Mike Lantz

ARTIST

From Front Range bandmate, Bob Dick:

My dear friend and bandmate for over 15 years, Mike Lantz, lost his battle against brain cancer on Wednesday, March 29, 2006.

Mike was a wonderful person, a great mandolin and tenor singer, and a loved guidance counselor. In Front Range he was a founding member along with Bob Amos. They started playing music together in the mid 1980s and the band developed into a nationally and internationally touring band throughout the 1990s. We slowed down over the last few years, but it was always a pleasure to get together for a festival or concert. I always enjoyed getting a chance to talk with Mike. He was a great listener. He was so talented, he painted a beautiful scene of Holland and gave it to Krissy and I as a wedding present. He was also great at "napkin" art, scribbling away on a napkin in a restaurant somewhere out on the road, creating a masterpiece with just the pen in his pocket.

He was often quiet on stage, but boy could he make us laugh off stage. His tenor voice was the key to the Front Range trio, I feel fortunate to have been able to sing with him for so many years. His mandolin playing was truly
unique, we call him the King of the blues mandolin. He also was an accomplished banjo, fiddle and guitar player.

When it seemed evident that he wasn't going to make it, I thought he
actually did make it. He had done so much in his life, from being in a band that recorded on Sugar Hill records and toured all over the place, to getting his master's degree and becoming a counselor who was loved by the students, to having a devoted wife who worked so hard to take care of him through his sickness, to having his motorcycle and his road bikes riding through the Rockies, Mike lived a great life. He will live on forever through our memories and his music.

Rest in peace my good friend. We'll catch up to you later.

Bob Dick