listen to folk music but to the great American songbook type of music, so mostly I heard Pete on my friends' radios.

I was lucky enough to see him a few times: in Boston, at the Newport Folk Festival (not in its early days but more recently) at Pawtucket, RI's, Labor and Ethnic Heritage Festival, and best of all in the small venue of my "home" music venue, Stone Soup Coffeehouse, where I got to talk to him briefly. At the Labor and Ethnic Heritage Festival and at the Newport Folk Festival, he strolled the grounds, banjo slung over his back, and it was comfortable saying, "Hi, good to see you!" to him.

Pete was the reason Stone Soup was founded. Scroll down to Joyce Katzberg's post at the lower left (next to the soup-pot-with-guitar graphic) on Stone Soup Coffeehouse's Founder's Page, here. http://www.stonesoupcoffeehouse.com/page1/FoundersVoices.html I wonder how many other folk venues Pete inspired.

He sang songs of peace, and now he will rest in peace. Thank you, Pete, for everything.