Performers that you never got to see

Subject: Performers that you never got to see
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 12:32 PM

While reading the "favourite performances" thread, I got to thinking, what I would give to have seen Leadbelly, even for one song. What a magical moment that would be for me. Or to be in that coffee house in 1650 (I forget the exact date) when the diarist Sam Pepys watched Mrs. Knepp sing "her new Scottish ballad about Barbary Ellen". Sheesh! My hair stands on end, just contemplating it. Or how about the first time that Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt appeared on the Opry stage with the young Earl Scruggs. Apparently Earl kicked into "Molly and Tenbrooks" and the audience went crazy. I would have too. Some others would have to have been Paul Robeson, banned from singing in the States, doing his concert from the border in Windsor, Canada....gotta stop now (or I won't be able to). Wouldn't mind knowing who others wished they had seen.

Rick

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: campfire
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 01:09 PM

Off the top of my head and thinking in terms of my own lifetime, I'll let my singer/songwriter tendencies show and admit that I wish I had seen Harry Chapin and/or Jim Croce before they died.

Dawn/campfire (getting to be too many Dawn's)

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 01:37 PM

Kate Wolf performed many, many times at the Palms Playhouse in Davis near my home in Sacramento, but I didn't find out about her until after she died. I didn't know about Steve Goodman when I lived in Southeastern Wisconsin, and it would have been so easy for me to go to see him. I went to Chicago all the time, but I never visited the Old Town School of Folk music or caught any of the folk music that Chicago had to offer.
Darn.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Barry Finn
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 02:30 PM

Joe just to do a switch here. I was at a session in San Francisco around 79 (maybe) in walks local girl guitar in one hand piper boyfriend in the other. She's playing & says can I try out this new song, can't remember for the life of me the song I was so knocked out by her abounding talents but I sure remembered Kate's name. From what I could gleam of her life at that time I don't she got dealt a very fair hand but God did she do well with what she had. Barry

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Barry Finn
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 02:34 PM

Sorry, maybe that last one should've been filed under "Performers that you never got to see again" (& kicked yourself for letting the chance slip by). Barry)

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 03:08 PM

My grandad and his dad. They both passed on before I was born, but judging from my dad, I would give anything to've known them and heard them sing and tell stories.

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: The Shambles
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 03:16 PM

Leadbelly.... If only I could I could have.

Jimi Hendrix..I could have done many times but didn't.

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Tiger
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 05:26 PM

One I just missed, kicking myself since, was Jimmy Rushing.

.....Tiger

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: campfire
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 05:35 PM

Joe, maybe I should put Steve Goodman on my list for the other thread. He was a treat.

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Margo
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 05:46 PM

I was a teenager, maybe 14. I had ridden my bicycle from our home in Moraga, California to Canyon, a nearby grove of redwood trees at the foot of the mountain between Moraga and Berkeley.

Canyon has one post office, a one-room school, and many "interesting homes" (built without buullding codes) tucked away in and amongst the redwoods. I was enjoying the sights and smells of the woods when suddenly motorcycle after motorcycle came streaming in followed by a number of old beat up vans.

I didn't know what was going on, and it frightened me (ohhhhh...motorcycle people!). I rode away for home without waiting around to see what was happening.

The next day at school, I heard the Country Joe and the Fish had had a jam in Canyon. Boy, did I feel dumb! But, in retrospect, I probably behaved well for a youngster, steering clear of what I thought might be dangerous.

Margie

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: John Hindsill
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 06:16 PM

Buffy Sainte-Marie appeared in Los Angeles in 1960/1. There were posters plastered all over UCLA. At that time I had not heard of her, so I passed on it. The very next week I heard the Universal Soldier for the first time. As I passed the still hanging posters I wanted to kick myself. To this very day I have never in person seen her.

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Mo
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 07:15 PM

Oh, Stan Rogers - gotta be...

Mo

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Tucker
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 08:15 PM

Kate Wolf and Stan Rogers

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 08:16 PM

I still have never seen Doc Watson (and will never see him with his son Merle). Oh, to have been aware enough to have managed to see him up close in a coffee house setting in the short time between Ralph Rinzler's discovery of him (thanks to Clarence White) and the national recognition he soon gained as perhaps the country's best singer/guitarist. --seed

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 08:44 PM

Hi seed, I was fortunate enough to chauffer Doc around a few times here in Toronto and hence get in free! Fill me in on the Ralph Rinzler/ Clarence White connection. Thought that Ralph discovered Doc much earlier than that.

p.s. really appreciate your postings. I think we're related!

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Big Mick
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 08:45 PM

Well, Seed, I gotcha on this one. I decided to go with a friend to see Doc Watson at the Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan. When we entered the hall, we just followed the line and sat where they stopped. We ended up sitting, literally at Doc's knee. I could have reached out and touched the man if I leaned forward. This was after Merle died and Doc was playing with Jack. One of the most amazing nights of my life. And to stay on topic, I wish that I could have seen him perform with Merle, up close just like that night so I could see Merle's face.

