Randy Tucker
BETSY: Whether I was in the chorus or in the audience, Betsy’s fiddle, her voice, and more than anything, her joyous smile always brought light to every Revels show. After I stopped performing with the Revels, I didn’t see Betsy for a while, but then we started running into each other at high school lacrosse games, where it turned out our sons were on the same team. During this whole time, my wife Mary’s was dealing with a terminal illness, and she passed away in 2019. I reached out to Betsy to see if she would play at Mary’s memorial service, which she did for free and also found another musician to join her. The service was everything I could have hoped it would be as a tribute to Mary, who was very proud of her Irish heritage. The version of Bán Chnoic Éireann Ó (The Fair Hills of Ireland, from the 2009 Revels) that Betsy played brought me to tears and because it was captured on video, still does. I will always be grateful for Betsy’s kindness at a difficult time.
ROBERT: After performing in five Revels shows over six years, I took a break, but in 2016 I auditioned again and was invited to join the chorus. Shortly after that, however, I was diagnosed with head and neck cancer, so I declined my role in the show. I was in the middle of treatment when my family attended the Revels that December. At that time, I noticed in the program that a recording project was planned, that auditions were scheduled, but that singers who had been invited to join the 2016 chorus didn’t need to audition. At the time I was in no condition to sing anything, but I reached out to Robert and asked: even though I wasn’t in the show, I had indeed been “invited” to participate; did this apply to me? Robert told me that he had worded the announcement very carefully with me in mind! When rehearsals for the recording began in March, I had just finished my treatment, and while my voice wasn’t all the way back, rehearsals were exactly what I needed, both vocally and spiritually. By the time we actually made the recording, my voice had recovered. I will never forget how Robert had kept me in mind and provided this avenue to bounce back to a fully lived life after my illness.
