Folk singers with longest career

Subject: RE: Folk singers with longest career
From: Rog Peek
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 03:11 PM

Tom Paxton has to be up there, 70 years of age and still touring.

Rog

Subject: RE: Folk singers with longest career
From: Newport Boy
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 03:05 PM

And there's also Phil Tanner. He was almost certainly singing publicly well before he appeared before the Royal Commission on Land in Wales & Monmouthshire in 1893, and continued until very shortly before his death in 1950.

Phil

Subject: RE: Folk singers with longest career
From: theballadeer
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 03:01 PM

Liam Clancy - 51 years and counting...

Subject: RE: Folk singers with longest career
From: gnomad
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 02:16 PM

How about the late Bob Copper? His involvement seems to have been from around 1930s, and lasted to his death in 2004, aged 89.

Subject: RE: Folk singers with longest career
From: Little Robyn
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 01:30 PM

Other members of the Weavers have been performing almost as long as Pete - Ronnie Gilbert, Fred Hellerman, Erik Darling and also Frank Hamilton who is lurking around here somewhere.
Hi Frank.
And then Pete's siblings must be catching up too.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Folk singers with longest career
From: Rasener
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 01:11 PM

Brian Dawson maybe from Lincolnshire

Subject: RE: Folk singers with longest career
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 01:05 PM

Colin Wilkie was already well established when I started going to clubs in the 60's and still seems to be going strong in Germany.

He recently became one of my "myspace" friends, bringing back plenty of memories.

Subject: RE: Folk singers with longest career
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 01:04 PM

Our own Kytrad (Jean Ritchie) has been performing for going on 60 years, and that's after she moved North. Doc Watson has probably been performing for close to that long.

Dan Schatz

Subject: RE: Folk singers with longest career
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 12:58 PM

Johnny Silvo?

Subject: RE: Folk singers with longest career
From: Folkiedave
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 12:58 PM

Nice one Les - though as will soon be revealed (my lips are sealed for a few more days) this was based on personal experience.

Subject: RE: Folk singers with longest career
From: pdq
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 12:55 PM

Bascom Lamar Lunsford lived to be 90 or more and spent his whole adult life collecting and playing folk music. He was as important as anyone in preserving American folk music, which he did for over 70 years.

Subject: RE: Folk singers with longest career
From: Rasener
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 12:53 PM

Surely nobody can compete with your answers FolkieDave, with all your knowledgeable books :-)

Subject: RE: Folk singers with longest career
From: Folkiedave
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 12:43 PM

Martin was 17 when he first saw his "muse" Sam Larner in 1959.

Can I offer instead Jim Kroh? Jim is a singer with the Glenrock Carolers http://www.glenrockcarolers.org/ and has sung every Christmas (except for the war years when he missed a couple of occasions because he was abroad) since 1935.

Of course he hasn't done as many gigs as the others - just one spot a year. On the other hand they don't walk 8 miles during each gig!!

Subject: RE: Folk singers with longest career
From: The Sandman
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 12:34 PM

CyrilTawney 50 years,Martin Carthy 47? years.

Subject: Folk singers with longest active career
From: Leadbelly
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 12:26 PM

Hi,

productive careers of folk singers are mostly limited because of many reasons.
My answer to this thread might be, although not being comletely sure about this, that Pete Seeger is the one and only. He started in 1940 together with the Almanac Singers ( Woody Guthrie and others)and is active now for more than 60 years.

Any other ideas? Please concentrate on folk. Blues might be another cup of tea.