Oh my God! I just saw him last week and was going to see him Yesterday but I never heard from him. Do you know what happened? I know he's had a number of health problems. I am really sorry to hear this. Chris was a great human being and a very polished musician.

Here is a picture of Chris that I took this summer at IGS in New York.

. I just thought it was a nice photo of Chris at the IGS concert.

[This message has been edited by hoodadoo (edited April 18, 2003).]

[This message has been edited by Administrator Freed (edited April 18, 2003).]

Adrian, thanks for the help with the picture, it is appreciated and means a lot to me.

I will miss him at IGS and miss our discussions at the various guitar shows. I didn't know him well, but he was one of those kind of guys that seems like a lifelong friend after 10 minutes of conversation.

Do yourself a favor and enter his name in your search engine. There's a lot of stuff on the net about him. He had a interesting past. He was a well known folk star in Japan in the 1960s, and also had a career as a male model. One of the truly sweet guys and characters I've met through IGS.

I remember a bunch of great stories from IGS NY '02. And guess what, Chris is in almost every story. I'll try to type a few together this weekend.

Somewhere, I have a tape of him playing "Get Behind the Mule" at 5:30 a.m. on the last night of camp. I will try to find that tape and get it onto a CD.

Like many, many other IGSers, I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked with Chris. I can wholeheartedly say I enjoyed the time I did spend immensely. Chris was a guy you got a sense of right away.

Here’s a flash back: http://www.guitarseminars.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001716.html

[This message has been edited by Adrian Freed (edited April 19, 2003).]

Not that there's anything wrong with goin to guitar camp-after all, that's where you can find such unexpected delights as Chris. Great story Kurt.

I had the pleasure of meeting Chris at IGS San Diego. At the time I had no idea that he was such an accomplished musician.He shared anecdotes of his time on the road and his beer most generously.

I feel honoured to have met him, and pray he finds his place amongst his fellow bluesmen, on the other side of the Crossroads.

The bottleneck I bought from him was the best I'd ever used, and it recently just hit the floor and broke. I was gonna email him this week to buy another...

Yes, he was the real deal, and a great story-teller,so sorry to hear this.

My life was richer for meeting him, way poorer for his passing..

His son Chris jnr has taken over the email link at www.wininboy.com and can be contacted by email there.

Chris was one of my closest friends in the 1960's, through some very magical occasions. We had a great deal of fun. Unfortunately, I fell in love with his girlfriend, so we had several years of just barely a truce in the 70's and early 80's. We later got in touch, all water under the bridge, and I even bought a car from his son during the years that were "lost" from the musical odyssey.

Chris was always aspiring to light our spirits high. He was more a light as a person than as a musician. I'm lucky to have been his friend. So, almost a year after his passing, I'm finding out about it. We stopped hanging out in the same circles long ago - though last year Christopher Dylan Ramey's uncle did tell me about Chris's health problems, and they seemed grim. I just still somehow thought he was indestructible, that he could charm his way out of anything. Good night Chris. Turn out the stars.

Douglas Hansen
Douglas@codecheck.com
650-493-5470

Sleep well my friend.