Hard news. And you're right, Songs2Play... we were talking about him within the last week. Until I heard Mississippi John Hurt, Lonnie was my folk hero. It's strange to have such great admiration for two musicians as different in style as Mississippi John and Lonnie. Lonnie was Hell for leather, and Mississippi was a shy smile looking out from under an old hot all sweat stained from years of work. It wasn't Burl Ives who moved me, or Harry Belefonte, or the Kingston Trio. It was Lonnie, the minute I put on the album, An Englishman Sings American Folk Songs. If the Tasmanian Devil ever put out a cover album, it would have been of Lonnie Donegan But for all of my love of his music, which still sounds as fresh today, I never tried to sound like him (Although I still can recite the complete spoken introduction to Rock Island... and did so when we were driving through Rock Island a couple of years ago.) It wasn't until I started doing black gospel quartet music that I felt Lonnie in my music. I'm Alabamy Bound, Sally Don't You Grieve... so many of those songs formed my ear for harmony, with a strong bass singer. Maybe it was getting an electric guitar in my hands, where I could really drive the music that finally brought Lonnie out. I've been intending to get the Gospel Messengers to learn some of Lonnie's songs to sing at folk festivals... not just the gospel stuff he did. Maybe this will spur me on.

God rest you, crazy gentleman..

Jerry