Jeff Hickey's Memorial Service

Today was the Memorial Service/Benefit Concert for the boys' guitar teacher, Jeff Hickey.
Jeff passed away after two weeks in intensive care unit at U.W. Madison after an automobile accident.

David started guitar lessons with Jeff shortly before he turned 13 back in 2002. He and David clicked musically: Jeff taught in a way that David was ready to soak up.

Jeff's CD, Loose Ends, won the MAMA (Madison Area Music Award) for best Acoustic album in 2004 and because Jeff had taught several of those songs to David, David was privileged to play those at the benefit today ( and then some of his own original compositions) and give Jeff much credit for teaching him and encouraging him to find his own voice with the guitar and music in general.

Joseph started lessons with Jeff last fall -and he too really clicked with Jeff. I'd take him into Jeff's and he would call for "Guiseppe" as he called Joseph and off they would go for at least an hour even though he only charged me for 1/2 hour lessons. Joseph today played the piece that he had been working on with Jeff at the time of his accident-Windy and Warm, and an earlier piece they worked on Wildwood flowers and I'll Fly Away.

Here's a little snippet of David playing at his guitar teacher's memorial service. We'll put up a better sound snippet later of him AND Joseph playing on stage.