Rick Fielding's passing. (March 20, 2004)

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Mar 04 - 08:39 PM

When the uninititated do ask that, Wesley, we'll have so much to share with them, plus I am sure we'll have a special page here to start them on their journey of discovery.

luvyakat

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: GUEST,Wesley S at Home
Date: 24 Mar 04 - 07:51 PM

I don't know about anyone else - but I HATE seeing this thread drop down to the bottom of the page. As if Rick would disappear with it. And don't you just know that someday - some new member will ask "Who was Rick Fielding"?

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: van lingle
Date: 24 Mar 04 - 05:39 PM

What a fine man. He left us all something to live up to. My most profound condolences to you, Heather.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Marion
Date: 24 Mar 04 - 05:04 PM

What a sad thing. Heather, I am thinking of you constantly. Sympathies to all of Rick's friends as well.

I will write more later when I can put some thoughts together without crying.

Marion

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Barbara
Date: 24 Mar 04 - 02:04 PM

Goodbye, good friend, and godspeed.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: KathWestra
Date: 24 Mar 04 - 11:58 AM

Thanks for posting that Si Kahn song, Allan! Says it just right. Kathy

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Lyrical Lady
Date: 24 Mar 04 - 11:51 AM

As a long time member of the "cat" ...I would just like to say how sad I am to lost one of our own. I don't think I ever communicated with Rick but I certainly read his posts and was always enlinghtened. My sympathies at this very difficult time.

Barbara

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Nerd
Date: 24 Mar 04 - 11:28 AM

Damn, damn, damn!

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Allan C.
Date: 24 Mar 04 - 10:41 AM

I have held off posting here. I have said much of what I feel on some of the other threads about Rick. Today I happened to stumble upon a song that says it as well as I could ever hope to do.

MEMORIAL
(Si Kahn)

We come today to say goodbye to one who has held us close,
To tell the stories of his life that move us each the most.
These memories of a life well lived and of a death well faced,
Are now a part of every life that crosses in this place

Cho: No circle has been broken here, no one that stands alone.
The threads of life, so lately broke, are woven through our own.

He'd hoped to meet us all again that gather here today,
But though we will not meet again, we'll meet again some way.
In work we do, in songs we sing, in courage and in pain,
In battles that we fight as one, we'll see his face again.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: PeteBoom
Date: 24 Mar 04 - 09:14 AM

I saw this thread after getting back from a really gruelling band practice on Sunday. I thought I could not get any lower - before I saw the thread. I met Rick cyberly - never in person. What a pity and my personal loss. I've trying to find the right words, and am now giving up and going with my initial reaction -

Much sympathy to his family and numerous friends.

My reaction then was as it is now.... "sigh"

Regards -

Pete

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Big Mick
Date: 24 Mar 04 - 08:41 AM

I want to jump in for a minute and tell you all how absolutely proud I am to be a part of this company. The insights I have seen here would knock Rick out. I do know Rick, and know him well. In that, I am blessed. I got to spend a fair amount of time with him and Heather, stayed at their home, and experienced their love, conversation, and that magical garden. Yet even with all that exposure, I didn't have any better handle on this man than many of you that had never met him 3D. You are why Rick found such joy in this community, and found it at all times fascinating. And I will add that it is at all times caring and insightful. Thanks for these tributes to one of the most important musicians and friends in my life. I am honored to be a part of your company.

All the best to all of you,

Big Mick Lane

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Genie
Date: 24 Mar 04 - 03:50 AM

It's amazing to be so grieved by the loss of someone I never met.
But not really surprising, when I think of it. I 'knew' Rick through his music -- his wonderful voice and craftsmanship and the spirit that shone, and still does, through that music. But I also 'knew' this extraordinary human being, not only though our limited contact at Mudcat but, most importantly, by the way he touched the lives of so many of the rest of you 'catters, like Marion, Amos, Susan, and others.

Rick, I sincerely hoped to meet you in this life. Guess we'll have to save that for the other side.

I can already hear you singing with the angels.

