Just heard from Lou Curtiss that Fred Gerlach has died. Not sure if many here knew/remember him; he had been living in San Diego for the last 25 years or more. A hell of a good guitarist. His nephew, Nick Gerlach, later changed his name to Jesse Lee Kincaid and co-fronted The Rising Sons with Taj Mahal. Anyhow, Fred always had lots of stories about the New York folk scene in the early 50's (said that Woody Guthrie used to stay with him & Tiny Ledbetter from time to time!)
It's too bad no one ever interviewed him about those days. He showed Lou some letters that Woody had written him in the early 50s! Wonder whatever happened to those! I think Fred had some kind of falling out with the People's Song folks way back when and it made him kind of bitter. But he was a really good twelve string player.