Lost a good one yesterday. I've never met a nicer man. Hosted him and John Moore on a Canadian tour.
From John's FB page:
I lost a big piece of myself this morning. I've been trying to gather my thoughts to write something after the loss of Byron Berline recently. And then, my musical soulmate and "brother" Dennis Caplinger left this world this morning. I don't have any words to describe my feelings right now or the relationship I had with Dennis.
We played music and were close friends since high school. We toured the lower 48 states of the U.S., Europe, Canada, Alaska and Japan as bandmates and partners for over 4 decades. We recorded and performed literally thousands of shows together. We hunted, fished and philosophized on hundreds of topics all along the way. The deepest and most profound conversations I've had in my life were with Dennis. We shared triumphs and deep tragedies and amassed a thousand road stories that I need to write down someday before I die so our families will know just what characters they had in their midst growing up.
Few people are ever lucky enough to have a friend like Dennis in their life. On stage we read each other's minds to the point that the audience probably had no idea just how much of what we did was spur-of-the-moment ad-lib. He was a musical giant, but I'll always know Dennis as a man of impeccable character and integrity who was absolutely loyal and honest to a fault, with nothing phony about him at all.
Oh Dennis. I hate to see you go. But I'm so thankful to our Lord above that your suffering is over down here and that you are reunited with your mom and dad and your brother Sandy. Your wonderful family has lost a strong husband and father, and their feelings right now I cannot begin to know. The legions of people who knew you and respected you are also feeling a huge loss tonight. There will be a giant hole down here where you used to be, and it will be there for the rest of my life. But I'll see you later my dear friend.
Bookmarks