Me and Peter Kennedy

[benhall.1]

Stumbled across this:



Peter was the most knowledgable, talented and generous person that I have come across in trad music. I miss him.

[Mr.Gumby]

Not wishing to enter a discussion about the man or the controversies surrounding him here, let him rest I'd say, but you do realise there are many who would, based on well founded arguments, at least add a few less flattering attributes to the ones you listed. People, perhaps, who had experiences of the man different from your own.

[benhall.1]

Not wishing to enter a discussion about the man or the controversies surrounding him here, let him rest I'd say, but you do realise there are many who would, based on well founded arguments, at least add a few less flattering attributes to the ones you listed. People, perhaps, who had experiences of the man different from your own.

I know. My own experiences are based on 15 years of intimate friendship, during which time I must have seen him a couple of times a week, sometimes for whole days at a time, and had many opportunities to delve into the archives and the histories and documentation that surrounded them in the mad, chaotic basement of his home in Gloucester. It has always slightly perplexed me that the things that people don't like about Peter are the very things that they praise his collaborators for - people like Seamus Ennis, Alan Lomax, Pete Seeger and others.

But yes, I know there have been detractors. I have never understood why. But, having gone into all of that several times in the past, I know the arguments. I accept that people differ on this. Probably no need to go into all of that here.