Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)

Subject: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 02:38 AM

Paul Stamler reports news on Sandy: "I've received a phone message tonight from Marge at Pinewoods, telling me that Sandy Paton has passed. I have no more information than that, but Marge asked that I pass the news to the list, so here it is. I'll pass on further news as I receive it. Rest in peace, friend.
Peace,
Paul"

Jon Bartlett

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: My guru always said
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 02:49 AM

Oh no, so sorry to hear this, sending my condolences!

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: DebC
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 02:52 AM

I have no words, just sad tears right now. My thoughts are with Caroline and all the Paton family.

Debra Cowan

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: jeannemcd
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 02:55 AM

Bob (Z.) and I got the news from an email from Lynn Burnstine this evening. Bob is heartbroken. He will post something later on. Our love and prayers to everyone who shares in this loss.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Ebbie
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 03:06 AM

Oh, I'm so sad. I was hoping to one day meet him and Caroline. Condolences to his family and all of his friends.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Anne Lister
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 03:11 AM

I'm so sorry to hear this. Lost for words, and sending sympathy to his family.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 03:28 AM

How sad, especially after the tragic loss of their grandchild only weeks ago.

Another member of the Heavenly Folk Club.

Condolences to everyone affected by this sadness.

Blessings
Rhiannon and Mick

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: stallion
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 03:29 AM

Oh dear....only yesterday Sandy was in and out of Ken, Barry and Deb's conversations about their music at the seafest, if they haven't had enough. I have never met the Paton's, this place has brought me in touch with so many beautiful people and some, some, I haven't had time to meet, and it is too late. I know a lot of your friends will be devastated, I know them, i know them and I know it is little consolation to know that Caroline has many wonderful friends to help. Ken will be on his way home this morning. I think I am rambling now.
I am so sad for all the family and all Sandy's friends.
Hugs through the ether to all of you
Peter

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: bill\sables
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 03:30 AM

Very sad news indeed, Sandy was one of the best. It was a privilege to have known him. Condolences to Caroline.
Bill & Lorna Sables

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Tradsinger
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 03:41 AM

I only met him once but he and Caroline were kind enough to put me up as a wandering minstrel for several days and shower kindness on me. A real gentleman and a scholar. Condolences to all the family. RIP Sandy.

Gwilym

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: KT
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 03:45 AM

I am so very sorry to hear this. My heartfelt condolences to Caroline and all who have known and loved Sandy. And that is many, many people. I did not know him well, but I know that he helped countless people find the gift of music within. Rest in peace, Sandy, and may the heavenly choirs greet you.   KT

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 03:47 AM

Oh, Sandy, I'll miss you. This is the worst news I could ever dream of reading here. He was a good friend and teacher.
My heart goes out to you, Caroline. He was a magnificent man, and I'm glad I had the privilege of knowing him.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: jacqui.c
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 03:51 AM

Can't get my thoughts together right now. What a loss.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Stewie
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 04:00 AM

Very sad news. My condolences to his family.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 04:16 AM

Sad News, condolences to his family.

Khatt

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 04:36 AM

Very sad news, I only knew him from Mudcat & e-mails re:CDs etc, but he always seemed a real gent., and, of course, part of US folk history. He'll be much missed here and in the wider folk world, condolences to Caroline & family.

RtS

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: fat B****rd
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 04:39 AM

My condolences and kind thoughts to his family and friends.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Micca
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 05:32 AM

What a sad piece of news, I only met Sandy once at my very first Getaway and could hardly say I knew him,but I know a lot of people who had the greatest respect and admiration for him and his work so I know he will be very much missed.
My deepest regrets and condolences to Caroline and his family.
How tragic within a few weeks we lost two such colossi of folk music one each side of the Water, Johnny and Sandy

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: maeve
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 05:38 AM

No more sorrow, no more pain. He was loved by so many. I am grateful for the few chats we had. This is a great loss. Love to Caroline and the family.

maeve

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Joybell
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 05:55 AM

So sad. My thoughts to family and friends too.
Joy

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: catspaw49
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 06:06 AM

There are so many things I want to say...........and I can't seem to put any of them together right now. Others will have more and better......his life was so full and his impact so great.........The world owes him, the folk community owes him, Mudcat owes him, and I owe him.

I will never forget a line he wrote back in '99 when I was extremely ill. He, like so many others, rallied round and it surprised everyone I think at what a place Mudcat was becoming. He wrote, "My God, I've tears in my eyes for a man I've never met. This is what is meant by "community."

Indeed. And today my eyes are filled with tears as well.

Much Love to Caroline and the entire Paton family who have endured so much these past months. Thanks for sharing Sandy with us.


Pat

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: kendall
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 06:28 AM

I just learned about this when I got up at 5:30 am.
The loss to all of us Folkie is devastating, the loss of an old, dear friend is without measure.
I liked Sandy from day one when I met him and Caroline at the Hartford
Folk Festival back in 1973.He is among my oldest best friends; and I now have two left.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: John Minear
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 06:36 AM

Sandy Paton's folk legacy will live on, and his contributions to our world, for a long, long time have been enormous. And he was the heart and soul of all of that. To think of all the lives that he and Caroline have touched over so many years one only has to look at the current or past Folk Legacy catalogs and then imagine all of those people who have listened over and over to these precious recordings. His work was great and he is already sorely missed. His sense of history and of the people he worked with and for must have been immense to have captured for the rest of us what we have in his legacy. His was a life for which one can be truly grateful.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: nutty
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 06:47 AM

So sad to hear this news and send deepest sympathy to his wife and family. After the loss of a grandson, this really does seem too cruel.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 07:00 AM

One of the great blessings of going to Kaelan Paton's memorial service was that Ruth and I had a chance to visit with Sandy. It had been too long, and the visit was too short, but it meant a lot to us. It means much more, now. Last night, Barbara Carr posted an enigmatic message on Facebook that there was tragic news, without saying what it was. In my heart, I knew it was about Sandy passing.
It's hard to know how Caroline, David and Robin can deal with such a great loss so shortly after losing Kaelan, but I know they will. They are strong, good people. Most importantly, they are loved by many.

We send all our love and prayers.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: SINSULL
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 07:03 AM

I have no words to tell how sad I am.
Mary

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: momnopp
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 07:24 AM

My condolences and love to the Paton family.

JudyO/momnopp

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: gnu
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 07:32 AM

RIP

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 07:58 AM

I am so, so sorry. My prayers and thoughts are with Caroline and all your family this morning.

Looking out over a verdant, hot North Carolina morning, I am remembering a cold, cold evening in front of an unlit fireplace at Ramblewood, listening to Sandy and Kendall swap hobo songs, train songs, sad songs. Making each other tear up, no worries about tough and gruff; real men with real stories of real lives.

I didn't have the privilege many of you had to know him long and well, but that's how I thought of him, and looked up to him: a true man, and a gentleman through and through.

Sandy, when we meet again (When The Rolls Are Passed Up Yonder), I'll have that pot of greens ready for you, fatback and all.

Dani

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Suffet
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 08:16 AM

Sandy always had a kind word and a helping hand. Rest in peace, friend.

--- Steve & Marilyn Suffet

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Wolfgang
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 08:18 AM

Very sad news for the folk world.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Mary Katherine
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 08:22 AM

A great loss. I only "met" him via the web, but we had many interesting conversations and he always shed light on whatever the subject was. Anyone with any information about a memorial, please post it here if appropriate? And is the Folk-Legacy mailing address the place to send cards to Caroline?

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Deckman
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 08:23 AM

DAMN DAMN DAMN

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 08:26 AM

Wordless.

Prayers and gentle thoughts to Caroline and the rest of the family.

Linn

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 08:35 AM

We're all just passing through but Sandy certainly contributed a whole lot to our folk community while he was here, and that "legacy" will live on.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 08:38 AM

I've also got tears in my eyes for a man from this wonderful community who I never met.

condolences to Caroline & their other family members & friends.

sandra

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Max
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 08:38 AM

I was just talking about Sandy on Saturday. I was on the radio and realized that I was playing a more than usual amount of Folk Legacy recordings. I commented that that was OK because Sandy and Caroline were 2 of the finest people I've ever met and that if Sandy every said "I was born almost 10,000 years ago" that I would believe him.

Sandy etched himself in my memory and my heart soon after meeting him, over 10 years ago. I heard him sing "My Old Man", at the Getaway, with so much emotion that he nearly couldn't get through the song. I couldn't forget that if I tried.

I still cherish the Folk Legacy ball cap he gave me, which some may see as just a ball cap, but a small gift from such a big man is my treasure.

So long Sandy and much love Caroline. You have both made a profound impact on me and the things I care deeply for in this world.

Where my words fail me, you can always count on Rick Fielding:

"Sing with the Angels"

    I'm gonna sing with the angels
    When my time comes around
    This earth is just rehearsal
    For when I'm heaven bound
    I'll be well prepared to take my place
    with harmony and rhyme
    And sing with the angels when it's time.


"When We Gather Once More,"

    Be well, be safe, be kind, be strong
    For the times will test us sore
    And to gladden our hearts,
    Our bodies, our souls
    Oh, be here when we gather once more.
    Oh, be here when we gather once more.

    Now if I find a resting place
    Before I'm back this way
    Or if the road be just too long
    And my feet have turned to clay
    If from tonight you do recall
    Just one line from this song
    Then even if our roads do end,
    This song will travel on.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Tinker
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 08:42 AM

May the peace that passeth understanding surroud and sustain family and friends.....

tinker

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Jeri
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 08:42 AM

I thought he'd live forever. I thought he'd always be here. In some ways, he will, but it's not enough.

My love and condolences to Caroline, David, Robin and all his relations, and to his extended family of friends and those across the continent and the globe. He touched a lot of us.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: GUEST,Lynn Noel
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 08:57 AM

Linn Schultz just shared the sad news on Facebook and I gasped aloud. Words fail at such a time, but the Paton family are in all our hearts and prayers, doubly so now at this dark time.

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: bbc
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 09:05 AM

Good morning, folks,

We suspected that the news would filter out from Pinewoods first, since Sandy's granddaughter, Linnea, is working there this summer. Yesterday marked 40 days since Sandy & Caroline's grandson, Kaelan, drowned. Sandy had been deeply grieving, since that time. We had all been concerned about him, but it was unclear how much of his condition was emotional & how much was physical. Last week, with Kaelan's memorial & the burial of his remains past, Caroline felt that Sandy needed to see his doctor. I drove the two of them to the office on Thursday afternoon, July 23rd. Sandy was unusually fatigued & was having wide variations in his blood oxygen with any activity. As soon as he saw him, Sandy's doctor called for an ambulance to take his to nearby Sharon Hospital (Sharon, CT) for observation. Sandy was checked into a room, after being observed in Emergency, & Caroline was told they'd like to keep Sandy for a few days. If I am remembering correctly what Caroline told me, the hospital called Saturday evening & said that Sandy wasn't doing well & they didn't know if he'd make it through the night. The family was able to go to the hospital that evening & spend time with Sandy. During the night, Saturday, he lost consciousness. During the day, on Sunday, family was in & out. Duane & I visited for a couple of hours in the early afternoon & said our goodbyes. When we returned for a second visit at about 7 pm, not wanting Sandy to be alone, his sister-in-law, Linda, gave us the news that he had passed from this life about a half hour earlier, at 6:32 pm on Sunday, July 26, 2009. We waited for Caroline to come & stayed with the family until they left. Sandy died peacefully, with no heroics, just lightly breathing until he drew his last breath. The cause will probably be listed as congestive heart failure. My first thought, when I heard that he was gone, was happiness for him. In recent times, his life had become more & more of a burden to him. Because of his emphasema, he had to be connected to oxygen all the time. His movements & activities were limited. Changes in his voice meant that he was no longer able to sing &, sometimes, even to make himself easily heard. He was broken-hearted over Kaelan's death. I feel sure that Sandy was content to leave.

Now, we pick up the pieces of life without him. Caroline has her two sons & her sister, all of whom live locally. She, also, has Duane & me. Together, we will be giving personal support & helping to get Folk Legacy onto a new chapter. Your support is needed. Although I have more that I'd like to say, I'll end this, for now, to give you the basic information. Since phone is the only way Caroline can conduct business, I might suggest that you send condolences by mail, for now, to give us time to get up-to-date on the backlog of orders, due to Kaelan's death & Sandy's health. As is the family custom, Sandy's passing will be marked by a memorial gathering at some time in the future. Sing your songs for him, folks! A great man has passed.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 09:09 AM

I knew Sandy has not been well these last few years, and especially not in the last year. But somehow, still, this seems so sudden. And after all that the Paton family has been through, this loss seems like just too much.

Sandy did more than any other person to create the music that I have known and loved my entire life. I grew up, like others in my generation and after, on Folk Legacy records. Today, a significant portion of the albums in my LP collection are the familiar black sleeves with the photographs on front. Sandy gave us the music of Gordon Bok and Rosalie Sorrels and Bill Staines and Jonathan Eberhart and Helen Schneyer and Joe Hickerson and Cindy Kallet and Kendall Morse and Frank Proffitt and Hobart Smith and Archie Fisher and Ed Trickett and so many others. This is a monumental loss to the folk music community and to music at large.

As I child I used to be intimidated by Sandy, because I knew who he was and because he was big and had a booming voice - and as an adult I learned that he was one of the sweetest, kindest, most sensitive people you could ever meet. Just yesterday my two year old and I were singing one of his kids' songs.

I had always hoped to see Sandy and Caroline named National Heritage Fellows - they deserved it as much as any. I'm only sorry it never happened.

I am more sad than words can say.