Genie

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: georgeward
Date: 24 Mar 04 - 01:01 AM

What can you offer to a surviving partner you've never met upon her loss of someone you never met ? Awkwardly enough, I can only offer this:

The man reflected in all of these posts knew enough about this odd condition we call "life" to probe it, savor it, share it, try to make it worthwhile....with a sense of play and of the comic that its absurdities require. The loss of someone that conscious and alive can take you up, change you, enable you to go on and do and share in ways (small or large) that you may not have done before. And - if and when it does - it doesn't make any of the loss go away. It just transforms it into something you can do good with. An odd sort of low-key miracle.

Doesn't work that way for everyone. Doesn't have to. There are other ways to go on. But when you've been close to someone who really did his damndest to live (or hers) it can work that way.
I know that now. And Heather, I truly hope it works out so for you.
Eventually.

- George

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: GUEST,Patricia Sibley
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 10:02 PM

Rick was warm, witty and caring. I loved my guitar lessons
and have missed Rick since I moved to B. C.

Heather you are in my thoughts. Rick is probably checking
out the jams in heaven.

"Some may leave money from a lifetime of saving,
Some just their name on a marble stone.
It's not what you leave, it's the joy of remembering
All I can leave you is a handful of songs."

Patricia

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: saulgoldie
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 08:13 PM

Didn't know him; never met him. But from some of his posts, he sounded like an helluva guy. Me heart and prayers go out to Heather and all who knew him.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 08:10 PM

Heather, My heart goes out to you and your family.
My heart goes out to our huge Mudcat family and our great loss.
I don't even look at macaroni and cheese the same way, ever since Rick's story about it!

Saturday night I had a celebration party for springs arrival. I brought out a bowl of strawberries and whipped cream and played the Strawberry Mudcat CD while we ate. Rick opens that CD with 'Rag, eh?'
While the tune played I talked about Rick and his new CD and his battle with cancer.
Little did I know we were celebrating Rick's life that night.

My love to all those who feel the great loss and pain of Rick's death.
My love to all who have had the honor of having a piece of Rick in your lives.

Sue

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: bbc
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 07:36 PM

If you are among those who missed the chance to meet Rick in person, check out some of the events photos of him in Member Photos & Information. We sure had some good times! Point of fact, the photos from Rick's 1999 concert in D.C. were the very first entry in the Events section. Thank you, D.C., for hosting him & giving such a boost to our then-developing community!

Love you, Rick,

bbc

Concert at Branford, CT--2002

Rick & Catspaw Meet


Rick's D.C. Concert--1999

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 05:26 PM

For all that he was such an authority in his field, Rick was as unassuming a guy as you could shake a stick at. In fact truly exceptional in that respect. And I could never fathom where he found the time to be so passionate about a whole range of other interests, going far beyond folk guitar and blues. Quentin Crisp and Kenneth Williams spring to mind of course, but I lost count of the times he would enlighten me on the background to some small point I'd made. In particular I appreciated his perspective on how the brilliant and eccentric Bach pianist Glenn Gould was received in his home town of Toronto. I never got round to erasing all Rick's PMs, thank goodness, so now I can print them off as a lasting memento of as decent a spud as I never met.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: GUEST,Chanteyranger
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 04:46 PM

I wish I had met him. I only knew him "virtually." His warmth shined through on this site. My heart goes out to his family and friends.

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: M.Ted
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 04:25 PM

Like a lot of people here, I never met Rick, and also like a lot of people, I felt like we were friends. Over the years, we went back and forth about a lot of stuff, but most of all, music. We liked a lot of the same music, of course, but if he liked something or someone that I hadn't heard of, I'd make a point of checking it out, because always knew it would be good.

The thing that most impressed me over the years though, was his willingness to help anybody who was trying to learn, whatever their skill level--Mudcat wouldn't be half the place it is, if he had not been here, jumping in with support, advice, and instruction, every time somebody posted a playing question--

A lot of musicians don't have any patience for people who are learning, and a lot of others have no patience for people who don't play exactly what they play--Rick's example kept that kind of attitude out of Mudcat, and brought a lot of good musicians and aspiring musicians in--

I have some of his recordings, and I always meant to come up there and hear him play, because I know there was lot that he could do that he never got a chance to record--I thought that when I he saw me come in, he'd smile and shout out a greeting--and that he'd come over and chat at the break, and ask me to come up and play "Eight More Miles to Louisville" or some such thing, and afterwards we'd talk and play music all night--sorry that it'll never happen--

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: GUEST,Melani
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 02:02 PM

I'm so sorry.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: GUEST,Den
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 01:39 PM

I've been away for a while and when I returned today to "read the cat," I was deeply saddened to read this news. Like many others here I never met Rick personally but like others I felt that I knew him. He was I believe, a funny, articulate generous man who loved his wife and friends. He was I felt a guy who put a lot of thought into his postings and always seemed to have a lot of time for those who for one reason or another needed a little encouragement. You lit the room when you were here Rick but the lights dimmed when you rose to leave.

