Hi Art,

Love your CD. Warm, straight-ahead sincere renditions of the folk music I love. Like that 9 string guitar too! Gets a full sound on the trebles and a good solid single-string bass note. Refreshing!

Guy Carawan, Ramblin' Jack Elliott (who was called Ramblin by Odetta's mother not because he traveled so much but because when he got wound up on a story, there was no end. "I gave my love a Jack Elliott story that had no end." Mrs. Felious, Odetta's mother said about Jack after being treated to a Jack "tale", "That man is the ramblinist man I ever heard!" Hence, Ramblin' Jack.

Did we dance naked in the rain? I didn't. But I know the girl Jack is talking about. She was a red-headed modern dancer and seemed stoned to the gills. Jack may have done this. There's nothing that he wouldn't do. 912 Toulouse had a palm tree in the courtyard that was walled off from the street by a high wooden fence. There was an escape back door to the alleyway in back. When the rain bucketed down on New Orleans Vieux Carre the steam would rise out of the streets in a mist. That historic "dance" might have taken place. It was probably one of many.

I spent about two days with Woody in Topanga Canyon in Will Geer's seed shack where Woody lived. I had to learn to play Sonny Terry's style for a local Los Angeles City College production of Finian's Rainbow. I made the pilgrimage up the winding Topanga Canyon Boulevard to the Geer residence to elicit Woody's expertise. He showed me cross-harp (he was generous and would show anyone anything any time) and we wound up playing for about 16 hours straight or so with breaks for shooting the shit. I did learn to play credibly for the show from Woody. The "Dance of the Golden Crock" that Sonny played on Broadway for the original cast with David Wayne and Ella Logan.

What was Woody like as a teacher? Like the rest of us I suppose. He just showed you how to do it. Then you copied him. Nothing formal. Just like how we all learned folk music for the most part. Monkey see, monkey do. And that may be the best way of all.

Dr. John,

Jack, Guy and I met Bascom Lamarr Lunsford in Ashville in 1954. We appeared on the notorious Ashville folk festival where a year preceding, he had introduced our own Dick Greenhaus, (then married to Kiki) and his performance group as "the three Jews from New York City". I guess if he knew Jack's and my Jewish heritage he would have introduced us as "two Jews from New York City and a Gentile". As it was, I think he introduced us as "Commonists".

In the first ten minutes of meeting Bascom, he was convinced that Jack, Guy and I were "Commonists" Guy blanched, Jack looked non-plussed and I laughed my head off.

Bascom warned Red Parham, (the great harmonica player who played with "Crazy" George Pegram, the "Mayor of Statesville") that we were not to be trusted. "Got Commonists in town".............

Jack got so mad that when we talked about Bascom, he referred to him as Bastard Lampoon Lunchfart.

Had a puny Sunday morning breakfast with him, the kind where you get served cold coffee, and he lectured us on how these outside agitators from New York were coming down and interfering with the folk songs. "Take that song, Robertson's Farm, for example. Pete Seeger changed it to Penney's Farm. Them sharecroppers were happy with their lives. Seeger's the worst of the lot."

Next, he went out to his mailbox to receive a new album that he'd just recorded for Folkways Records. He seemed excited about it. He sputtered when he pulled it out and read the liner notes. It was a glowing chronicle of Bascom and his contribution to American folk music. Well, Pete wasn't wrong. Bascom was one of the greatest of the old time traditional folk singers even if he was a crusty, cantankerous, prejudiced, mean old country lawyer. But he also loved folk music and put on a great show. The Ashville folk festival was one of the best I've ever been to. It showed Bascom's dedication. George Pegram, Red Parham, old time unacompanied ballad singers, Ashville cloggers, (not the crinoline set but vigorous high school kids. You can hear something like this when Chub Parham accompanies the Asheville cloggers Library of Congress Vol 1. Don't know if Chub and Red were related but theyu might have been.

Sorry to be so long-winded about all of this, but you did ask.

Frank Hamilton