Dan

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 09:12 AM

Oh, my. Meeting Sandy and Caroline when I was 10 was the seminal event that started my path in folk music. Love to Caroline and the family. Go well, good man.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 09:14 AM

And thank you, bbc for all you've been for them.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: bbc
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 09:16 AM

Oh, two things I meant to include on my previous post--If you didn't know Sandy personally, you might like to read a great bio
that Ron Olesko wrote, in honor of Sandy's birthday a couple of years ago. Also, I posted a picture of Sandy, taken at the Paton family reunion, on my flickr page yesterday. After listening to Folk Legacy recordings for years, Duane & I came to our personal relationship with the Patons through Mudcat. In the past 10 years or so, we have come, step by step, closer, until we feel like part of the Folk Legacy family. Many of you are children of Folk Legacy, too, & will be grieving the passing of this icon of traditional music.

with love,

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: bbc
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 09:26 AM

Please consider supporting Folk Legacy
with your business, if you can.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Alice
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 09:35 AM

I feel in shock to hear this sad news.
Barbara, thanks for all you do with your generous spirit.
My love to Caroline and all the family and friends.

Alice

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 09:35 AM

I only knew him from his body of work, which was considerable. That and the kind and loving remarks from those of you who did know him, not just now, but throughout our history here is enough for me.

Sandy was truly a giant in our music and life in general for that matter; I'll miss him and add him to my list of those I should have gotten to know better. His influence and legacy will continue, no question of that.

Dale

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Mark Ross
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 09:41 AM

I met The Patons in 1972 when Utah Phillips dragged me down to Sharon Connecticut to hear Jim Ringer record his 1st album. Spent 4 or 5 days there listening, drinking and teaching Ringer my song BILL PICKETT. Drank up a goodly amount of Sandys' single malt that weekend. It's a shame that too many good people have to go too soon. I always looked forward to seeing Sandy whenever I could make it to Old Songs. He will be missed. My condolences to Caroline and the rest of the family.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Janie
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 09:57 AM

My heartfelt condolences to Caroline and the family, including you bbc.

Janie

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: dwditty
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 10:13 AM

Blessings on a gentleman and a truely gentle man. Sad news, indeed.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 10:17 AM

I'm so, so sorry to hear this news.

I met Sandy and Caroline when they came up here to be part of the staff at The Woods Music and Dance Camp. I was in charge of merchandise that year, and they came loaded down with what seemed like their complete catalogue. I don't think we've ever had so many titles for sale in the boutique, up until then, or since! Needless to say, they "moved a lot of product" that week, as they say in the biz. I had my hands full managing it all, but they were gracious and patient with me (I think I must have been all of 17 or 18!).

It was also when Sandy and Caroline met Rick Fielding. I remember Sandy telling me that week that it had been years since he had been so impressed by a fellow musician. That meeting led to Rick subsequently recording for Folk Legacy Records, and, well, most of you know that that was a huge turning point in Rick's career.

After that, I didn't see them very often, but any time I ran into them at a festival, Sandy always wanted to talk, find out how things were going, and generally shoot the breeze. Customers would come and go from their sales tent, and we'd still be chatting away, sometimes for up to an hour. He was quick to introduce me to other friends who stopped by, and he made me feel like part of the clan. Sandy's attention and respect meant lot to me as a "youngster" on the scene.

I will miss them dearly, even though we weren't in regular contact. RIP Sandy, I know there must be quite a good sing going on up there.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Barbara
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 10:18 AM

Oh no!
Say it ain't so!
I met Sandy here, and here is where I knew him and Caroline, and, God, I'm gonna miss him.

...more later when I can...
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 10:19 AM

RIP! My sympathy to his family! Long live his legacy!

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Maryrrf
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 10:28 AM

I did not know him personally, only through his reputation and throught his posts on Mudcat. His passing is a great loss. I'd like to add my condolences to his family.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: bbc
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 10:31 AM

The mailing address is as follows:

Caroline Paton
P.O. Box 1148
Sharon, CT 06069

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Brian Peters
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 10:43 AM

I'd been aware of the riches of the Folk Legacy catalogue for many years, so it was a thrill to have met Sandy and Caroline at Old Songs on more than one occasion. Like Eve, I was flattered by the interest he took in my music.

A man of huge achievements, and delightful in person, Sandy's is a truly sad loss, but his contribution will never be forgotten.
My best wishes to Caroline.
Brian

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 10:46 AM

Wish I had the opportunity to meet Sandy. He sounds a stellar individual.

The Paton family continue in my thoughts.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 10:56 AM

Sniff...

Never met him but having just read all of the lovely posts here about his life he must have been one heck of a man...

RIP, Sandy and my condolences to his family and his many friends here and eleswhere...

Bobert

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Anglo
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 11:04 AM

Sadly, I couldn't get to Kaelan Paton's memorial, where I would have seen Sandy one last time. I knew he was grieving Kaelan's loss, but certainly didn't see this coming. It is a great loss to so many different parts of the folk community in particular, and indeed to anyone his life has touched.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: bbc
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 11:08 AM

John,

In some sense, Duane & I have felt that we represented Sandy & Caroline as we worked at the Folk Legacy booth the past 2 years at NEFFA & Old Songs. We conveyed everyone's love & good wishes to them. I know that Sandy & Caroline have felt supported by the folk music community. Just continue to extend your love to Caroline as you are able.

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 11:08 AM

my deepest cndolences to Caroline and the family
How sad to lose Sandy!
He made so many contributions to the folk world.
A folklorist and field recorder, a vast knowledge of song, generously shared,
Folk-Legacy records the source of important traditional and folk-revival recordings,
always encouraging the projects of others,
and through his and Carolines singing at many folk events.

I've cobbled together a chronology from web
sources, far from complete, but perhaps of
interest:


Charles Alexander (Sandy) Paton
b.1929 Florida
d.26 July 2009
father regular army man
Ohio, Kansas, Seattle (5 years)
1950 left "home"   NY trained as actor
1952 interest in Folk Music through Warren Povey
1954 left acting for folk singing
1955 Park Lane Hotel, Toledo; Plantation Inn
Spring 57 Saturday night folk radio show in SF
Sept 57 UCB concert
appeared with Walt Robertson, Paul Clayton, Richard Chase
met Caroline
Nov 1957 to England
1958 London
performed at Folksong Unlimited, Troubadour Coffee House, Eel Pie Island
travelled Britain, Scottish Highlands
1960 Chicago added folkmusic to record department at Krock's and Brentano's bookstore
1961 formed Folk-Legacy Records with LEE BAKER HAGGERTY(1930-2000)

AWARDS - Sandy and Caroline Paton have been honored by:
the California Traditional Music Society,
the Memphis Dulcimer Festival,
the Eisteddfod Festival of Traditional Arts in Massachusetts,
and others.
1993 Connecticut Commission on the Arts "official State Troubadours"


RECORDINGS of Sandy Paton/Sandy and Caroine Paton
-------------------------------------------------

Jazz Collector JEA.1 American Folk Songs Vol.1
liner notes: Colin Pomroy
Sandy Paton Sings (vocal and guitar)
A1 East Virginia Blues
A2 Rovin' Gambler
B1 Every Night When The Sun Goes In
B2 Cool Colorado

   
Collector Records JEA 2 Sandy Paton sings American Folk Songs Vol.2
Recorded, London, September 29th 1958
recording engineer Stanhope Blaikley
Supervision by Colin Pomroy
liner notes: Paul carter
A1 Captain Wedderburn's Courtship
A2 Wife of Ushers Well
B1 Twa Sisters
B2 The Farmer's Cursed Wife


Collector JEA 3 Sandy Paton Folk Songs of Love
Alberta
At The Foot Of Yonders Mount
Colorado Trail
Cuckoo


Elektra 148 The many sides of Sandy Paton (1958)
additional guitar accompaniments by Fred Hellerman
liner notes: Robert Sherman
song notes: Kenneth S. Goldstein
insert booklet song texts
Production supervisor, Jac Holzman
Engineer, David B. Jones
A1 Captian Wedderburn's Courtship
A2 The Wee Magic Stane
A3 Katy Cruel
A4 An Auld Man
A5 The Overgate
A6 Twa Heids
A7 Auld Maid in a Garret
A8 Wee Croodlin' Doo

B1 Daily Growing
B2 Byker Hill
B3 The Foggy Dew
B4 Coming Home From the Wake
B5 Wild Mountain Thyme
B6 The Begging Tongue
B7 I Never Go To Work
B8 Children's Songs

Elektra EKL 223 A Treasury of Folk Songs for Children: Various Artists - 1962
Production: Jac Holzman
Side 1 - Fun Songs
1A10 Sandy Paton: I Never Go To Work
1A11 Sandy Paton: Street Songs

Elektra SMP 6 The Folk Scene: Various Artists
- Sandy Paton: Daily Growing


Topic TOP 57 Hush Little Baby - Sandy and Caroline Paton   (p)1960
American songs and ballads sung as lullabies
sleeve by Brian Byfield, insert notes
"During Sandy and Caroline Paton's stay in Britain their first child was born.
On this record the Patons sing some of the songs that young David Paton liked."
A1 Perrie Merrie Dixi Domini
A2 Katy Cruel
A3 The Quaker Courtship
B1 Hush Little Baby
B2 Lord Bateman
B3 Tittery Nan Tum Tario


Droll Yankees DY-9 NEVER TRUST A SKIER Sandy Paton    1961
in the Alpen Inn, Sugarbush Valley, Vermont.
A1 Bend in his Knees
A2 Farmer's Cursed Wife
A3 The Great American Bum
A4 The Ballad of Dr.Freud
A5 Hi-Ro-Jerum
A6 Fire Down Below

B1 The Goddam Cat
B2 Go 'Way, Old Man, Go 'Way
B3 Duncan and Brady
B4 Never Trust A Skier
B5 Go 'Way From My Window
B6 Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies
B7 Gamblin' Man


Biograph BLP-12051 Fox Hollow 10th Anniversary, Vol.1       LP (1975)
-Wild Mountain Thyme [1966]


Folk-Legacy 30 Sandy and Caroline Paton
Across the Blue Mountain
Chillly Winds
Coulter's Candy
Foggy Dew, The
Good Old Days of Adam and Eve
I Woke Up In a Dry Bed
I'm A Rambler and a Gambler
I've Traveled This Country
Johnny, Oh, Johnny
Lamoile River Song, The
Loving Hannah
Meekins and Morkins
Now My Friends, the Meeting Is Over
Rivers of Texas, The
Unquiet Grave, The


Folk-Legacy 52 - Sandy and Caroline Paton - I've Got a Song
Aiken Drum
Bump-A-Deedle
By 'M By
Come Along John
Hey Little Boy
I Know A Little Blue-Eyed Baby
I Live in a Great Big Building
I've Got a Song
James, James
Little Johnny Brown
Magic Penny
Mama Lend Me Your Pigeon
Move Over
Opposite Song
This Is a Song
Watch the Stars
You Can't Make a Turtle Come Out


Folk-Legacy 100 Sandy and Caroline Paton - New Harmony
All Gone For Grog
Didn't I Dance
Great Storm Is Over, The
Hori Horo
I Have Seen My Valley
Joshuay
Log Driver's Waltz
May the Roads Rise With You
New Harmony
Rambling Man
Roustabout Song
Rowdy Soul


Folk-Legacy 1002 Sandy and Caroline Paton - When the Spirit Says Sing
Apples and Bananas
Chickens They Are Crowing
Comet
Cousin Emmy's Blues
Dig a Geoduck
Farmer's Curst Wife
Flea Fly
Froggie
Geoduck Reprise
Julian of Norwich
One Bottle Pop
Peace Like a River
Peanut Butter Jam
Peanut Butter Jam
River, Take Me Along
Rubber Blubber Whale
Skin and Bones
Underwears
Vine and Fig Tree
Waltzing With Bears
When the Spirit Says Sing



RECORDINGS by Sandy Paton
-------------------------

Folkways FA2360 Frank Profitt (Edited by Frank Warner) 1962
A1 Beaver Dam Road      1:26
A2 Cindy                2:16
A3 Bo Lamkin            4:08
A4 Julie Jenkins       1:46
A5 George Collins       2:24
A6 Ninety and Nine      3:23
A7 Down in the Valley   2:46
B1 Baby-O               1:37
B2 Old Abe             3:31
B3 Poor Ellen Smith    1:50
B4 Dan Doo             1:55
B5 John Hardy          2:27
B6 Ground Hog          1:56
B7 Johnson Boys         1:46


Folkways FA2362 Horton Barker 1962
A1 Wayfaring Stranger                3:56
A2 Wondrous Love                      4:26
A3 The Gypsy's Wedding Day            2:56
A4 The Miller's Will                  3:16
A5 Amazing Grace                      4:20
A6 Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender      4:29
A7 Bow and Balance                   5:26
B1 At the Foot of Yonders Mountain    2:00
B2 The Turkish Rebilee                4:41
B3 Blue-Haired Jimmy                  2:12
B4 The Drunkard's Courtship          1:47
B5 The Farmer's Curst Wife            3:07
B6 There Was an Old Lady             2:22
B7 Rolly Trudum                      2:40
B8 City Four Square                   4:14
B9 Devilish Mary                      2:16
B10 Hop, Old Rabbit, Hop               1:23
B11 Sweet Mary                         1:41
B12 Paddy Doyle                        1:51


New World Records NW-239/80239 BRAVE BOYS - New England Traditions in Folk Music
Produced and recorded in the field by Sandy Paton (p)1977/1995
Featuring recordings of Gail Stoddard Storm, Lewis Lund, Ben Mandel, Gale Huntington, Sara Cleveland, Lawrence Older, Mrs. Morris Austin, Harvey Tolman, the Van Arsdales, and many others
booklet with historical text by Sandy Paton, plus information on the recordings artists, each song and the lyrics. Released 1977.