Heather I'm sorry for your trouble, God be good to him.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Gern
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 12:19 PM

It's a measure of the man to read the length of this thread and others regarding him. What a thing, to have touched so many. What a life well-lived. I didn't know him at all, but clearly saw his shadow all across this site. On one of my first posts, I was upset about something musical and expressed it in an awkward way. I was mugged by posters in the hundreds, many of whom misread or didn't read what I had said. Rick was one of the few to recognize the compassion I had tried to express, support my feelings and gently suggest that I take the edge off my message. Practicing peace, I think they call it. I'm very sorry he has passed, but very impressed that he has lived.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: GUEST,JohnB
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 09:22 AM

Not been on since Friday, hardly a good post to return to. You will be missed around Mudcat as well as many other places Rick.
Sorry for being so forward as I hardly know you, but Hugs to Heather.
JohnB.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 08:38 AM

Death ain't got no mercy in this land.
Death ain't got no mercy in this land.
He comes to your house he won't stay long,
You turn around another man done gone.
Death ain't got no mercy in this land.

Death ain't got no friend in this land.
Death ain't got no friend in this land.
He comes to your house he won't stay long,
You turn around another man done gone.
Death ain't got no friend in this land.

Death don't take no vacation in this land.
Death don't take no vacation in this land.
He comes to your house he won't stay long,
You turn around another man done gone.
Death don't take no vacation in this land.

Death ain't got no mercy in this land.
Death ain't got no mercy in this land.
He comes to your house he won't stay long,
You turn around another man done gone.
Death ain't got no mercy in this land.

(from the singing of John Jackson)

God Bless You Rick. My sincere dcondolences to you Heather. God Bless us all.

Roger in Baltimore AKA Big RiB

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Hawker
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 05:47 AM

Rick I shall miss you posts! Heather, so sorry to hear your news!
Much Love and kindest of thoughts,
Lucy

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: GMT
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 04:34 AM

I've posted already (without cookie).

I always looked for Ricks take on things and was never dissapointed
by his posts.

Go well into the light and take up the new challenge.

My heart felt condolences to those who love him.

Gary

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: sian, west wales
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 04:31 AM

"Slender at first, they quickly gather force,
Growing in richness as they run their course;
Once started, they do not turn back again:
Rivers, and years, and friendships with good men."

Grow on, Rick.



siân
from a Sanskrit poem.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: reggie miles
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 02:50 AM

Only Memories Remain


As I walked the early morning streets
They seemed emptier today
Tryin' to reach inside
To find which words were right to say
But the words weren't there
The falling rain must've washed them all away
Wish you were here to hear this
But only memories remain

The times we shared, good and bad
Now echoes of the past
We said we'd meet next Thursday
To get together at long last
But it wasn't meant to be
Things just happened way too fast
I got the phone call this morning
Another friend of mine had passed

Many believe the human soul is eternal
And that the memory of each life will live on forever
As long as we, the living, never allow those memories to slip away

So it falls to each one of us to make the most of the time we share while we're here together
Because it's by these deeds that those we leave behind will recall us again to where only memories remain

Wasn't it just yesterday?
Our lives entwined as one
Sharing love and laughter
Damn it that was fun
There will never be another
To fill your place beneath the sun
I hope we meet again someday
When my time 'round here is done        

Silently we gather
Reflecting hand in hand
About how each life matters
How we touch our fellow man
Here's to you my brother
Until your next refrain
Wishin' you were still here with us
But only memories remain

Here's to you my brother
Until we meet again
Wishin' you were still here with us
But only memories remain


Like so many here, I had not yet had the chance to meet him in the flesh. He was a very kind and supportive soul.

