Many of you may have heard the news before me of the death of

BILL CHINNOCK, 59.

It was with an exceptionally heavy heart that I read the story in the
Boston Globe late this morning.

Bill Chinnock, 59; played in Springsteen band
By Associated Press | March 9, 2007
In Friday's Boston Globe

We have a great many readers who are based outside New England who may
not have heard even now, which is why I am sending this special message.

If you didn't hear Bill Chinnock live or didn't collect his records
and especially if you hadn't even heard OF him, you may have no idea
how much he meant to his fans and especially those of us from Maine.
But for me his recordings from early releases such as "Alive at the
Loft" to much later ones like my own favorite, "Out on the
Borderline," were some of the best I ever heard.

Chinnock put on the greatest rock 'n' roll concert I ever attended, at
the Bangor Auditorium. It is practically pointless to tell anyone
about it because almost everyone looks for some flashy details,
totally missing the point. The point, very simply, was that his
connection with his audience that night was precisely one hundred
percent. He and the audience were one. Mickey O'Halloran told me he
once had the exact same experience at a Chinnock concert.

So I never got my "Bill Chinnock: My Maine Man" T-shirt, but it wasn't
for lack of looking.

The legendary "Badlands" album was never reissued on CD as far as I
know, but it certainly was not for lack of fan interest.

And the world is a poorer place today for the loss of Bill Chinnock.