Folk-Legacy CD-1 Frank Proffitt of Reese, NC
Bonnie James Campbell
Cluck Old Hen
Going Across the Mountain
Gyps of David
Handsome Molly
I'll Never Get Drunk No More
I'm Going Back to North Carolina
Lord Randall
Moonshine
Morning Fair
Reuben Train
Rye Whiskey
Song of a Lost Hunter or Love Henr
Sourwood Mountain
Tom Dooley (Dula)
Trifling Woman
Wild Bill Jones


Folk-Legacy CD-36 Frank Proffitt - Memorial Album
Blackberry Wine
Everybody's Got to Be Tried
Got No Sugar Baby Now
I'm A Long Time Traveling Here Bel
Little Birdie
Little White Robe
Lord Lovell
Man of Constant Sorrow
Oh, Lord, What a Morning
Poor Man
Poor Soldier
Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down
Shake Hands With Mother Again
Shulls Mills
Single Girl
Will the Circle Be Unbroken?


Folk Legacy CD 125 Ballads and Songs of Tradition
1. Cutty's Wedding - Jeannie Robertson, Aberdeen, Scotland.
    Recorded in Edinburgh by Hamish Henderson with Sandy Paton, September, 1958;
2. Gyps of David (Child 200) - Frank Proffitt, Reese, NC.
    Recorded by Sandy Paton, September, 1961;
3. Gypsy Davy (Child 200) - Lawrence Older, Middle Grove, NY.
    Recorded by Sandy Paton, 1964;
4. Are You Sleeping, Maggie - Jeannie Robertson, Aberdeen, Scotland.
    Recorded by Hamish Henderson with Sandy Paton, September, 1958;
5. Hind Horn (Child 17) - Joe Estey, New Brunswick, Canada.
    Recorded by Lee Haggerty and Henry Felt, August, 1963;
6. My Bonny Boy (Laws 0 35) - Lizzie Higgins, Aberdeen, Scotland.
    Recorded in Aberdeen, Scotland, by Sandy Paton with Hamish Henderson, September, 1958;
7. Bonny James Campbell (Child 210) - Frank Proffitt, Reese, NC.
    Recorded by Sandy Paton, September, 1961;
8. The House Carpenter (Child 243) - Lee Monroe Presnell, Beech Mountain, NC.
    Recorded by Diane Hamilton, Paul Clayton and Liam Clancy, 1956;
9. The House Carpenter (Child 243) - Dave Thompson, Sugar Grove, NC.
    Recorded by Lee Haggerty and Henry Felt, 1963;
10. Twa Brothers (Child 49) - Jeannie Robertson, Aberdeen, Scotland.
    Recorded in Edinburgh by Hamish Henderson with Sandy Paton, September, 1958;
11. The Jolly Tinker (Laws L 13) - James Brown, New Brunswick, Canada.
    Recorded by Sandy Paton with Dr. Edward Ives, August, 1962;
12. Tom Sherman's Barroom (Laws B 1) - Vern Smelser, Paoli, IN.
    Recorded by Pat Dunford and Lee Haggerty, 1963;
13. Lost Jimmy Whalen (Laws C 8) - Marie Hare, Strathadam, New Brunswick, Canada.
    Recorded by Sandy Paton, 1962;
14. I'll Get Married A-Sunday - William Harrison Burnett, Fayetteville, AR.
    Recorded by Sandy Paton, 1962;
15. The Bunch of Watercresses - Joe Estey, New Brunswick, Canada.
    Recorded by Lee Haggerty and Henry Felt, August, 1963;
16. The Overgate - Jeannie Robertson, Aberdeen, Scotland.
    Recorded in Edinburgh, Scotland, by Hamish Henderson with Sandy Paton, September, 1958;
17. The Young Man who Wouldn't Hoe Corn (Laws H 13) -Vern Smelser, Paoli, IN.
    Recorded by Pat Dunford and Lee Haggerty, 1963;
18. Sweet Sixteen - William Harrison Burnett, Fayetteville, AR.
    Recorded by Sandy Paton, December, 1962;
19. He Never Came Back - Mrs Miner (Harriet Hall) Griffin, Fayetteville, AR.
    Recorded by Sandy Paton, 1962;
20. The Old Arm Chair - Lee Monroe Presnell, Beech Mountain, NC.
    Recorded by Diane Hamilton, Paul Clayton and Liam Clancy, 1956;
21. The Old Arm Chair - Grant Rogers, Walton, NY.
    Recorded by Sandy Paton, 1964

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Big Mick
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 11:24 AM

This really hits hard. Like so many here, I love this man, and his influence on me musically is beyond what can be measured. Not only from his product, but from his great heart and caring way. I remember once, at a Getaway, when I was helping with the Folk Legacy table, and Sandy and I were sitting together. I was singing Gypsy Davy, and Sandy told me that I reminded him of Frank Profitt. What a moment. Of course, I am not a Frank Profitt, but that was just this gentle man's way of embracing and encouraging. I remember the first Getaway that Mudcatters started going to, as Mudcatters. Jeri, Barry, myself, Kath Westra, Duane, Beebs (Spaw and I can call her that), and others, ..... we had a Mudcat hello session, and I sang "Rare Old Times". Sandy just made me feel so comfortable. That was the weekend he told me that I had to hear Rick Fielding's music.

Sandy, Caroline, and I had a tradition. Whenever we were in the same area, we would meet at the local Cracker Barrel restaraunt and eat eggs and chicken fried steak. It started after our first Getaway. I remember once when they called me from the road. They were playing gigs in Indiana (and visiting Caroline's family in Gary), and decided to swing up on I94 and meet me at the Cracker Barrel near Kalamazoo. We laughed, talked, adjourned to the rockers out front and sang songs. This continued whenever we were together and a Cracker Barrel was near. And as time went on, it involved other Mudcatters that were there as well. Kind of neat when the bunch of us sit out front in a song circle in those rockers. And it started with Sandy.

A few years back I had one of the greatest thrills. I was going to a folk festival near Sharon, but needed a place to sleep. The Paton's put us up, and I got to sleep in THAT ROOM. Actually, "sleep in" is not accurate. Because this room is floor to ceiling, and every wall, nook, and cranny, filled with books. Music books, history books, it is a paradise for a guy like me. You don't really sleep in that room, you start to browse, and hours later you doze off and wake up in the morning with a book laying on your face. You pick it up and start reading again.

Because of the Paton's, I got to know Ed Trickett. Ed gave me a song to record that is still regarded as one of the great Famine songs out there. Ed's singing has influenced my own mightily. And I owe that to Sandy.

I could go on and on. This man's influence was that big on me. He embraced me with love and respect, and I sent it right back. And the amazing thing is that he did the same for so many others, many who post here, that his voice will never die. Generations will be affected and influenced by his work, and by his love. As for me, I don't know how to describe the gratitude that I feel for what has been done for me.

A couple of things. Kath Westra, you introduced me to Sandy and Caroline, and I love you for doing it. You are a part of their "chosen family", so I know this hits hard. Every time I hear you tell me how the Patons "rescued you from the Calvinists, I chuckle. I also love you because you are a great heart, and have quickly become my great friend. I know this hits you hard, as the Patons were surrogate parents for you.

Beebs (me and Spawzer can call you that), the things you have always done to help the Patons are acknowledged with gratitude from me.

karenk, chin up. You are another of the Paton's "chosen family". The pain leaves and the memories remain.

I talked with Caroline this morning. To say she is a remarkable woman is to finally master the art of understatement. Her, Rob, and Dave are pulling together and getting things in order. This is a strong family, and they are committed to keeping our beloved Folk Legacy together and moving into the future.

I love you, Grandpa Paton, and I will sing your song here until we meet up at the next song circle we are at together.

Love,

Mick

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 11:26 AM

This news is way too sad. I'm crying at work again. I met Sandy and Caroline at a Folk Alliance conference. We were in a song circle and was truly enjoying sharing baritone parts with Sandy. He was very encouraging. I later met them at a few Getaways, but that seems years ago. I had not seen many Sandy posts here at Mudcat and began to suspect he was not well. Then I read of his recent loss. From bbc's post it sounds like Sandy may have decided it was time, as I believe some people do. He had such a kind and helpful heart that I know he is in a better place. My condolences to his family.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Severn
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 11:35 AM

A very sad day for the music and for all who knew him. My thoughts are with the family and all his many friends who will be mourning his loss.

We used to correspond on another site years ago and he helped me out on a few things from finding Civil War era songs (I was a re-enactor back then) to obtaining missing booklets for Folk-Legacy recordings I'd purcased used. His good conversation and generosity were greatly valued. I finally got to meet him at a Washington DC area appearence and he was as gracious in person as he'd been in print.

And, of course, anything on Folk Legacy could be purchased sight unseen/sound unheard and would be pretty much guaranteed not to disappoint. How many labels with that many recordings could say THAT about. A quality human being putting out a quality body of music, who himself sang a quality body of music in a way that was delightful to hear. A man to be revered for his accomplishments, his loss is tremendous.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: GUEST,Patricia
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 11:37 AM

My heart hurts - for the family, for the loss to those of us still "here", for the sadness, though I am glad that he is not suffering any longer. I treasure the times that I got to spend time with him and Caroline (mostly at NOMAD and other festivals). What a special person.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: DonMeixner
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 11:37 AM

One of the great momments at each Old Songs event I attended was the conversations with Sandy. I amparticularly reminded of his story of Grant Rogers funeral.
    Grant was a great story teller, fiddler, singer, song writer and historian from the Catskills. And he was one of many people Sandy had the pleasure to record and come to know at Folk Legacy. At Grant's funeral, with a room full of musicians for what ever reason there was no music at Grant's funeral.
    Sandy was obviously sad for his friend Grant as he told me the story and he said with a smile to me, "I know there will be music at mine."
   I remember I said, "Mine too, Sandy."

My condolences to his family, especially to Caroline, and to us all, we will miss him.

Don Meixner

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 11:45 AM

When I first began posting here in 1999, Sandy was a familiar presence. His posts were remarkable for their friendly and knowledgeable quality, and it was evident that he was the subject of much deference and respect. As time went by, I learned more about Sandy and Caroline and their work in Folk and Traditional music. I spoke with Sandy only twice, once when ordering some disks from Folk Legacy. And he seemed excited and pleased to speak to me. I remember he said, after answering the phone, "Caroline, its Lonesome EJ!" The second time was when I made a remark to him in a thread that I felt later could be interpreted as an insult, and he responded "actually I didn't even see it. I would never be so thin-skinned as to get mad about that anyway."
A gentleman and a scholar, and one of the presences on Mudcat that gave the Mudcat Forum a significant weight of importance and genuineness.
My sincere condolences to Caroline.The world is a better place for Sandy having been in it.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: KathWestra
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 11:51 AM

Grieving the loss of a friend, mentor, musical inspiration, and one of the kindest and most loving human beings ever to walk the Earth. The world is far richer for Sandy's 80 years among us, and far sadder for his leaving. Sending love to Caroline, David, Rob, Marian, Linnea, Shannon, Juliana, Eric and Hannah--and to all of those who, like me, are mourning Sandy's passing today.

Sandy has been an important part of my life for many years. If it weren't for him and Caroline, I would not be the person I am, nor know any of you. Sandy and Caroline entered my life 38 years ago, when I was 17. They not only encouraged me, but made it possible for me to leave Michigan and relocate to the East coast in 1974. It was a life-changing and life-affirming move for me, and one for which I thanked Sandy again just a week ago.

Sandy was an incredible scholar of folklore and history, whose vast knowledge he shared eagerly with others. He referred to his large collection of books as "the university education I never had"--and what an education it was. Sandy was a fine and thoughtful writer, and we shared a delight in language and words, and still liked to reminisce over a particular game of "Dictionary" played in the Patons' living room one long-ago Thanksgiving.

And, as so many others have noted, Sandy's labor of love, Folk-Legacy, has touched so many--and in so many ways has been the rock on which our singing community has been built over the years. As I look at the list of songs I sing, so many were learned from Sandy and Caroline, or from the many, many singers whose music first came to me via those wonderful Folk-Legacy recordings. Sandy and Caroline would almost certainly have become materially richer had they pursued another line of work. But we would all be poorer if they had done so. Sandy's physical body may be gone, but his Folk-Legacy lives on.

Thinking about Sandy this morning, I found myself humming "It Soon Be Done." Sandy and Caroline sang that song in one of their Michigan concerts that influenced me so profoundly all those years ago. What made an impression on me was Sandy's introduction. He always made note of these words:

"I'm gonna shake hands with all of the elders,
Tell all the people Good Mornin',
Sit down beside my Jesus,
Sit down and rest awhile."

Sandy was delighted by the idea the song conveyed of death as a joyful "Good Mornin'"

Rest awhile, dear Sandy. Your life and love have touched me deeply.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 11:53 AM

I never met the Patons, have only read posts for years here at Mudcat, but the Dwyer family sends condolences. I seem to recall from conversations with Bob Nelson and Don Firth that Sandy and Caroline Paton lived in the Pacific Northwest for a time and Dad (John Dwyer) was a friend and fan.

Sandy's posts at Mudcat.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 11:56 AM

I can't describe just how deeply this news moves me.I had looked forward to meeting Sandy and Caroline once again when I come over in October, but now the trip has lost much of its lustre. I met them for the first time in 1976, it was my first visit to the USA. We were on a festival together and they sought me out, told me they knew my singing from recordings and looked forward to hearing me live, and in general made a rather nervous visitor feel welcomed and at home,a typical action from these wonderful people. 'Folk Legacy' is aptly named because the gift of music and humanity that Sandy leaves behind is a legacy for us all, and a fitting tribute to him. Dear Caroline, Elaine and I send our thoughts and prayers across the ocean to you and the rest of your family at this grievous time. Dear Sandy, thank you for all that you were to us, and all that you left for us to remember. It is comforting to know that you left peacefully and with your family around you. But we will all miss you. Goodbye dear friend. In tears. Roy.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: topical tom
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 12:05 PM

My sympathy and prayers go out to Caroline and family. As someone so aptly said on Mudcat in response to another obit, there is nothing one can say, but words are all we have to offer at this sad time. I pray they may provide some comfort.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Peace
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 12:08 PM

I had the honour of exchanging some messages with Sandy when his grandson passed away. What a man he was. Please accept my sincere condolences.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Art Thieme
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 12:17 PM

I feel crushed. Numb. So many memories. My father died when I was five years old. I think Sandy became my surrogate dad about 1959--in Chicago. For sure, he was my mentor, the one who showed me I ought to blaze and look for a path there I could walk down---and make my own. Following his lead, has made all the difference. More later, when I am better able.

