Jeez, Art, I wish it were possible for us to get together, drink a few beers, and swap some stories.

I met Bob Gibson in 1958. I had a friend named Patti McLaughlin who had graduated from the U. of Washington in the early Fifties, then went for an advanced degree at Northwestern. While she was here in Seattle, she was a guitar student of mine. She hung out at the Gate of Horn a lot, met Bob Gibson, swapped songs with him, and even sent me a tape of her singing a bunch of songs she'd learned from him.

I had learned Mattie Groves from a John Jacob Niles recording back in about 1953 (didn't sing it quite the way Niles did, though!) and Patti learned it from me. When I heard Gibson's recording of it, I thought, "AHA! I know where that came from!" Maybe that's not the way it really happened, but all things considered, it looked fairly likely.

Anyway, Patti returned to Seattle, and in 1958, she, Walt Robertson, a couple of other people, and I made preliminary arrangements for a concert and a couple of other gigs for Gibson here in Seattle. Patti contacted Gibson and he was game. Among other things, he had a brother named Jim who lived here in Seattle. Jim, a paramedic, and I met often at the Blue Moon tavern where we consumed many a schooner. I didn't even occur to me that he was Bob Gibson's brother, even though he'd mentioned that he had a brother living back east who was into folk music. I had never made the connection, even though the last names were the same and they looked a lot alike. Rather dim of me!

Gibson brought Dick Rosmini with him, and his concert in the Eagleson Hall auditorium was jam-packed. They were here for two weeks, staying at Walt Robertson's houseboat down on Lake Union. Gibson, Rosmini, Walt, Patti, and I, along with several other people, got together several times while they were here for song-swapping and general babble-festing. I learned a bunch of guitar licks from Dick Rosmini (man, that sucker could play!!).

Then in 1959, Bob Nelson (Deckman) and I ran into Gibson in the Bay Area. We were sitting in the "No Name Tavern" in Sausalito when in he walked, spotted us, and came over (actually, he knew Patti was in the area, looked her up, and she told him where he could probably find us). He was in the area to write arrangements for the Smothers Brothers (who were just starting out at the Purple Onion) and help them get their act together. He had just recently been to the Newport Folk Festival, and he said that an outrageously fantastic girl singer had been there and that we'd be hearing a lot about her very soon. Guess who that turned out to be!!

Anyway, Bob Gibson was a FORCE. And there were a number of FORCES like that around the country.

There's no doubt that the Kingston Trio was a force also, but I do have to agree that their success was more a result than a cause of the folk revival in the U. S. They were more a pop-music phenomenon than a folk music influence, because due to their slicked-up arrangements, frat-boy irreverence, apparent eagerness to use a song as a vehicle for a joke rather than to present it seriously, and their look-alike shirts, most folk singers (vast hordes of them by the late Fifties) tended to regard them as "folk-lite." We could argue this 'til hell freezes over and still reach no conclusion that would satisfy everyone's preferences and prejudices.

Anyone who knows me or has heard me sing very much could hardly characterize me as a "purist," but if my regarding the KT as "folk-lite" makes me a "purist" and a "snob," then fine and dandy. So sue me!

I reiterated my earlier recommendation that those who didn't get into folk music until the Kingston Trio came along should read a bit and find out what went before and where it really all came from. Then, they might not be quite so adamant. If you were to read only one of the books I recommended (and others have seconded my recommendations), I would suggest Romancing The Folk : Public Memory and American Roots by Benjamin Filene. Among other things, lots of pictures.

In any case, why don't we all just stop quibbling and go out and make some music, okay?

Don Firth