TOM PALEY R.I.P.
    I was very saddened to hear from Ben by phone yesterday of the death of his father.
    Tom was a truly iconic figure of folk music and one of the last links with the early days of the folk revival in New York where he knew Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly and performed from 1958 in the pioneering band that renewed interest in the old time music of the 1920s, the New Lost City Ramblers. He was a walking encyclopaedia of American folk music and a master of many of these styles. He was an outstanding and innovative guitarist, his banjo playing had a unique distinctive feel to it and his gigs also featured his fiddle and autoharp playing. He was also a fine sure-voiced singer and his introductions were always informative as well as reflective. They also featured his sense of humour which might be described as 'different'! Though he was widely known and acknowledged especially for his distinctive excellence, he always came over as a plain unaffected man who had time to talk to all who wanted to speak to him. He had a busy working and touring life as a musician but at others times you would find him taking his place doing floor spots at clubs near his North London home
    Tom lived most of his adult life in Europe - Sweden and London, and he lived in that same flat in Islington for decades.
    We first booked him to perform at the Lewes Arms in Lewes in 1970 and we booked him very many times between then and the last time at the Royal Oak in Lewes 44 years later! It was at that first gig in Lewes that he met and heard Robin Arzonie who was to become the second fiddler to play with his long-running band, The New Deal String Band. When Robin moved abroad his place was taken by Ben.
    I know it will sound like a cliché but in this case it is true; we will never see his like again. He are some of the many photos that I took of him performing Click on https://www.facebook.com/vic.smith.54/media_set?set=a.1955751357774587.1073741958.100000192240957&type=3&pnref=story