Old buddy, goodnight!

Love,

Art

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: GUEST,Elmore
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 12:19 PM

A wonderful singer,and a warm, caring man has left us.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 12:20 PM

Like so many, I knew Sandy only through his singing and the written word; either Mudcat posting or personal e-mails. However, I have no hesitation in saying that he was a great man in so many different ways.

Some people have that gift of connectivity, what you might call the, "Have you met?...." or the, "Have you heard?...." effect. Like so many here have found, he also had that effect on me. His life's work opened my ears to many good singers and musicians.

Yes, the work will go on. Every time we sing, we will remember him.

Whatever one says seems inadequate on such occasions, but I give thanks for Sandy. He made my life the richer. Caroline, I am thinking of you all.

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 12:21 PM

A Folk Legacy indeed, and obviously much more to those who knew him.

My own contacts with him were just a few and brief, but his generous nature was apparent.

My sympathies to all who were close to him.

~ Becky Nankivell

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 12:27 PM

I first met Sandy & Caroline about 1980, when they came to a Getaway in the old Prince William Park site...they brought LPs, and *I* happened to be there as they unloaded. They had brought 2 copies of everything, and I got 1st choice. *smile*

Then, every few years, we were treated to their friendly sharing & wide knowlege.
I hate saying goodbyes, so I when I miss Sandy, I will just go downstairs & sit with a pile of old, black LPs...and remember how I came to have such treasures.

Mick mentiond that 'hello session' at a Getaway....that was Oct. 21, 2000, and here are Sandy & Caroline that morning...

Getaway16.JPG
Getaway17.JPG
Getaway18.JPG
http://home.comcast.net/~somethingextree/music/Getaway19.JPG

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 12:27 PM

Sandy was an icon, and one of the nicest people I ever met.   When my radio station started broadcasting traditional music, Folk Legacy was one of the first companies to supply us with LP's, and Sandy was generous with helping us build a library. Each package from Folk Legacy was a treasured gift.   I would run into Sandy at places like Old Songs or Clearwater and he would always greet me with a smile and a cheerful greeting. I will always admire the man and everything that he did for this community. My condolences to Caroline and family as well as all the wonderful friends.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Amos
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 12:33 PM

Ah, no!!! He has always been one of the stars at the edge of our amorphous circle here, one of those constants you look toward to know you have not lost your bearings. This passage will be like the vanishing of a constellation, unexpected, disorienting, unsettling. What prayers I have go out to his safe arrival and to his family.

I often take comfort in this piece, when losses like this one confound me, and I offer it with deep affection and respect:



Gone From My Sight

I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails
to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until at length
she hangs like a speck of white cloud
just where the sea and sky come
to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says;
"There, she is gone!"
"Gone where?"
Gone from my sight. That is all.

She is just as large in mast and hull
and spar as she was when she left my side
and she is just as able to bear her
load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment when someone
at my side says, "There, she is gone!"

There are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad
shout;

"Here she comes!"

And that is dying.


by Henry Van Dyke, a 19th Century clergyman, educator, poet, and religious writer.


A.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 01:01 PM

Oh, SandyGramps...can't see for the tears.


That's the second time in three months I have missed calling a friend just before they passed on. The other friend let go in grief,too. I hope there isn't a third time.

One other award Sandy and Caroline received...though it isn't nearly as significant or worldly as some of those others, they made me feel as though it were and that was the First Annual Mudcat Living Treasure Award.

{{{{Caroline and Family and *Adopted* family}}}}

bbc, thank you

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: GUEST,Steve Jerrett
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 01:16 PM

I am truly saddened by this news.

I met Sandy and Caroline at my first Folk Alliance in Philadelphia back when I was performing and managing a coffeehouse in the Boston area. He nominated me to serve on the board.

One of my fondest memories is sitting in an after hours sing out in the lobby outside the banquet rooms with him on one side and Hazel Dickens on the other, harmonizing to "Amazing Grace".

Sing on, Sandy!

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 01:27 PM

The people that collect and preserve the music are the best among us. They give us the base for all of our study, concert and back porch performance, songwriting, and composing. Well done, Sandy.

Michelle and I extend our condolences to family and friends. Grace, mercy, and peace to you.
- Phil

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: EBarnacle
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 01:30 PM

Sandy was more than just an icon. He and Caroline are [as long as Caroline continues, it is still "they are"] a nexus. Many of us have and will come together due to their presence and the things they have done. They are a tradition.

I first met Sandy and Caroline back in the 70's at the Hudson Valley Folk Picnics, the predecessor of Clearwater's Great Hudson River Revival. Sandy was always generous with their time and knowledge and they both willingly participated in events I ran for several organizations, whether or not there was money available. It was always a pleasure to run into them at events and chat, however briefly.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Wesley S
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 01:39 PM

I never had the pleasure of meeting the man. But it's obvious that there is a great big empty Sandy Paton sized hole in the world right now. Maybe it will never be filled. But if we work together - we can try.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: kendall
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 01:42 PM

I was doing pretty good until I read Dani's post about Sandy and me at Ramblewood. There was so much more we could have done if we had known that our singing days were numbered.
I have to leave because I'm going to lose it.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: frogprince
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 01:45 PM

Another of the great big hearts has ceased. He had more than earned his rest; but so sad for the family to have two great losses almost at once. Many of us will know, from all that's said here, that we missed something very special in not knowing Sandy in person.
                           Dean

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 02:04 PM

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, I can say that hasn't been said.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 02:10 PM

From Sing Out! today.

Dan

---

Folk-Legacy Records founder Sandy Paton passed away on Sunday July 26 around 6:30pm. He had been hospitalized the last few days after becoming extremely fatigued. Sandy had been in poor health in recent years, suffering from emphysema which required that he was constantly connected to oxygen. About a month ago, Sandy & Caroline’s grandson died tragically – drowning in a river in Connecticut. Friends have said that Sandy took the loss extremely hard.

Sandy, with his wife Caroline and the late Lee Haggerty, founded Folk-Legacy Records as an independent recording company specializing in traditional and contemporary folk music of the English-speaking world in 1961. Over the 48 years Folk-Legacy has existed, they have produced over 120 recordings with Sandy doing the actual recording and taking cover photographs.

Sandy was a terrific singer in his own right, as well. He and Caroline were designated as the Official Connecticut State Troubadours for 1993-1994.

Sing Out! editor Mark Moss adds: “In a world where meeting your “idols” rarely works out very well, Sandy Paton was an inspiration. His love, dedication and vision for traditional music was unwavering … but he was never strident, pushy or rude about his impressive knowledge. This was a guy who was all about loving the music and wanting to share his love for the songs and singers. And each Folk-Legacy release exuded that passion. Once I “met” my first Folk-Legacy release (the original Golden Ring recording), I was hooked … and am proud to own almost every release from the label. Hardly “hi tech,” but the music Sandy captured, made and shared was the real thing in the truest sense of the words. It was an honor to have known him. My heart was already breaking for the family (after the loss of his grandson Kaelan in June) … I can’t imagine the pain the family is feeling now. A sad, sad day.”

Information about a memorial service is forthcoming.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: jacqui.c
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 02:10 PM

I met Sandy and Caroline just under five years ago, when Sandy married Kendall and me. From day one I felt as if I had been drawn into their extended family and was always made to feel so welcome when we visited. I don't think that I have ever felt like a 'guest' in their house.

I will miss walking in a hugging that big bear of a man, getting a kiss and having his big hand wrap round my arm in greeting. We had some amazing conversations, particularly this year.

Go back to the Universe Sandy - I was honoured to know you, even for such a short time.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: georgeward
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 02:26 PM

One by one they're leaving me, the heroes of my youth"
-George Papavgeris (Mudcatter El Greco)

Grand song. It's on here someplace. Look it up. It's what was singing itself on my head yesterday. Honestly. Make of that what you will.

Kathy Westra wrote, "I would not be the person I am, nor know any of you." I can probably say the same, as Vaughn could have too. I called Caroline, as always having no bloody idea what to say and feeling tongue-tied. We probably talked for half an hour - laughing and crying - for so the memories came flooding back.

And the personal thing is, but also is not the point. The point is - as this thread continues to demonstrate - that so many of us, in our different ways, can say the same. The web that Sandy and Caroline wove - each in his/her own way (how wonderfully personal and quirky) - is simply staggering. It reaches beyond any and all of us, we know not how far. And in a world in which so many are so devoted to weaving evil (too often in the name of good), it may not be too much to say that theirs' is the web of the still, small voice. They've lived it, modelled it, made us believe in it too.

Rest in peace, dear old friend. You've earned it.

And to end as I began (with only a slight paraphrase), I just hope that I can play my part and be worthy of my friend.

- George

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Jeri
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 02:30 PM

The first time I met Sandy was at a Sandy & Caroline performance in 1973 that Vaughn Ward brought a bunch of us kids to. I've never forgotten.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 02:56 PM

I got the sad news today on Facebook, posted by Max. I never met Sandy and had little exchange with him here (most of my posts have been too trivial to attract his attention), but was very aware of his presence, both from his posts and from what others posted about him. I was terribly moved by the news of the loss of his and Caroline's grandson, and Sandy's death coming so soon after seems like an unbearable loss for Caroline and family, and for their friends, and for the entire Mudcat community.

Many of you know of my Monday night jams, and tonight I'm going to read Ron Olesko's birthday notice/brief bio of Sandy, and request that the group dedicate this song in his memory.

WHO WILL SING FOR ME
Carter Stanley (third verse by John McCutcheon?)

1. Oft I sing for my friends,
   When death's cold form I see
   And when I reach my journey's end
   Tell me who will sing for me

Chorus:
I wonder (I wonder) who
Will sing (will sing) for me
When I come to cross that silent sea,
Tell me who will sing for me

2. When my friends have gathered 'round
   And look down on me
   Will they turn and walk away
   Or will they sing one song for me

3. So I'll sing until the end
   And helpful try to be
   Ever knowing there'll be some
   Who will sing one song for me


Charles

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Arkie
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 03:03 PM

Though never having personally known Sandy or Caroline is am still saddened by this occasion and feel as though I have lost a personal friend. My introduction to the Patons was enjoying their performances at the FSGW Getaway ages ago and then there was the discovery of Folk Legacy recordings and the subsequent discovery of the many artists they recorded. Admiration increased with the realization that Folk Legacy recorded many people whose music ought to be passed on and preserved but who did not necessarily sell a lot of records. I appreciate the efforts the Patons made to disseminate music and information and my life, the lives of many others, were made richer through them. I will miss Sandy and my heart goes out to Caroline and the family.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: GUEST,bob stepno
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 03:07 PM

It dawns on me that without Sandy, Caroline, those Golden Ring albums and Bill Domler's Sounding Board coffeehouse, which they inspired, I might never have opened my mouth in front of an audience, hit many wrong notes, forgot lyrics, carried on anyway.

And without the confidence to do those things, I certainly could never have become a teacher. A teacher of things I do much better than sing, that is.

Thanks, Sandy and Caroline (and their extended family around the Sounding Board, Pinewoods and more) for sharing, inspiring, touching lives and... I think I'll go play some music tonight.

Bob @ stepno.com

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: open mike
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 03:12 PM

Yes LEGACY is certainly the right word...i will play Folk Legacy
music on my next radio show August 8th in memory of Sandy, who,
like Alan Lomax, did so much to promote and preseve the music of the folks.

Dictionary...Main Entry: leg·a·cy       noun


1 : a gift by will especially of money or other personal property   
   : bequest   
2 : something transmitted by or received from an ancestor            
    predecessor or from the past as in:
    the legacy of the ancient philosophers


be·quest          noun
Etymology:
    Middle English, irregular from bequethen Date:   14th century

1 : the act of bequeathing 2 : something bequeathed : legacy


    be·queath      transitive verb
Etymology:
    Middle English bequethen, from Old English becwethan,
from be- + cwethan to say — more at quoth Date: before 12th century

1 : to give or leave by will —used especially of personal property 2 : to hand down : transmit

    trans·mit       verb
Etymology:
    Middle English transmitten, from Latin transmittere, from trans- + mittere to send    15th century

transitive verb
1 a: to send or convey from one person or place to another : forward b: to cause or allow to spread: as (1): to convey by or as if by inheritance or heredity : hand down (2): to convey (infection) abroad or to another 2 a (1): to cause (as light or force) to pass or be conveyed through space or a medium (2): to admit the passage of : conduct b: to send out (a signal) either by radio waves or over a wire intransitive verb: to send out a signal either by radio waves or over a wire



*I am thinking of the term "to hand down" (pass along, transmit)
compared with the descriptive phrase of praise "hands down" as in , he wins hands down....and they both apply to Sandy!

I hope someone can print this thread for Caroline and perhaps others
at the memorial....so much loss to bear, I wish for strength for all the family and friends who have so recently had to suffer Kaelan's loss.

Thanks for all that Sandy has done for folk music and musical folks.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: bbc
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 03:21 PM

Duane D. has gone over to Patons to help get some orders out. I know he will tell them about this thread & its many expressions of love. I am home, if anyone would like a little more info (without bothering the family) or would like to chat. I can be reached at [phone] or [e-mail].

best,

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: folkie43
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 03:33 PM

I just cannot believe it -especially so soon after his grandchild died so tragically. He was a huge part of my life for many years, helping my brother start the Sounding Board Coffeehouse and just being there for me in the last 8 years when most of my family passed away.
I can remember meeting him & Caroline for the first time back in 1973 and sitting in their huge living area and everyone was singing "Only Remember". It seems such an appropriate song for today.
Caroline - my heart goes out to you and it was so nice to hear you a couple of weeks back.. PLEASE let me know if there is anything I can do. Love you all - Janet Domler Steucek

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 03:45 PM

So sorry to read of his death. May his family find strength from their wonderful memories of his life, and may we all,,,even those who did not directly know him.