Words fail and often fall short to try express frail and fragile emotions like gratitude for a life so rich as his.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Ebbie
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 02:21 AM

Heather, may our sense of loss in some small but effective way help you bear the weight of your great loss.

Elva Bontrager

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Naemanson
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 02:05 AM

I've been avoiding this thread. I opened it only to read the first post and a few after that and then left it to let the tears leak. Now I will try.

I only met Rick briefly at Mystic one year. I was so impressed that I blew the last of my meager funds on his cassette. I almost wore it out. I learned songs from it and it led me to other musicians and their music. When I joined Mudcat I realized that Rick was here too. I read his posts and enjoyed his humor and patient teaching. They were some of the high notes of this site. Then I read of his illness and saw how he met it and fought it, and I learned that he had bravery to spare and he was well cared for by our little community.

And now he's gone. Heather, I want you to know you have my deepest sympathy. His departure has torn a hole in the world that no one can easily fill. We are all lessened by this.

Oh hell...

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: GUEST,Juliana
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 01:34 AM

I had the pleasure and privilege of meeting, playing and singing with Rick - it was a turning point in my life. He was gracious, friendly and encouraging - in a word, he was Rick Fielding. Gentle, kind, blunt when necessary but always very human and accessible.

Rick - I've not been able to come back East for a few years and we'd always hoped to get together on my Coast -- now, I know you're here with me and with all your friends forever. I'll always treasure my special guitar strap, remembering how you tried really hard to craft those wisteria blossoms on the leather - it was so difficult when you didn't know what wisteria looked like - but you did it...

The stories you told me about people you'd teased with the kelp rattle I made for you made me laugh. They still make me laugh.

Heather, wrap yourself in the love that Rick kindled in all of us that knew him or were touched by him. I wish it didn't have to hurt so much.

I've lighted a candle http://gratefulness.org/candles/enter.cfm and it feels like it helps. My tears can't put it out.

Love and the knowledge that the joy he left us is with us forever.

Juliana

http://pondsidemusic.com

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 11:31 PM

Has there ever been such an outpouring of heartfelt grief and sincerity on Mudcat? Not in the several years I've been checking this space. This is an apt tribute to one who certainly made this a much better place. Rick cut a wide path on Mudcat, and I suspect, did so in other areas of his life as well. He will be greatly missed but will live on in his music and in the hearts of those who knew him and those who shared a table at the Mudcat Cafe.

Elliott H.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: GUEST,Amanda Lynn Stubley
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 11:28 PM

Well I'm new to the mudcat, but not to Rick and Heather, I'm one of the lucky ones who got to know Rick (and Heather) through weekly guitar lessons from him, many years ago now.

Heather, my heart is broken for you, and my tears have been flowing as I read these amazing posts. You will remain in my heart, and I hope, in my life.

Rick truly did live by his own rules, didn't he. I spent so many evenings in the basement, picking, singing and smoking cigarettes (!) and listening to his stories, about how he skipped school to see Ingmar Bergeman films at a too young age, how he couldn't stand an office job, how he finally broke out of the drunken bar scene to get the respect he deserved as a folk legend. Rick truly had an encyclopaedic knowledge of music trivia (including the truly banal - I remember a story about Lester Flatt's pistol that he told me, which actually helped me finally nail the 'G' run!), and one to be admired. He was so kind, and funny.

I'm so sad he's gone, so sad he's never got to meet my husband (who even I hadn't met when I was working with Rick). He carved me a leather guitar strap which I proudly wear and show everyone I can... My regret is not having taken time to see him in the last years...

Someone mentioned Rick was agnostic, but I have no question that he's on the heavenly side now. I just wonder who he sat down to pick with first: Maybelle Carter? Charlie Poole? Big Bill Broonzy? Bill Monroe?
in the words of our mutual friend Steve Pritchard, Rick, "Keep on Pickin'"
with ALL my love, and until we meet again,
Amanda-Lynn xoxoxo

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: alison
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 10:50 PM

I'm sitting here in Australia crying for a man I never met but I felt I knew..... I remember listening to Rick's wonderful radio shows which used to be archived here and most weeks Max would play a Rick Fielding track on mudcat radio. thanks for sharing your music Rick.

