There are literally tens of thousands of friends/fans of Richard's who are still in mourning and his death hit REAL BLUES especially hard. Richard was one of our biggest fans and staunchest supporters and he took great pride in his official position as Research and Historical Consultant. We always waited for the Richard phone-call after an issue was mailed to the little house on East 25th St atop Hamilton Mountain and usually the phone call came at midnight our time, which meant 3 AM Hamilton time, and when Rich would be in his element spinning old records and saying "Listen! Do ya hear that? That's an 'out-of-tune' piano...sounds GREAT, eh?" or "This Howlin' Wolf session data...the personnel's all WRONG! That's Johnny Jones on piano NOT Hosea Lee Kinnard...listen...Johnny always hit it like that...that's his trademark...who writes these things! Don't they know Chess didn't keep track of people's names..." The thing was, Rich was ALWAYS right. He may have been known as a World-Class Bluesman and the GREATEST To EVER come out of Canada, but he was also one of the World's leading experts on North American roots music with an encyclopedic knowledge of Old-Timey, C&W, Bluegrass, Rockabilly, Rock n Roll, Blues, Jazz, Soul, R& B, Gospel and Zydeco music. And most of all, Richard touched us with his gentle nature, loyal friendship and his pure spirit and heart. As the Youngbloods wrote "Love is but a song we sing" and Richard represented that in his life. We miss him deeply and dedicate our website in honour of his memory.

Andy