RIP

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: lisa null
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 03:58 PM

I ache at the idea of not seeing Sandy anymore. He was my buddy, my mental sparring partner, my colleague, my comforter, and above all, my mentor. He and Caroline helped me start the record company I co-founded with Pat Sky (Green Linnet)-- they gave me their mailing list and hours of advice to go with it. I lived in CT and when times were tough and I just "had to get away," they were always there for me with a bed, coffee or tea, and a bevy of songs.

Sandy was empathetic but never intruded into my private sorrows-- at least not without my asking for his help. When I asked, he always gave me his opinion straight, and i learned to respect his humane dose of reality.

I always knew what he liked or didn't like musically and why-- he was honest about that too, even if it was my own singing.

One summer, Caroline and i went field collecting together in Waterbury CT. We would come home like two giggling sisters on a shopping spree, and there would be Sandy delighting in our adventures and ready to play Caroline's cassettes, no matter how late at night.

The Patons lived at the other end of the state from me, but they were the next door neighbors I always wanted. Sandy taught me much about performing, but more importantly, (at the tag end of the commercial folk boom), he taught me how to keep the music alive and vibrant as part of a growing community of people who sing for love He and Caroline always believed in letting songs speak for themselves. They taught me that my job as a singer was to purge the words and tune of affectation and hoked-up drama. This is easier said than done, but they succeeded with their own songs as they helped me with mine.

All these memories will live with me forever, but most of all I will remember how fully Sandy lived his life-- his zany and sometimes ribald humor, his gusto at New England's diners and pizzerias not to mention New York's Chinese restaurants. He had great story-telling gifts and bestowed not only stories but gentle attention he gave to all the young 'uns who entered his orbit. He was a great listener. i have a painting of Sandy's from his younger days as an artist --golden trees bending in an invisible wind. I told him I loved it, and suddenly it was mine. That's the kind of man Sandy was.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Little Robyn
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 04:04 PM

That's too much sadness for one family.
I guess Sandy is with Kaelan now.
Much love to Caroline and family.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Crowhugger
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 04:30 PM

Sad, sad news. I had only "met" him here on Mudcat, and I'm grateful that so much of his wisdom, knowledge & humour was shared here. Condolences to Caroline and family and friends.

~CH~

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Nancy King
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 04:55 PM

What devastating news this is! And what a terrible blow to the Paton family, especially coming so soon after they lost Kaelan.

Sandy was one of the sweetest guys you could ever hope to meet. I will always cherish the memory of his and Caroline's hospitality to The Boarding Party and its entourage (including me) on their two week-long recording sessions in Sharon in the 1980s. I can still see Sandy sitting at his recording console, flawlessly editing reel-to-reel tape with a razor blade, getting results as good as can be had with digital equipment today. And then there was the hands-and-knees search for the cricket that had gotten into the studio (a huge room that had once been a barn) and was making itself heard at the wrong moments. And "Welcome Boarding Party" spelled out in magnetic letters on the fridge when we arrived -- which somehow morphed into "Bleeding Pity" and "Barfing Puppy" and (my favorite) "Balding Poopy" over the course of the week. He and Caroline made us all feel so welcome and relaxed that the music just flowed.

There was never any question what label the BP's recordings would be on. "Nobody else will let us write a book!" said Jonathan. Folk-Legacy's contributions to the world of traditional music is unparallelled. Their love of the music and desire to share it is simply priceless.

As for Sandy himself -- a dear, sweet man with a beautiful tenor voice (go listen to "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" on one of the Mudcat CDs), a grand sense of humor, and a remarkable recording skill.

I didn't see Sandy often in recent years (though I've talked to Caroline on the phone -- always a treat -- a few times), but whenever I did, I was greeted as an old and dear friend, just as was everyone else in the folk community.

We've lost a really special one, friends. Caroline and the whole Paton family are in my thoughts.

Nancy

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: GUEST,Alan Oakes
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 05:01 PM

I first met Sandy and Caroline in California in 1968. Sandy was a handsome young man and Caroline a beautiful young woman. We had a wonderful visit. They came to my house, and among other things, they helped me to catch a few more hard-to-understand words from an old County recording I had of "Going Down the Valley." They suggested that to get more of the words I should come East to the next Fox Hollow festival and talk to a man named Joe Hickerson. I did. Joe had not heard the song, but he did, later, find the words and recorded the song on a Folk Legacy record in 1969.

I have since learned that this was a pretty typical first meeting with Sandy and Caroline. The visit was fun, they were helpful about folk music and it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Now 41 years have gone by. We saw each other 3 or 4 times a year at folk festivals. We always found time to talk. We sang together after concerts. I got lots of hugs from both of them. After I moved East in 1972, we occasionally visited each other's homes. During the last 20 years, or so, one of the common topics of Sandy's and my conversations was how we were each doing with our respective heart problems. It was a joy to grow old together.

Farewell Sandy. You were a good friend and a good man. I miss you very much.

Caroline, all my love.

-Alan Oakes

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Don Firth
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 05:11 PM

I first became acquainted with Sandy Paton in 1952 (give or take a couple of months) while I was attending the University of Washington. I'd just caught the folk music bug from a girl I was dating at the time, and it was because of her that I first took in a concert by Walt Robertson. At about the same time, I met a whole bunch of other people:   Sandy Paton, Ric Higlin, Dick Landberg, Bob Clark, several others. . . .    Most of these folks lived in a ramshackled old rooming house in the University District generally referred to by its inmates as "Cockroach Manor."

Sandy was into acting and painting at the time, and he was also busily learning folk songs, mostly from song books as I recall, and teaching himself to play the guitar. It wasn't very long after I first met him that he decided to head Back East to make his mark in the world.

A couple of years later, in summer of 1954, he hitchhiked back to Seattle. While he was here, we had lots of good song fests (we called them "hootenannies," or simply "hoots," a term we used to refer to free-for-all folk music jam sessions, not public performances).

Word was that Sandy had arrived in Seattle with what he was wearing, and carrying his guitar case, in which he also had a couple of packs of cigarettes and a change of socks. As I recall, he stayed with Ric Higlin and his new wife, Freddie (Alfreda), in Cockroach Manor. It was said that, periodically, in the dead of night, he would sneak down to the local Laundromat in the dead of night in a borrowed bathrobe, wash his clothes, and sneak back. In fact, I think it was Sandy who told me so.

Late in August of 1954, Sandy decided to hang out his thumb and head Back East. The night before he left, we had one helluva "hoot." Toward the end of the evening, one of the attendees, Donnie Logsdon, a former childhood street-corner preacher (who had long since de-frocked himself), preached a sermon about the sin of sending our brother Sandy out into this wicked world with a minimum of funds, and took up a collection for him. While the sermon was going on (a real tour de force on Donnie's part) Sandy sat there with his face in his hands and shaking his head, highly embarrassed. But—we did manage to send him off with a fair amount of funds. Sandy told me later that he was able to eat a lot more regularly on the trip than he would have otherwise. In the words of Donnie Logsdon, it was a love offering.

The next time I saw Sandy was in 1958. I was flipping through the folk records in Campus Music and Gallery, and there he was, looking up at me from the front of a record jacket. "The Many Sides of Sandy Paton." He'd obviously been busy since I'd last seen him.

In 1960, I attended my first Berkeley Folk Music Festival. The list of performers was impressive, including Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl, John Lomax, Lightnin' Hopkins, Sam Hinton, the New Lost City Ramblers, others—and Sandy Paton. All day workshops and evening concerts along with many informal gatherings. A marvelous experience all the way around. I congratulated Sandy on his Elektra record, but he said he was not real happy with it. As I understood it, apparently they'd been a bit dictatorial about what songs they wanted him to do and how they wanted him to do them. I didn't know Elektra did that sort of thing, but I was also told later that this was one of the reasons that Sandy co-founded Folk-Legacy:    to let the singer do it their own way.

During the Berkeley Folk Festival, there were a fair number of "off-campus" activities, including late-night parties and get-togethers after the evening concerts. Sandy buttonholed me and took me to one of these, where I wound up having a chance to meet and chat with Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl.

A long time after that (late 70s or early 80s) Gordon Bok sang a concert in this area, and he mentioned to me that Sandy had had a heart attack.

And it was sometime after that, I recall talking to Sandy on the phone. He was contemplating the possibility of coming out to the Pacific Northwest to see what all was going on in folk music in this area, possibly, as I understood it, with the idea of recording a few people for Folk-Legacy. But unfortunately, it never came off. I would have loved to have seen Sandy again.

Once we encountered each other here on Mudcat, we exchanged posts and PMs from time to time.

Although we've known each other for 57 years, we really didn't know each other closely for that long. Nevertheless, Sandy has been a strong influence on me all this time. His abilities, his enthusiasm, and his dedication have been, and will continue to be, an example to follow, along with his just generally being a friendly and generous person. I regret that I have never had a chance to meet Caroline or any of his young 'uns. But having known Sandy is one of the things in this life that I truly value and cherish.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: ranger1
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 05:33 PM

I didn't know Sandy either long or well, but he gave lovely hugs. My condolences to Caroline and the rest of the family.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 05:38 PM

A beautiful thread, which says so much about a man who touched so many people in his life.

It's a blessing to be surrounded by your family when those final moments come, especially a loving family. But, it's also a blessing, albeit a sad one for those left behind, for a grandfather to be able to wrap his soul around his much loved grandson, and for his young soul to know his Grandpa is back with him, so near to him once again.

With love to Sandy's family.

Sandy - 'Come Love Come'

(taken from here)

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Deckman
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 05:50 PM

When Walt Robertson passed away, over 14 years ago, I was stuck with the task of writing his obit for Sing Out. I called on several friends to help me. Sandy spent much time with me, helping me assemble some delicious stories in a readable fashion. We exchanged occasional phone calls and e-mails after that. I've always been grateful to Sandy for helping me with that onerus assignment. bob

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: GUEST,Patricia
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 05:52 PM

I wanted to share this since it made a big impact on me.

A friend once mentioned to me, after a mutual friend had passed away, that it doesn't really work well to tell the other family members, "please let me know if there's anything I can do." or "please call me if there's something I can do for you."

They are in shock and grief and often can't think of what someone could do and sometimes just can't make the effort to reach out to call and say what they might need or like. My friend told me to think about what or how I could offer something (bring food, do errands, whatever), and to just either do it (if it wasn't intrusive) or to call/write with a specific offer.

It's almost like we say that ("let me know if there's anything I can do") because we don't know what else to say. I know we don't say it casually , but even if it's heartfelt, it doesn't often do what we would want it to. I know, because I've said it many times myself, and it's been more because I couldn't think of anything else to say but didn't want to end the conversation.

It's hard to just say "I am so very sorry for your loss." It's just not enough.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton
From: GUEST,Guest David Jones
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 06:09 PM

I heard this heartbreaking news while here in England. As I read these messages, many from old friends, Roy, Kendall, Art, George, Kathy, Lisa, I feel I should be back home to be able to talk to folks who knew and loved Sandy. Sandy and Caroline have done so much for all of us who love the old songs, I guess the best way we can thank them is to keep singing those songs. Around 1968 Sandy and Caroline came into a folk club in San Francisco I used to sing at, it was called the Singers Circle, run by Alan McCloud, they sang us some good old songs, they were beautiful. That was the first time I met them and I have had the pleasure of knowing them ever since. Spare special thoughts for David, in a few short weeks he has lost his son and his father, it is so much to bear.
Much love to Caroline and all the Paton family.
David

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,Jan and Ken
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 06:22 PM

From the other side of the pond - Sandy and Caroline were very special people and we are totally devastated at the news - so soon after Kaelan's death - we would give anything to be able to give Caroline a big hug, but instead send our love and grateful thanks to them both for the inspiration and help they gave us.Along with others at the Seafest we were talking of Sandy with Debra, Ken and Barry.

A true gentleman

Goodnight and God bless

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: C. Ham
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 06:24 PM

I didn't really know Sandy Paton but I did have a long conversation with him about music a few years ago at the Champlain Valley Folk Festival

Mike Regenstreif blogged about Sandy a little while ago.

Mike's blog.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 06:27 PM

I checked Mudcat last night just before I went to bed, and I found this thread about an hour after it started. I was shocked and saddened at the time, and it was hard to get to sleep. Since then, though, I've been thinking happy thoughts of Sandy. I met him when I was 51 years old, and he has always called me "lad." Thinking of that makes me smile.

Since I heard of Sandy's death, two songs have been going through my head. One is Put It on the Ground, which is the first and only song Sandy and I ever sang as a duet - sitting at a picnic table at the Getaway in 1999, about fifteen minutes after I first met him in person. There may be an obvious reason why we never sang as a duet after that, but we sure had fun singing it.

Put it on the ground,
Spread it all around;
Rake it with a hoe,
It will make your flowers grow.

The second song is All the Good People. It was written by Ken Hicks, but Sandy sang it solo on one of the Golden Ring records, and Folk-Legacy holds the copyright. I've loved that song since I first heard it:

This is a song for all the good people,
All the good people who've touched up my life.
This is a song for all the good people,
People I'm thanking my stars for tonight.

It's not a perfect song. It has a bit of chauvinism and some clumsy lyrics - but it's full of love and wisdom. Sandy wasn't a perfect man - but he, too, was full of love and wisdom. I'll remember him every time I sing those two songs.
Thank you, Sandy, for all the wisdom and kindness you have shared with all of us.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Don Firth
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 06:39 PM

Lizzie, thank you for posting that link. It was a treat to hear Sandy and the family sing.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,Stringsinger
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 06:40 PM

Like the rest of you, I am devastated by this news. Fifty years ago
at the Old Town School of Folk Music, Sandy, Valucha and I were a
folk trio for a short time. I remember Sandy as ebullient,
knowledgeable and dedicated to our mutual love of trad folk.
He was always gracious, warm and fun to be with. My heart goes out
to Caroline. I remember that Sandy and I both performed on the same bill at an Old Town School concert. Although I haven't seen him in many years, I remember our times fondly. We last met at the Eisteddfod song festival at one of the workshops in 1983 summer.