Mick

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 10:26 PM

I think BSeed meant Clarence (Tom) Ashley.

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: catspaw49
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 11:34 PM

This thread reminds me of a novelty song I know that goes,

"I'm much older than a lot of famous dead guys."
"Lot of famous dead guys never got to be as old as me."

Many have already been named and I too missed Steve Goodman, Leadbelly sure, Woody too, Kate Wolf and Stan Rogers certainly. I'd like to have known Lee Hays. I'm with Rick on the Monroe/Flatt/Scruggs thing...what a night! In that same vein, I'd have loved to see Hank Williams, they say he created magic in an audience, ate out of his hand. And on a first night theme, probably because I love both of them, that first night's performance of Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson. And how about the first night performance of "Silent Night?" And with the number of aging rockers on tour this summer, I think of Buddy Holly.........

This is the most depressing freakin' thread!!! Who started this turkey? Oh yeah...

catspaw

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Ronn
Date: 18 Apr 99 - 11:45 PM

W.A. Mozart, Charlie Christian, Robert Johnson, L. Von Beethoven, Richard Dyer-Bennett, E. Presley, Homer Haynes (I did get to see Jethro), Arthur Alexander, Hank Williams Sr., Billie Holiday

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 19 Apr 99 - 12:07 AM

Now cut that out "Catspaw"! Thinking and fantasizing about what it would have been like to be in those audiences is the stuff our dreams are made of. What I find depressing is going to see 2 "legendary" people (who would have been in that list had I been fortunate enough to miss them)and being confronted by a babbling drunk who started 2 hours late and almost pitched off his stool, and an equally babbling smack-head, who mumbled on about tarot cards and DID fall off his stool! I still love their records though.

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 19 Apr 99 - 12:13 AM

I wish I'd been singing along in that little church when Bosie Sturdivant recorded "Ain't no Grave Can Hold My Body Down" for the Library of Congress. God, what a performance! And I'm not even remotely religious.

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Mudjack
Date: 19 Apr 99 - 12:23 AM

WOW,I do wish I'd seen Bob Gibson and Fred Holstein, Townes Van Zant, Woody Guthrie and Paul Roberson I have to be thankful that years ago I decided to invest time and money in the great persuit of seeing folk artists live in concert. I have seen so many great ones and for that must say Thank You... Jack

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 19 Apr 99 - 11:05 AM

Muddy Waters played Toronto shortly before he died. I was busy doing something that seemed important at the time, wish I'd gone. I have seen almost everyone that I would have who were alive in my concert going days. I was eleven when Jimi Hendrix died, so I feel I missed him by about three or four years.

The list of performers I would have loved to see who died prior to my birth is too long to list, but I owuld have loved to be in the Missippi Delta in the Twenties and Thirties, Chicago in the 50's, Greenwich Village in the sixties and Bethel, New York in 69.

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: DocJohn
Date: 19 Apr 99 - 01:41 PM

Tampa Red, Howlin Wolf, Kokomo Arnold, Black Ace, Woody Guthrie, Merle Watson/Doc, Uncle Dave Macon (oh to be at the early opry), Bob Wills, Earnest Tubb, the ballad singers and musicians who came over on boats to the new world, not knowing what to expect but bringing their tunes with them, Elmore James, the lkist is endless.

John

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 19 Apr 99 - 01:57 PM

Hey, Rick: How would you like to have been in on the Bristol Sessions, listening to Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, and (for me, extremely important) Alfred G. Karnes. I would love to have been there when Karnes recorded "Called to the Foreign Field" and/or "I am Bound for the Promised Land." Very few performances, traditional or professional, could match those!

Sandy (still a heathen)

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Dale Rose
Date: 19 Apr 99 - 03:32 PM

Sandy, how could you listen to Alfred G. Karnes and not believe at least a little bit? He sure did. I would add Washington Phillips to my short list of gospel singers I wish I had been there to see. Also Ernest Phipps and The Browns Ferry Four. Oh, there's more, but that will certainly do for starters.

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Pete Peterson
Date: 19 Apr 99 - 03:34 PM

1) Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers 2) The Original Carter Family (and I'm so glad Janette and Joe are still here) 3) Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers (I did get to see Lowe Stokes and Bert Layne at Brandywine some time in the 80s) and lots of the other people the New Lost City Ramblers, to whom I am still grateful, learned from. . .

