John McCutcheon

I first met John McCutcheon when I organized the Queen City Balladeer's 40th Anniversary Celebration. I had also booked Jean Ritchie and my friend, Dave Hawkins, helped bring John on board. John and Jean had played together many times over the years and they joined together to perform Jean's famous song, the "L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore" at our concert.

The more I learned about John during our ride and conversations, the more respect I have for him now. Our first encounter five years ago had been less personal since I spent most of the time going through his agents and "people" in order to book him. Being busy at the concert I hardly had time to do more than exchange a quick "hello" and "it's great to have you here." Spending more than 30 hours in a small car and at a festival with him I enjoyed his company very much. We talked about a little bit of everything from music in Cincinnati to family to polite political comments to what it was like to be a traveling musician.

I was not an awestruck fan thrilled to be in the company of such a folk superstar. Instead, it was like having anyone else in the QCB or Ceilidh Group enjoying a get outta here. I appreciated that he was just a nice man and did not take the "I'm a star...you are just driving me" approach. Even with more than 30 albums and 6 grammy nominations under his belt, he never brought that up. He was just a nice man...an extremely talented man...but most of all a nice man, too. We both enjoyed the weekend and I look foward to running into John again some day.