It's a tremendous loss to the folk community. Folk Legacy Recordings
are some of the best ever done.

In sadness,

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,Dick Dufresne
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 06:52 PM

Sandy and Caroline and my family go back to the days of the Fox Hollow Festival.
Through the years Sandy and I traded songs, stories and jokes.
It was Sandy who brought me from the world of the folk music of the commercial craze to the broader and more amazing world of folk music in it's purer form.
   We will try to keep up your good work old friend.

When our time is over
Haul away for heaven
Tis our sailing time.

Fair winds and a following sea.
Dick Dufresne

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,jed marum on a borrowed PC
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 07:12 PM

Very sad news. My condolences to his family.

Jed Marum (on a borrowed PC)

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,hg
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 07:14 PM

Although I never met the Paton's, they touched me when Sandy took the time to share his knowledge of "Horsey Keep Your Tail Up" many years ago when I came to the mudcat to share my musical interests with others. He treated all with equanimity and kindness. My sincere condolences to Caroline and I shall cherish my many, many Feolk Legacy records all the more. Lisa Null's words seem so expressive; thanks for that!

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 07:34 PM

So sorry to learn this. I was talking about Sandy just last Saturday, with Jan and Ken at Scarborough Seafest. Never met the man , but felt I knew him from his work and from his postings here. A great loss. Condolences to all his family and friends.

Ross

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Hawker
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 07:36 PM

So VERY sorry to hear this, only knew him though this community, but like has been quoted, what a fine community, and he was one who made it so. Love to ALL his family. Hugs, Lucy x

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: kendall
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 08:04 PM

Sandy never knew that he was a great man. He was so humble he could not accept that title. I tried to get through to him, but failed.
Anyway, he was not only a great man, he was also a good man.

Neither he nor I are very religious, but this has always given me some comfort:

So live, that when your summons comes to join that innumerable caravan
That moves to that mysterious realm where each shall take his chamber in the silent halls of death; thou go, not like the quarry slave at night, scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave like one who wraps the draperies of his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams.(William Cullen Bryant)

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: bbc
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 08:31 PM

He *was* a great man, Kendall; I agree. It seems that he, so often, went out of his way to help or encourage others. Maybe he saw that quality in Rick Fielding because it was so true of him, too. Tonight, Caroline & I toasted Sandy over our shared dinner. "To Sandy," I said, "an original, in the best sense of the word!" His passing leaves a big hole in my life. I suspect I won't know how big until some time passes.

Caroline is doing quite well, all considered, but she's having a really hard time getting anything done, because of the continuous phone calls. She'd take about one bite of her dinner & the phone would ring again. Those of you who know her will realize that she is too gracious to cut a call short. Please give her a few days to catch up on much-needed work, if you can. Call her after the dust settles. I know that calls will be welcome & needed then!

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: catspaw49
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 09:13 PM

Hey Beebs......regarding that hole in your life/heart.........

When Lee died I sent Sandy a PM where I told a quick story about that very thing. Sandy liked it and actually quoted it at Lee's memorial service.   Here's what I wrote to Sandy way back then.............

When Denny (my truest friend of 30 years) died awhile back, I spoke at his funeral as he had asked me to do. The SOB was such a "responsible" person that he even left me a "Thank You" note for doing so. Basically, I told stories on us for 20 minutes and had the large crowd laughing and not crying. The only serious part of it came from something one of Connie's kids had said to me. He asked what is what like to lose your best friend, and then said I must have an "awful big hole in my heart." I thought about that a minute and realized he was wrong. Great friends can never leave a hole in your heart; they can only leave it filled with the wonderful memories of who and what they were. Indeed, perhaps our hearts are made up entirely of friendships and who WE are is simply the end product of those we value most. I dunno.......

And I still don't know for sure. But I do know the Sandy Paton's of this world would never want to leave a hole in the lives and hearts of those friends they have themselves cherished. And then there is this.....written by wonderful Jeri after Rick died. Somehow it fits well here too.............

There are circles of friends,
Held loosely by lines I drew,
But in the winds of time they fade.
Here is where my passion ends,
I did all I could do,
But these circles of friends
Are the greatest thing I made

See me in their eyes.


Pat

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 09:15 PM

Goodbye old friend.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 11:26 PM

Spaw, thanks for posting both of those. I remember reading your piece when you first posted it. I *missed* Jeri's piece! Takes the breath away, absolutely stunning. Thanks, again, for posting it.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 11:33 PM

Good people,
I just spent the last 3 hours writing out my involvement with Folk Legacy and Sandy and Caroline and Lee happened. It was 50 years long and it was grand to see it put there for you all. But (isn't there always a but?) Mudcat was apparently down or something for the hour in which I was trying to send it to this thread. It felt wonderful to say it all and the tell how much I love these people and what their querencia meant to me through the years. Finding Folk Legacy and knowing Sandy was so damn much a huge part of what I am today; it was truly like coming home to have Sandy ask me to record for him.
I did try to post it, pull it back, post it over and over--and then--------it was gone -- into cyberspace somewhere.

Just know I loved this man, and miss him terribly.   

Love to all,

Art

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Max
Date: 27 Jul 09 - 11:43 PM

Just got sadder. My sincere apologies to all.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 12:02 AM

What can I add that hasn't been said? I'd second jeri's comment above: "I thought he'd live forever. I thought he'd always be here. In some ways, he will, but it's not enough."

I was fortunate enough to have visited with Sandy lots of times, though not nearly as many as lots of others here. He could be lovable. He could be curmudgeonly. I remember the time we had a sing-around in the DC area, and he expressed gratitude that it was what he needed, because he'd just recently been at one of those gatherings where people had used Rise Up Singing as a hymnal, and after he sang a version of something he'd collected himself, someone came up to him with their copy of the book and pointed to the version printed therein and accused him of singing it wrong! He might have been polite to his accuser, but when he was with us, he could finally get it off his chest and complain to sympathetic ears. He had a strong sense of the big ways in which traditional music could build communities, and did not like to suffer people who chose to use it for smaller ways.

Whenever I noticed that Sandy had posted to a thread at Mudcat, I knew it was a thread worth reading, and perhaps even worth adding to, because it was going to contain lots of good information mixed with heartfelt and carefully reasoned opinion.

I remember one FSGW Getaway session devoted to Folk Legacy--almost everybody who was there came, I think, in that large room at Ramblewood a couple of steps up behind the dining hall, and it's one of the few sessions at the Getaway that stands out after many years. Everyone was pouring out love to Sandy and Caroline, but they were really just returning the love that Sandy and Caroline has put out in the world. At the time we all thought it was true community, but now I'm thinking in retrospect that maybe through the magic off the Patons we had become a family--one of those "families of choice." The Patons were always taking in "family members"--and I think they may have in some way figured out a way of adopting all of us. -- 'cause it sure feels like a lot of us have lost a family member and not just a friend.

Condolences to Caroline and David and Rob and to the whole family--to ALL of us who are grieving.

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,Guest Marie Dufresne
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 12:12 AM

Kathy, I too first met Sandy and Caroline when I was 17 at Fox Hollow but I did not know then that years later I would have the honor of calling them friends in the best and dearest sense of the word.

I know when the tears stop ( though sleep will come so hard tonight)the memories will be so sweet and we will all carry the legacy on all of us together.

Caroline,dear friend,in the quiet moments know that my and many hearts are sharing this sorrow.

Peace Sandy Peace

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Skivee
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 12:13 AM

This is such sad news.
There are very few of us that will have as profound effect of folk music. I learned many shanties from the artists whose records he made possible.
I met him very briefly when he and Caroline played for the FSGW in DC. A very classy guy.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: Ron Davies
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 12:19 AM

It's hard to imagine all the folkies who learned so many great songs from those great albums Sandy and Carolyn put out (and still do). And you could get all the lyrics, and great background for all the songs. No other folk albums gave you so much. And of course hearing Sandy and Carolyn together was yet another treat--as well as just being with them.

He was a giant--but a modest giant-- in the folk community.

We're fortunate that his folk legacy is immortal.

But he'll be terribly missed.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Francy
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 12:30 AM

One of the "Good People".....so long friend......Frank of Toledo

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: ctfolkie
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 01:58 AM

We, the directors of the Branford Folk Music Society in Connecticut, join in sadness to express our condolences at the passing of Sandy Paton on Sunday. But we also join in celebrating a life, together with his wife Caroline and sons David and Robin, that touched so many people throughout the world in such a gracious manner. As the sharers of songs, with Sandy's field recordings and with their labor-of-love Folk-Legacy productions, the Patons were true national treasures who gave traditional folk music, as Sandy and Caroline oft remarked, "a proper home" while also acknowledging revival musicians who were "in the tradition." Sandy possessed a scholarly, deep knowledge of traditional music but he never flaunted it; rather, he educated and guided us all about the songs, their histories and their meaning — and he did it in such an energized and loving way.

Here in Connecticut, he and Caroline more than three decades ago nurtured then-fledgling folk societies such as Branford Folk and The Sounding Board in West Hartford and several folk radio shows, legacies that exist to this day. Branford acknowledged that debt of gratitude by dedicating its 35th anniversary season this past year to the Patons and Folk-Legacy Records.

Sandy was a pioneer and an iconic figure, although he would swiftly dismiss such characterizations. He was one of the "good people" in our lives. Our hearts go out to the Paton family which has experienced such loss in recent weeks.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: olddude
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 02:38 AM

I never met him but knew him by reputation ... My heart goes out to the family and he is in my prayers also ...

I am so sorry ... we keep losing so many great folks

in my heart

Dan

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: kendall
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 05:57 AM

But we still have Caroline, the other half of Folk Legacy.To you, Caroline, with the warmest best wishes my dear friend.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 08:25 AM

Max, don't be sad.

There is incredible treasure in the archive of stories and music here, especially including Sandy's posts, for us all to mull over in the years to come.

And that is your gift to him, and to us all. Besides, how many of us would not have met Sandy if it hadn't been for you?

I know one of my most pivotal 'folkie' moments came from a Folk-Legacy recording, but became all the more important when I very shortly after met Sandy and Caroline for the first time. Story for another time/thread.

'spaw's advice is taken well. Here is the measure of the man, in the eyes and hearts of the people he loved.

Dani

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: bbc
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 09:27 AM

Like Art, I spent a good amount of time last night writing highlights of how my relationship with the Patons came to be. My post would have been right after Dan Milner's, but, when I tried to send, it failed. It is hard to reconstruct something when you've already expressed the thoughts & emotions, but I think we owe it to ourselves & to each other to try. Art, this time, write your post in MS Word, save, & then copy & paste it onto Mudcat. Please do share with us; your contribution is so special! Although you & I have never met in person, I've come to love you through our connection on Mudcat.

Pat, what you said is so true. Sandy has not left a hole in my life; he has enriched & expanded it. I think he did that in many ways for many people. He was quiet & modest, even self-effacing, but he'd listen, say a word, offer an opinion & the results might be far-reaching.

I was a late-comer to the folk music community. I am neither performer or even, seriously, a singer or player. I am, however, a strong supporter of the music & its performers. I became aware of folk music in general & Folk Legacy in specific after my divorce in 1989, when I dated a man who owned most of the Folk Legacy recordings & who first took me to the Old Songs Festival in Albany, New York. After a series of zigs & zags, I met Duane D. online in 1997. One of the main things we had in common, to start, was a shared love of Folk Legacy's Bok, Muir, Trickett recordings! One day, while searching online for song lyrics, I stumbled into Mudcat. After some time, I clicked on the "Check out our Forum!" link & got hooked on online community! In July of 1999, I believe I hosted the second East Coast mudcat gathering (You can see photos taken there from the mudcat "Quick Links" menu. Go to "Member Photos & Info" then "Photos" then "Events." It is the 5th link from the bottom.). About 14 people were there, including Sandy & Caroline. By March of 2000, when Patons' partner, Lee Haggerty died, Duane & I were just getting close enough to Sandy & Caroline that we were invited to participate. We sat in a circle with folks whose concerts we paid to attend & whose music we purchased, singing on an equal footing with them. That is the Paton style. Frequently, at the Old Songs Festival, performers would come up while Caroline & I were chatting & she would say to them, "Do you know Barbara Carr?" Poor things! They would look bewildered, thinking (I assume), "Should I?" At Lee's gathering, Sandy introduced me as "the famous bbc." Wow! Famous in very few circles, I think!

My job took me closer to Folk Legacy's home in Sharon, Connecticut in 1998 and, then, partly to be closer to the Patons, I moved to Copake, New York in 2003--10 minutes from Folk Legacy from work & half an hour from home. Through the years, Duane & I just got closer & closer to Sandy & Caroline. They became like parents to us, as they have to so many others, but like the parents you would choose to have. Over a cup of tea after work, a dinner out, standing around the booth at Old Songs, I'd moan about relationships, work, parents, compare notes on concerts & performers. Sandy & Caroline would always listen with interest & compassion, offering suggestions when appropriate. They have referred to me, lovingly, as their token Christian Republican friend & we have managed to peacefully & respectfully co-exist (even during the Clinton & Bush presidencies!). As Sandy & Caroline have needed more help, Duane & I have been able to "step into the gap." Since our relationship started through Mudcat, each time I've helped Patons, I've felt, in a sense, that I am doing it for all of you who love them, too, but live at a distance & don't have the option of being here.