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Doctor John
Date: 19 Apr 99 - 03:56 PM

As a few have said - Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. I was lucky enough to have seen Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and Lee Hayes too. I'd loved to have been there when Woody, Cisco and Sonny were making those classic Asch recordings. Somebody I really regret missing was Cisco Houston: he came to Liverpool for only one evening to give a concert but I had to work that day to pay for my studies. Missing him at that time didn't worry me all that much as he was a young man and I guess he'd soon be back - how wrong I was. Dr John

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 19 Apr 99 - 05:09 PM

Dale, I think you've got a point there! Both Sandy and I profess to be unswayed by religion, and yet both of us love trad gospel music with an almost religious fervour. Something's going on there, I just don't think we know what it is. 'course no one else (actually) knows what it is either. Man, if I had to boil this thread down to seeing one artist...what an awful dilemma. But I have to say that after careful thought I'd be right next to Sandy in the studio (or hotel) watching Alfred Karnes sing "Called to the Foreign Field". The "big guy" (Sandy, not God) turned me on to him about five years ago, and nothing in that time has been as flat out "GOOD!" Washington Phillips was a revelation, but Rev. Karnes is a Sledgehammer!

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Dale Rose
Date: 19 Apr 99 - 05:49 PM

For those unlucky souls who have not heard the Reverend Mr. Karnes that Sandy, Rick, and I have been mentioning, go to The Music of Kentucky, Early American Rural Classics, volume 1 at tunes.com. (I hate to keep referring to a service which is not affiliated with the Mudcat, but the fact is, they consistently have more clips from more of our albums than the others do) Since the cuts are labeled Track 1, Track 2, etc, rather than by name, I will point out that Called To A Foreign Field is Track 1, and other cuts by Alfred Karnes are 7, 16, and 22. Ernest Phipps is represented by cuts 5, 10, 15, 20, and 24 on the same album, Yazoo 2013.

And here is I Am Born To Preach The Gospel, the complete Washington Phillips, also on Yazoo.

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 12:26 PM

Thanks Dale, I sure don't believe that you go to Hell if you're not a fundamentalist, but think you deserve to if you don't listen to Alfred Karnes!

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 12:35 PM

WOW !!!

...and what IS it about unwashed heathens loving gospel???

catspaw (unwashed heathen)

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 12:56 PM

Excuse me! I had a bath this morning.

The pull of Gospel music continues to amaze me. Years ago I remember seeing Bill Monroe doing a Sunday morning Gospel workshop at Berryville, and being SO angry with the hippies who were dancing in the dust in front of him. I felt outraged at the dis-respect and just plain stupidity. Sadly to this day I feel exactly the same way (I have evolved not a whit in my fury at people who chat through a musical performance). I've had to tell Heather in advance everytime we go out to see someone that I WON'T embarrass her by telling them to "Shut Up!" (or much worse)

I'm afraid that my ideal fantasy concert venue would be one in which "talkers" would be asked to leave immediately. Maybe I have evolved, I doubt if I would still have them SHOT!

Rick the intolerant.

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Doctor John
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 01:25 PM

Just turn those gospel songs into union songs - "The Lord" becomes "The Union" etc and wow! As Lee Hayes and others found out. Dr John

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 01:56 PM

AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!

Geez Rick, did you ever hit a nerve there!!!!! A quick comment at the beginning is cool, like "Oh great song" but anything past that KILLS ME!!! I thought maybe it was just the kids getting to me......also true for me of movies too....'cause it's nigh ass impossible to listen or watch anything without them interrupting. But I now remember all those small pleasant venues where I've been incredibly pissed over someone blathering away...and sometimes they are the people now called ex-friends who came along. Disrespectful of the artist and me too for chrissakes!

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!! Quick, get my pills, I'm havin' the big one!

catspaw

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 02:17 PM

As a charter member of the Washington Phillips fan club, I'd like to personally welcome Dale to our glorified ranks! I am always reminded of the "willing suspension of disbelief" line when I listen to him. Caroline and I even got a dolceola from an antique shop in Michigan in honor of the man's music. The action is a bit tough for her to handle and I don't know beans about keyboards, but it is playable. We're gonna get Andy Cohen to adjust it again whenever he comes down from his newfound state of total bliss (which is understandable).

Maybe we should start a thread about nominees for sainthood from the folk music ranks. Karnes, Phillips, Sturdivant, and Vera Hall might make a pretty good beginning.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Art Thieme
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 04:17 PM

I sing one song at a time,
I play one song at a time,
Leadbelly's dead,
Doc Watson is blind,
I sing one song at a time!

My choice for this thread, the one singer I really wish I'd heard (folks say he was pretty good) is Robin Hood's great friend and minstrel, Alan A-Dale.

Not that I'm feeling old now or anything, but I have seen and been friends with just about everybody mentioned here. Yes, it has been truly glorious. I also feel extremely lucky.

Art

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 05:53 PM

Art, I don't know how old you are , but did you meet Leadbelly or Woody or Cisco, and if so would you share some of your thoughts on those folks. Big Bill as well.

p.s. Your new package is on the way....rick

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 06:32 PM

I never got to hear Kilby Snow live...and I could have...

