There are Mudcatters who know tons more about this subject than I know, so in opening this thread, I defer to the more knowledgeable of us. Would very much like some informed comments and opinions on this part of the history of American popular song.

Howard Richmond passed away, at a ripe old age of natural causes it seems, within the past ten years. TRO stands for The Richmond Organization, I believe it was named for Howard Richmond himself. When the obituary articles came out, the statements in the articles were eye-opening to me.

"Joel Newman," a pseudonym of many years standing, seems to be directly connected to Howard Richmond although I do not know how to prove this; I suspect this only came out, as a statement of so many words, with Richmond's death.

There are many places, over the years, where the "Joel Newman" name pops up. One of these is The Weavers' Song Book, where "Joel Newman" often appears next to "Paul Campbell," itself a collective pseudonym for Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman, and Pete Seeger, if I read correctly.

The Weavers were one of many acts/performers/songwriters-arrangers that were connected to Howard Richmond; in fact it came as a shock to read Richmond's obituary articles and to know that he was mixed up with everything from "Paper Sun," by Traffic, to a David Bowie song the name of which escapes me.

The prudent thing for me to do now, is to let others post and comment. I will keep an eye out for articles to link to.