I have probably rambled far too long, but want to mention, in closing, a few of the things Sandy & I shared that had particular significance to me. I have, mostly, been a "people" friend to the Patons, rather than a music friend, although I do share a love & some knowledge of the music. Sandy & Caroline have been gently nudging me toward more traditional music, in a desire to educate me. When I'd attend concerts, I got in the habit of sending Sandy email reviews of the performance & performer. As a relative newcomer to folk music, I got a huge kick out of the fact that my opinion & Sandy's would, almost always, be the same! After I saw the movie, "Songcatcher" (which I heard about on Mudcat!), I became familiar with the ballads & stories of Sheila Kay Adams. At the beginning of this July, I was finally able to meet Sheila in person at the Traditional Song Week of the Swannanoa Gathering in Asheville, North Carolina & to sit at her feet for 3 hours each of the 5 days there, for ballad singing & storytelling. When I reported on the week to Sandy & Caroline, I was able to tell them I finally "got" what the ballads are about. That made them smile! One last thing--Although Rick Fielding nicknamed me "Beebs" & spaw & Mick think they can refer to me as such, I think I like Sandy's recent name for me better. Usually, when I'd go over to the house, I'd find him at the table or, more often, the computer. I'd slip up behind him to say hi & give him a little "cheek hug." He called me "Copake Cuddles." I'll miss that.

With love to all,

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: bbc
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 09:33 AM

Quick report on last night (Monday, July 27th)--
When I took dinner over to Caroline, Rob & Duane were working on music orders. Folks, if you can hold off from making sympathy calls for the next few days, it will really help. Caroline could barely take one bite of dinner before the phone would ring again. She is too gracious to cut short a call & is finding it very difficult to get anything done. Later on, when things settle down, your calls will be welcome & needed, as she adjusts to life without Sandy. Duane stayed at Folk Legacy all night, arriving home at 5:30 am today, but all the orders were done. I'm going to check with Caroline to see if she needs help with packaging & mailing. Thank you all for your expressions of love; they are greatly appreciated & we are passing them on to Patons!

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 09:41 AM

Well done Barb ....... and a big Spaw hug for both you and Duane.

Pat

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: SINSULL
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 10:29 AM

I didn't spend a lot of time with Sandy and Caroline but somehow the few were always memorable. And theyfeel like family.

One night, during World Series craziness, Caroline and I were banned from the downstairs living room. We retreated upstairs and were talking old movies. I mentioned "I Know Where I'm Going" and instantly she dug it out. One of her favorites too. Before too long, Kendall joined us - he couldn't handle the baseball fervor downstairs either but when he started explaining how you couldn't dry out an engine in a whirlpool, we tossed him out. A funny moment. That same night we all stood outside shivering and watching a total eclipse of the moon. When I remember that trip, I think of clementines, a kitchen full of kids and Kendall trying hard to get his breakfast cooked amid the chaos.
I believe I am one of the few people to make Sandy blush twice in one day. It was in the Folk-Legacy booth at NEFFA. I was wearing a T-shirt decorated with dragonflies. A couple noticed it and asked what was written on it. I had not ever noticed the script and couldn't read it upside down so I turned to Sandy and said "Can you read around my breasts?" He tried - but he was scarlet and laughing.
Later that evening a group of us met for Chinese food and the same couple (who, by the way, were big Paton fans) came over to the table to say "Hi". The husband asked if we had ever figured out what was written on the T-shirt. Sandy was shaking his head and trying to chnage the subject and I piped up: "Oh yes. Turns out it was written in Braille." LOL he blushed again.
I have also shared a few tears with Sandy when illness and money woes were just too much. We cried in each others arms and then laughed because we both knew it would be OK. That visit he sang Piney Mountain for me and Caroline got us all to join in on the chorus. And When You And I Were Young, Maggie. I dearly love that big bear of a man with his flirty blue eyes and quick wit. I even loved him when he was cranky, maybe even loved him more for feeling free to be cranky.

Caroline has been a rock for so long. Such an elegant lady with an impish sense of humor and a will of iron. We will sing Sandy on together and share a lot of tears and stories and count on you to keep herding us along.
This is very hard.
Mary

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: wendyg
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 10:52 AM

I'm not sure when I first met Sandy and Caroline - probably at Fox Hollow in 1972 or thereabouts; I spent some days at their house when Archie Fisher recorded his Man With a Rhyme album. I don't think I appreciated nearly enough then who they were and what a profound impact they had on the world of folk music. I picked up many of their recordings in the 1970s; a friend says that he has more Folk Legacy recordings than any other two labels put together.

I've been mostly doing other things since the 1970s, so I haven't seen the Patons since probably about 1980 (if not earlier); but when I made some occasional postings here in 2002-2004, Sandy popped right up to renew the acquaintance. I often barely remember people I met last week...

The moment that always stands out for me, though, was this one, which I think of often:

It's 1973, and into the campground at the Fox Hollow folk Festival drives a giant RV with a TV antenna on top. a) an RV? b) a *TV antenna*???! It turned out that Sandy hated Nixon with a raw, visceral passion, and the expectation was that Nixon was going to resign sometime over the next few days. Sandy was determined that he was not going to miss seeing that SOB resign.

When Nixon resigned, in fact C&S were on stage; the resignation IIRC was at noon, exactly halfway through their spot. So at the moment Nixon was resigning, they sang, "Only remembered...for what we have done...shall we be missed when the others succeed us...reaping the seeds that in spring we have sown?"

After their spot, Evelyne Burnstine sang Seasons of Peace, and a young woman I didn't know sitting next to us said, "We should start America, the Beautiful. This is an important moment in the history of our country, and we should sing about America." So when EB was finished, the three of us started it and the entire audience picked it up. Still one of the most amazing public moments in my life, ever.

wg

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Barry Finn
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 11:08 AM

So sorry to hear this news following the family's recent loss. All my love, thoughts, hopes & wishes to Caroline, David, Robin & the rest of the Paton family. I can't remember when I first had the pleasure of meeting them, it seems that they've been the ambassators to the local New England folk family forever. I can't remember being involved in folk music anywhere when they weren't somehow connected to it.
It's surely such a sad loss for the folk family world wide but a life so richly remember by so many.

Goodbye Sandy

Love
Barry

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,Guest: Jennifer Woods
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 11:30 AM

Sinsill mentioned "I know Where I'm Going" that wonderful British movie from 1947 staring Wendy Heller, with a fabulous Ceili (spel?) scene, and a VERY young Petula Clark in a small part -- It was my mother's favorite, and I hadn't seen it until, talking with Sandy I found out he had a video of it! He then made me a copy, and it is defineitly one of my all time favorite movies! I have fond memories of staying with the Patons and watching it with them -- and then at home, watching it yet again.

Both Patons welcomed me so openly into the folk community in 1982, and they have been wonderful friends with open arms ever since. I love them both dearly. Sandy will be profoundly missed -- but as someone said, Caroline will help us all carry-on, and we all have our wonderful memories of Sandy to keep us going, and keep him alive in our hearts!

jennifer near dc

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Songbob
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 11:42 AM

I've wondered how to say anything, so I decided to let a song say it:

        A SONG FOR FOLK LEGACY (A Record Edged in Black)

I was standing by my window one fine morning,
Without a thought of worry or of care,
When I saw the postman coming up the pathway
With such a jolly face and jaunty air.
He rang the bell and whistled while he waited,
And then he said, "Good morning to you, Jack!"
But he little knew the happiness he brought me
When he handed me that record edged in black.

With trembling hands I took the record from him;
I opened it and put it on to play.
When I heard that old time singer with his banjo,
It changed my very life right from that day.
I didn't know a thing about the singer.
As I read the liner notes from front to back,
And the only song I recognized, "Tom Dooley,"
On that wonderful first record edged in black.

Now, since that time, I've heard a lot of music,
And I learned to sing and play a bit, myself,
From those wonderful singers and musicians
In that stack of black-bound records on the shelf.
But you've got to get the customer's attention
As he browses through the old folk record rack.
So it's been two dozen years, or even longer,
Since I've seen a brand new record edged in black.

I know you can't return to days back yonder.
The world turns toward the morning, so they say.
But I, for one, would not be too unhappy
If a few things never changed from day to day.
I'd like to see the postman one fine morning,
Coming up the pathway with his pack,
He'd never know the happiness he'd bring me
If he handed me a record edged in black.


© 1986 by Bob Clayton, Arlington, VA


When I first sang this for the Patons in their living room, Sandy teared up a bit, and allowed as how he always wanted to put out more "records edged in black," but that hard times in the record biz meant that he couldn't. He allowed, however, that my song inspired him to again appreciate the original, "Letter Edged in Black."

If anyone puts out a memorial album of Sandy's singing, I hope it has a black-bound edge.

Bob Clayton

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: Mark Clark
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 11:42 AM

I never got to meet Sandy but the contributions he made to the music we all love has made the world a better place and will ensure his memory endures. Condolences to all. May his memory be eternal.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,from tokyo,japan
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 12:37 PM

oh. very sad.
folk legacy is my important label,such as folkways.
i love his memorial e-mail.

sad


kiyohide kunizaki at tokyo folklore center

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,Bill Steele
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 01:23 PM

On occasions like this I always think we should focus not on the loss, but on all we have gained from the person. When I heard the news I immediately flashed on the guy I knew singing around Berkeley in the 60s who looked and sounded like a movie star and had an incredible repertoire of traditional songs. When Folk Legacy started it just seemed a natural extension of that. I last saw Sandy briefly at Olde Songs a couple years ago and it was pretty much the same guy with a few more lines on his face, so I'll stick with that image.

I also recall the Nixon resignation, but Wendy has covered that. I do wish I'd had a chance to hear what Sandy thought of George Bush.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: bbc
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 01:58 PM

Gee, Bill, as the Patons' token Republican friend, I heard a *lot* of what Sandy thought of George Bush & none of it was good! ;) Ask Caroline, when the dust settles. She'll give you an ear-ful!

best,

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 02:20 PM

I will try again, but I lose things too easily trying to copy and paste to trust my own tech abilities, so I'll try to paraphrase myself in this thread, and hope for all to go well like it does more than ninety-nine percent of the time, Max. There is no need for you to feel more sad because of this glitch. My own sadness, after hearing of Sandy's passing is, incrementally, becoming worsened by the passing of time. It could be that re-living those years by writing it again might make things some better.

Art

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: bbc
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 03:53 PM

Please do try, Art, & forgive me for missing your birthday, earlier this month. Look for an email. I notice that, in this thread now, folks are getting past the initial shock & are starting to reminisce. I bet Sandy would like that!

love,

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 04:04 PM

I have a few choice emails from over the years of just what he thought of the Shrub, also.:-) They are on my old PC which I don't fire up very often, but I will do so later this week and see what comes up.

One thing which I enjoyed with SandyGramps, so much, was forwarding emails from my cousin who travels the globe putting in soybean processing plants and other engineering type structures. He always writes great stories of the places he's been, usually obscure places, and includes pix. Sandy really seemed to enjoy them and would write back after each one. It seems a small thing, but he made it seem very important and joyfull, as though it had really made his day. He and Caroline have always made me feel that way over the phone and in writing, too. I know, from reading everyone else's stories, it is one of the very special gifts they both have and boy are we all blessed by it.

Caroline, I'll talk with you in a few weeks...in the meantime: {{{{Caroline}}}}}

luvyakat

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: DougR
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 08:03 PM

Sad news indeed. I knew him by reputation only, but know how much he contributed to the folk music world.

DougR

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 09:32 PM

An old and dear friend. I could not have known how much I depended on him being there until this tragic news.

Caroline our hearts are with you and we send you all our love and condolences.

Bob and Amba

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 09:57 PM

Neat memorial from Caterwaul Radio by Ed McKeon.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Padre
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 10:05 PM

Just got my email connection back up, and was devestated by the sad news. Sandy and Caroline were such wonderful hosts to the Boarding party when we recorded the first two albums, and Sandy's editing of the albums was masterful to observe. My prayers are with Caroline and the family at this difficult time.

Rest eternal grant unto him.

Padre

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: GUEST,Guy Wolff
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 10:13 PM

This is still not sinking in after reading this whole thread. I am so glad to hear others speaking of Sandy . He and Caroline have been so kind to me over the years . We live within 20 miles but both working at surviving in the arts we had little time to see each other over many many years . I have thought of the Paton family every day since the river had its way . I had to play music for a life-long nieghbor who left the world and whos memorial was on the same day as the good-by memorial dinner-dance for Kayolin so missed the gathering .
                Tons of love to Caroline if anyone reads these notes to her . She is very much in my thoughts . Her old friend , Guy

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: bbc
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 10:47 PM

She will get the messages eventually, Guy; never fear. In the meantime, I'm talking to her most days & she knows people are writing their love & support. Tonight, she had dinner with her youngest granddaughter. I'll probably see her Thursday.

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: maeve
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 10:49 PM

At our Quasimodal Chorus rehearsal tonight, we ended with two beloved songs for two beloved friends; Sandy Paton and Sandy Ives.

First was "Barnet"

Peaceful be the silent slumber,
Peaceful in the grave so low.
Thou no more shall join our number;
Thou no more our songs shall know.
Yet again we hope to meet thee,
When the day of life is fled;
There in heav'n once more to greet thee,
Where no farewell tear is shed.

Lyrics: Epitaph of Azro W., Barnet Center, Vermont Cemetery Tune: Seth Houston, 1993 Meter: 8s, 7s (8,7,8,7)Northern Harmony Tunebook Index
Found here Barnet mp3 file (scroll down 2/3)
and the second was The Farthest Field by friend and sometime chorus member, David Dodson.

There is a land high on a hill
Where I am going- there is a voice that calls to me
The air is sweet, the grasses wave
The wind is blowing - oh, 'way up in the farthest field

REFRAIN:
Oh walk with me and we will see the mystery revealed
When one day we wend our way up to the farthest field

The sun will rise, the sun will set
Across the mountains - and we will live with beauty there
The fragrant flowers the days and hours
Will not be counted- And peaceful songs will fill the air

I know one day I'll leave my home
Here in the valley - and climb up to that field so fair
And when I'm called and counted in
That final tally - I know that I will see you there

Oh my dear friends I truly love
To hear your voices - lifted up in radiant song
Though through the years we all have made
Our separate choices -we've ended here where we belong.