I would have LOVED to hear Jeannie Robertson...

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 06:35 PM

oh...and about 1963ish, Richard Dyer-Bennet was at a college near me, and for some reason I could not go...*sigh*...so I have collected most of his records

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Art Thieme
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 09:01 PM

Well, I exagerated a bit. Sorry. Never saw Woopdy or Cisco (unless TV counts--Cisco hosted FOLKSOUND U.S.A. on CBS TV back in the late 50's. But I do have a great slide/photo of Kilby Snow bein' backed up by the New Lost City Ramblers at the University of Chicago Folk Festival. I carried my camera everywhere I went & have some pretty amazing photographs---especially the Chicago scene. Some day I'll have to see if they still make a lamp/bulb for my projector... Ike Everly & Bill Monroe doin' a duet on stage at the same festival---Gary Davis at a party at Andy Cohen's house---Stan Rogers at Winnipeg---A slew of good shots of Steve Goodman at various New Years Eves at WFMT radio in Chi. Just am glad I was there...

Art

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: bbelle
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 09:15 PM

Phil Ochs, Tim Hardin, Tom Paxton ... and the list goes on. BTW ... speaking of gospel music ... this Jewish hippie chick loves hearing it and singing it. Go figure ... moonchild

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 09:43 PM

somewhere, I have a slide of Libba Cotton sitting in Hazel Dickens lap with Roscoe Holcomb walking by...(Smitsonian Folk Festival about 1974)...I wonder if it is considered proper to post things like that from public events?..I have a number of things from that era..(and before.)

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 10:58 PM

Bill, I'm sure that if you've taken pictures at any event where photography is not forbidden, it's perfectly legal and proper to publish the photographs. Do it! Of course I may be shooting from the lip again as I was when I said Clarence White insisted on bringing Doc Watson along to be taped by Rinzler--it was, of course, Clarence Ashley. --seed

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 11:26 PM

Caroline and I, with our then six-month old son David, stayed with Jeannie Robertson for a week in September, 1958. It was truly one of the major events of our lives. I have a photo, staged by the photographer from some newspaper, of me playing a button-box and Jeannie singing at the Edinborough Festival that year. Totally hokum; I never did learn to play more than a couple of tunes on the damn thing and would cheerfully have throttled anyone who forced Jeannie to sing to an accompaniment (including the producers of her first recording!). Taped some superb ballads from Jeannie during that week with her in Aberdeen, a couple of which will soon find there way onto CD. Hang in there, Bill D.

Moonchild: Some Jewish friend of Helen Schneyer asked her "Why do you sing all of those primitive Christian gospel songs? You're Jewish!" Helen responded, "I look at them as love songs." That may explain their attraction for we heathens who also love them. That and the fact that they're so great as group songs to share with friends.>

Sandy

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 21 Apr 99 - 08:53 AM

Funny story... at least for me. Years ago, my friends and I ran a folk club at The Eagle Tavern in NYC. We sang and played every week and had a guest - usually solo performers but sometimes groups - most of the time. I had a day job in the airline business and could travel cheaply. It was vacation time so I decided a week in Paris would be very nice.

About this time, I received something from an agent about Stan Rogers. Our club was on a Wednesday night - a bit tough for getting a crowd sometimes - and I had reservations about booking a group which required a guarantee but I figured, since the house band would not be around, we had to do something special. I also asked Fr. Charlie Coen to play and sing for us because I wanted to keep the continuity of Irish music.

Had a great time in Paris. Rode the Metro, strolled the boulevards, etc. I loved Paris; my girlfriend loved me and proved it all the time. Paris just got to the girl inside her.

We came home. I went to the Eagle the following Wednesday, told everybody about the trip and heard all about the previous week. It was great; Stan Rogers was great; Fr. Charlie was great; great, great, great!

"Great," I thought.

"You the kitty $75," the others said, "the weather was lousy and hardly anybody came."

I never did get to hear and see Stan Rogers but there has been a bond foreverafter between us.

All the best,
Dan

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Wolfgang
Date: 21 Apr 99 - 12:01 PM

though my greatest love is folk music, the singer I'd like to have listened to when she was still alive stands for another type of music:
Edith Piaf

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Sophie
Date: 21 Apr 99 - 12:02 PM

Wish I could see both Planxty and Silly Wizard as whole bands. Wish I could have heard Tommy Potts play, although I haven't a clue whether ever he did many gigs.

*Wistful sigh* Sophie

Subject: RE: Performers that you never got to see
From: Pete Peterson
Date: 22 Apr 99 - 11:06 AM

Other wonderful Gospel singers-- Alfred Kearns as other people have said How come nobody's mentioned Joseph Spence? WOW