Mike was my guitar teacher and friend, he records under the name of Backwards Sam Firk, along with his long time playing partner, Delta X, Stephan Michaelson. Mike and Tom Hoskins rediscovered Mississippi John Hurt in 1963, driving him back to Mikes place in Patomac Md. and John had a fantastic 5 year run playing an international festival circuit for 5 years before he died in 1968. Of course Mike, being a genius on the guitar, learned all of John's tunes and thousands of others too. I really treasured my lessons from him. He will be missed by a lot of people. Its ironic, we had just talked the week earlier and he wanted to hear my CD, which I have 4 tunes from it on myspace (donjenningsguitar) and I sent him the CD but it got there too late, he never heard it. He said I was his best student so he won't ever hear just what I did with his lessons. RIP Mike. He will be rememered for a long time. He suffered a massive heart attack at breakfast, his son Jim and his wife were there and he died instantly. He was 64 years old.