A wonderful thread about a wonderful man. I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time with Bert, working, and presenting him in clubs and festivals. I recall the brilliance of his conversation and his breadth of knowledge on many subjects quite apart from folk music. His folk knowledge was huge, though to quote Greg Stephens, Bert 'Wore his learning lightly'. He was never patronising and was always ready with information or guidance. He did believe that the best things to do with songs was to sing them. This was the motivation behind his rewriting and "cobbling together" of texts, a practise he readily admitted. A goodly number of his rewrites are being sung regularly throughout the folk revival. That seems like a good thing to me. As for his voice, well it wasn't as smooth as most of those in the 'Best Male Singer' thread, but when he sang you knew what the story of the song was about. There was a feeling of enjoyment about his singing too. I once saw his voice described as 'mirthful'. Not a bad description. He's well up there in my top ten. I could write a posting here that would take half an hour to read so I'll leave it now except to say that in my opinion his influence on the folk revival was entirely to the good. We all owe him much. I will never forget him. Last Fall I did an 'I Remember Bert' workshop for the NY Pinewoods Club, not academic, just memories and anecdotes. It was taped, I believe the club has copies avsailable.