In 1991 I was in Vancouver BC because my wife Carole had designed a quilt for the Commonwealth Games to be held in Victoria Vancouver Is. in 1994. (The games were held in Auckland in 1990). I asked my friends that we were staying with if there was any live music we could go to, and my host said, there’s a guitar player in town this week, erm… “Amos Derrit, Gimmett, umm…” I said “Amos Garrett?” It was. I went three night of his 4 night stint at The Yale in Vancouver. On the first night, Wednesday, the crowd was decent but not crowded and after the first set Amos said, “I’ve got my latest cassette for sale here – come up and see me.” No-one appeared to be rushing the stage so I went up and asked him for 2 copies, and he said: “If you’re gonna buy two I’ll come and talk to you” He came over to our table and shook hands (huge hands, I mean really huge, see the photo – how else does he do that note bending that sounds like he’s playing slide). He sat down and we had a good korero – where you from etc etc. I asked him, because I was aware of his wonderful solo on Midnight At The Oasis, whether he still played with Maria Muldaur and he said (imagine southern drawl) “I still do the festivals with her – they wheel me on, I do the solo, wee-oo wee-oo, and they wheel me off again.” I nearly snorted my beer.