My deepest sympathy to you Heather

love & prayers

alison

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Mudlark
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 10:40 PM

I am devastated to hear of the death of a man I never met but revered nonetheless. Rick Fielding was clearly a one-off, a special person, and I feel privileged to have had the benefit of his great generosity and knowledge. My deepest regrets that he is gone...

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Robin2
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 08:52 PM

Tryed to leave a message yesterday, so will try again today. I never met Rick, but grew to know him like many here as a kind and wonderfl man. He will be missed.

Robin2

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: CapriUni
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 08:37 PM

I'm ... stunned. I don't know what my condolences (one who never met the man, except in passing, on this forum) can mean to those who knew him deeply and personally... but all I can do is to give them.

... And to say: I wish I'd gotten to know him better.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: JosieM
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 08:13 PM

I'm very sorry to hear of your great loss Heather. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
Thank you Rick. It took me almost 50 years and your help to find the confidence to get out there and sing. I will be forever grateful!
Josie

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 07:51 PM

I just got in from a weekend on the road to see this thread.
It's tough to type through tears.
The world is a richer place for Rick's having been in it.
And I am poorer for not having met him.
My condolences to Heather.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Col K
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 07:24 PM

Like so many people here on the Cat I only knew Rick through the Cat, He has had such an influence on so many people it is becoming an understatement to say that he will be missed.
I heard so much about him last year at the Getaway that I know that I would have liked to have met him.
My deepest sympathies to Heather and to all the rest of his family and closest friends.
Colin

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Lanfranc
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 06:59 PM

I never met Rick, except through these threads.
I wish I had.

The eulogies above say it all - a very special man has been taken from us.

Farewell, Rick

Alan

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: bill\sables
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 06:46 PM

Heather it is very sad news. I will alwaays remember the good times I spent with you both. Rick wasn't only a fine musician but one of the best leather carvers I ever met.
Love Bill and Lorna

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: momnopp
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 05:58 PM

Ditto to all of the above, especially what Joe Offer said, "Heather,thank you for sharing him with us."

JudyO

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Celtaddict
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 05:51 PM

Rick and Heather will never know how many lives he touched in such a wonderful way, and how many people love him who met him briefly or perhaps not at all.
He lived just as Bob Franke described in "Thanksgiving Eve."
    What can we do with our days
    But work and hope that your dreams bind your work to your play?
    What can you do with each minute of your life
    But love 'til you've loved it away?
    Love 'til you've loved it away.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Duane D.
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 05:42 PM

I just heard this morning. I'm hardly here anymore since I'm living on my own. Thank you, bbc, for the email.


To Heather, my deepest sympathy, I can't find the right words, please remember, the love and compassion always exists for you on Mudcat.

To Rick, I never told you the profound effect you had on me.... your music, your kind words and encouragement on the threads and your playing tips and techniques you shared with me in person. I will fondly remember, for as long as I live, the three concerts of yours I attended, the Hudson Valley Folk Guild, Hyde Park, NY concert you shared with Sandy and Caroline, and the two Branford, CT concerts (and the jam sessions that followed at the Shaw's). I will miss you, but your music will live on in me. A finer gentleman I never knew. May you rest in peace, friend.


Duane.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Ed.
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 05:19 PM

Like many others who only knew Rick through his posts here, it's difficult to say anything that others haven't said. He was certainly a remarkable man.

I'll just paraphrase something that Rick wrote on an obituary thread for a guitarist who died from a similar disease, at a similar age:

Take a break Rick, ya done good!

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Steve-o
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 05:05 PM

Quite a while back, I perused this forum for a few months, and finally decided to join, largely because of Rick's postings. He had so much knowledge and shared it so eloquently, and always had truly interesting and heartfelt things to say. You could tell he was one of those "musician's musicians"- the music was in his soul. Although we never met, I will miss his wisdom, kindness, and enthusiasm very, very much.

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Wolfgang
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 04:49 PM

Before Mudcat I never had read or heard the name Rick Fielding, without Mudcat I never would have listened to his music, now it feels like having lost a friend I have never met.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Rick Fielding's passing.
From: Ernest
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 04:41 PM

What can we, who have never met him, add here? A big loss for Mudcat, an even bigger one for his friends and family.
Sending Condolences
Ernest