[Refrain doubled at end.]
Farthest Field thread

Then we were silent, thinking of one mighty soul already gone on the great journey, and the other mighty soul, gazing up that farthest hill.
                         **************
I'll post this same note on Sandy Ives' thread, so Caroline Paton and Bobbie Ives both know we love their menfolk, and we love the two strong women who have let us travel with each Sandy through the years and across the miles.

maeve

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: bbc
Date: 28 Jul 09 - 11:36 PM

Maeve,

Thank you for the loving thought & for the beautiful post, to let Caroline & Bobbie know. I will be sure to read it to Caroline!

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 12:07 AM

Let's go back a few years...

In the late 1950s I was introduced to things like folksingers. My first serious gal friend hauled me to a nightspot in Chicago--a beat bistro in a basement at Chicago and Dearborn that was called the Gate Of Horn. She wanted to hear something called "an Odetta!" Us kids were let in if we only drank Coke. It seemed strange but trad folksingers were playing these bars. It was mesmerizing and noir and a real adventure, and we were ready for anything that came at us.

Sunday afternoons, in 1959, there were Hootenannies--programmed open stages -- at the "Gate." At the first one of those hoots I went to a fellow named Sandy Paton was participating. Fresh back from the UK, he sang songs he'd taped from Jeannie Robertson, the McPeake Family, Captain Bob Roberts and many others. To say that it was a mind-opener and a mind-blower for me was pretty accurate. Sandy said he had an LP album coming out soon on Elektra -- and I figured I'd be getting one eventually. --- First, though, I graduated high school -- and then went off to work at my uncle's factory in Evansville, Indiana all that summer of '59.

In Indiana, I ordered Sandy's record at Bob Shadd's Record Shop the first week I was in town. --- It arrived eight weeks later on the last day of my summer job!! What a wonder that album was;---the first American recording of "Wild Mountain Thyme" was on it-- "Katy Cruel" -- Long A-Growin'" -- "Byker Hill" "The Overgate" -- "The Foggy Dew" -- many others. Years later, when I told Mr. Paton how much I loved that record, he questioned my taste in music. He hated the way Elektra had forced him to accept Fred Hellerman playing second guitar. The company also cut a verse off of "Wild Mountain Thyme" because, they said, it was too long to get any air play. When I asked Sandy to sign the album 30 years after it came out, he wrote:

Dear Art:

It seems that the sins of one's past
eventually catch up.
No escape for the wicked!

Sandy Paton

No sentiment there, but I'll always love that album---The Many Sides Of Sandy Paton -- Elektra Records--#148 Two fine photos of the thespian sides of Sandy--and one of the folksinger side adorn the cover. I'll send a scan of it to Katlaughing to see if it can be made available here.

After Evansville, I went to the University Of Illinois (Champaign) but wasn't interested. I was only into learning guitar. After that it was the U. of I. at Chicago--then on Navy Pier.--As we sometimes said, it was the only university in the country that could be torpedoed! Our folk club at Navy Pier hosted a concert by Frank Hamilton that year--1960. I'll never forget his simply great versions of the Russian song "Meadowlands" and Pete's "Singin' In The Country"--and a bunch more. --- I lasted at that school until I realized that college was interfering with my education! I left and got a day job at Rose Record Store--"the world's largest" they said, on Wabash Avenue in Chicago.

Be patient, people, Sandy comes back into the tale real soon!!!! I wanted to give those set-up details first.

To continue:

A block and a half North down Wabash Avenue was the great Kroch's And Brentannos Book Store. On my lunch hours I'd wander around the Art Institute a while, and often go to Kroch's to find a book.

One day in 1962 or '63 I wandered in there and, unbelievably, found a new sales department right up in front---ALL FOLK RECORDS. Pete, Woody, Cisco--it was a treasure trove. And behind the counter was a fellow I knew-- from my past, SANDY PATON!!! Somehow, Sandy had sold 'em on the idea of featuring trad and folk---quite a preposterous idea both then and now -- maybe.

Folks, I lost 40 pounds that year because all my lunchhours were spent talking with Sandy. Sandy saw my hunger for experiencing rhe land and the music---finding the "tales with tunes" that the found songs were. Those kinds of songs became my mission. Sandy pretty mush told me the way to credibility as a folksinger might be to get out on the road and meet the ones on the land and see, first hand, how the details and hardships of life, the topography of the land, the historical background, the loves and hates and heartfelt desires of the folks there and then, as well as before, had shaped these songs into the real documents that they become.   

Later on, Sandy would say that he used to tell everyone the same stuff---but that I was the only one who had gone and done it. He wondered if I'd ever forgiven him. From where I sat, though, it all seemed terribly logical. It felt like great advice.

You see, after my mother passed away, Carol and I had a small inheritance. After getting married in 1967, we traveled the first 3 years we were married. We moved, with all our pets and our records, to the Oregon coast and opened our "Folk Art Shop" in Depoe Bay. We loved the coast and the Pacific Northwest---until we ran out of cash and headed back to Chicago where being a folksinger (and not a salmon fisherman or a lumberjack) was, at least, a possibility.

As I said in another post, my father died when I was five. I was sure I had his genes and would depart early -- so we sort of Retired First! Older relatives thought we were irresponsible as all hell, but I just told 'em, "Sandy Paton told me to do it! He gave me permission." ---- Of course, that made it kosher with everyone. ;-) As it turned out, Carol and I are now too ill and out of it to retire meaningfully. We did it right, I've always thought. Tons of good memories.

In Chicago I honed my musical skills a bit---picked my mentors carefully---Pete, Cisco, Paul Durst, Aunt Molly Jackson, Paul Clayton, Bob Gibson, Utah Phillips, Harry Haywire Mack Mcclintock -- and surely Sandy. Sandy became almost a dad to me. The music, the ethics, yes, the politics, the respect and love for the process that mechanized the treasure hunt and the whole gestalt called tradition. I tried to tell Sandy some of that through the years. Why I never told him all of it, I will never know. --- I suspect I always thought there would be time...

Also, in Chicago, all through the 1970s, I did a folk music column for Emily Friedman's grand magazine called Come For To Sing. In several of those I wrote about Sandy Paton---and what he has inspired me. ------ Well, what goes around, comes around. Sandy read some of those columns and began asking around about who this guy was!? Some told him that I was an OK folksinger. Possibly he heard me somewhere too---I don't know. The next thing I DID know was that Sandy wanted me to come and play at the Folk Legacy Folk Festival in Hartford, Connecticut. I was blown away---again, people. I've run out of superlatives to say how much Sandy and Caroline have meant to me. I don't think Sandy had remembered our talks in the Chicago book store. but one thing led to another until, miraculously, Sandy asked me to do a record for Folk Legacy. ---- All I can say is it felt like coming home to be in the great presence of so many people whose music I loved. Gordon, and Ed and Anne and Jonathan Eberhardt, all the folks---Frank Proffitt, Jim Ringer, Edna Ritchie, Sarah Gunning, Arnold Storm, Howie Mitchell, Skip Gorman, Jerry Rasmussen, All the Beech Mountain singers like Lee Monroe Presnell.

I'm tired tonight after trying to write this again after losing it in cyberspace today. Just know that it was better before.

As you people have said, there really are no words to tell Caroline how much she and Sandy have meant in our lives. I've gone on and on here trying to tell you some of it. I see I have left out the late Lee Haggerty who came into Kroch's book store and bought a ton of records from Sandy, and then, sort of funded the beginning of Folk Legacy in Vermont as Sandy's partner. So there. Now I've put Lee here where he belongs.

Time for bed. Love to all---and especially to Caroline, Robin and David. Of course, to Sandy!

Onward, and upward,

Art & Carol Thieme

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 12:49 AM

At last Art.

Write more like that. Everyone knows the history of the Bob Dylans'. Start telling the history of the Sandys' and everybody like him you have known. Add some pictures of Sandy if you can. I never met him until ten years ago. I'd like to have known him when he was younger. Tell me more of that story.

Don

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: balladeer
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 01:09 AM

I never met Sandy in person, only through letters and e-mails, but I've known him through his good works for all my life.

He had a profoundly positive effect on my dear friend Rick Fielding, and I loved him for that.

Blessings to those near and dear.

Joanne

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: open mike
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 02:18 AM

Thank you Art, for filling in that story...
it makes me feel like i know you all personally!

and since we can connect here on the "Cat, we
all have formed some mighty friendships...

I have one of the recordings you did for folk legacy
and am looking forward to playing it and others on
my show the week after next. I am glad Sandy gave
you permission to "pre-tire" and as was mentioned
before, "something's lost, but something's gained"
as we all piece together what a web we are in and
so much of it was woven by Sandy and others who
reached out to bring folks into the folk fold .

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Hrothgar
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 03:06 AM

Never met him in the flech, but had the pleasure of several phone conversations and emails.

My condolences to Caroline and the family.

Roger Holmes

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: SINSULL
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 07:56 AM

Sandy hated that cover as much as he hated the record. There's a drape on one of the heads that doesn't blend in perfectly. I never figured out what he was going on about. Sandy was an incredibly handsome young man but I preferred the old codger in the ever present baseball cap.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: bbc
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 08:04 AM

Oh, Art, thanks so much for going to the trouble to reconstruct your post! Although I think Sandy meant as much to me in quality as to you, our friendship didn't have the same duration. Thanks for giving us a flavor of those earlier times! Don't worry. I've heard Sandy & Caroline speak of you many times. They know your love for them & the feeling is very mutual! I'm glad you did your retirement first & had some good times before the MS moved in. Sandy gave me an interesting piece of advice once, too!

love,

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: bbc
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 08:05 AM

P.S. to Art--I've printed your post & will read it to Caroline on Thursday.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: bbc
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 08:26 AM

One more thought, before I, officially, start my day. Now that many of us are past the initial shock of Sandy's passing, I think it would be great if folks will share their memories of Sandy, as some of you have already done. We can do our online memorial now, particularly for those who are too far away to come to the in-person one later.

with love,

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: georgeward
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 08:28 AM

Art,

Bless you for giving it another go!

And what Don Meixner said, too.

- George

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: MartinRyan
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 09:26 AM

Been away on holidays -very sad to hear this news.

Regards

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: CupOfTea
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 09:38 AM

I was stunned to read that Sandy Paton had passed: sorrow piled on grief. It's been too many years since I've been with Sandy & Caroline. Came close a few years ago when Caroline talked me into going to an Oberlin folk weekend/seminar and cheering on Joe Hickerson. At the last minute they were unable to come, so I hung about with Judy and Dennis Cook, and had about as good a time as could be had without the Patons.

When I think of WHY I got involved in folk music, the Patons and Folk Legacy come to mind - the delivery of things of great worth in the music never more evident. I met/heard them first while in grad school in Illinois, and though they lived in CT, there was always this feeling of them being a part of the scene that included Art, and George and Jerry Armstrong.

When I think of Folk Alliance, they're prominent among the memories that come to mind, from that third FA in Chicago when I got to sing WITH them the first time to the watershed Boston FA where Caroline was part of a cartel of us trying to get a tradional singing session going among the river of singersongwhiners (or "omphaloscopists" as Sandy would put it). In our room, with folks gathered from those we (Phil, Margaret, Kate) knew, and the Patons knew, we had a grand time with the beds turned up to make space. A sprightly woman sitting atop the upturned bed proceeded to launch into some long, bloody and gripping ballad. Jaws dropped. I clearly hear Margaret's voice say "who ARE you and why don't we KNOW you?" And that's how we met Judy Cook.

All through the Folk Alliances or festiivals, there were always the "do you know...." and "you should meet/hear/singwith...." suggestions from the Patons. Such joy they passed out in those kinds of connections - and how richly those introductions, by album they'd produced, or in person meeting, filled,colored and changed my life, gave me friends, gave me songs to sing.

Many years ago, when I was rich in hope for Cleveland having the kind of folk life that I knew existed elsewhere, I was fortunate enough to have presented the Patons in a house concert, held at a friend's place. I was close to embarassed at how small the house was (in size and in turn out). Of course the concert was wonderful. MORE wonderful in memory is the rest of the night - when a few of us retreated back to my house with the Patons who were FAR from done singing: a song session went on to wee hours. I know someone HAD to leave about 3 am to drive home, an hour away... while the three of us got to sleep in. Even better, they stayed a couple days with talk over omlettes and stirfry and song. This gift of time singing is one of the things I can think of when I need to list all the times I've been absurdly lucky. Such great good fortune to know these people. Ah, when I think of Sandy's joy in life, and know how it must have been so ravaged by the loss of his grandson - and Caroline's smile. - how it hurts to think that her smile will be dimmed by grief.

So out in the land of "hardly care about traditional folk music" I say there's one soul who is profoundly greatful for the life work of Sandy Paton. My hope for Caroline and the family (by blood and by heart and song) that grief soon take second place to greatfulness to have had this wonderful man for so many years.

Joanne Laessig in Cleveland, Ohio

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 09:56 AM

OK, Barbara. I've told this story before, but maybe not quite in this way. When I was just 10 years old (nearly 40 years ago!!) I had come to the sad conclusion that I could not be a musician, as I had dropped out of the school band, and we did not have a piano. Somehow my childhood experience led me to believe that I needed a big, shiny instrument to be a legitimate musician (years singing beside my mother at the local Episcopal church, as well as stints in the Junior Choir, not withstanding). At that time my grandfather was the Methodist minister in Sharon, CT. During one visit to my grandparents, my grandmother suggested that my mother take me to hear "a nice young couple" who were playing at the Audubon Center.
That night, for all my young years, I truly had an epiphany experience. Hearing Sandy and Caroline's beautiful voices singing simple, engaging folk songs, connecting with the audience, playing guitar (Sandy) and autoharp (Caroline- did she also have a mountain dulcimer? I think so)- I knew without a doubt that I could and would be a musician.
to be continued...

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 10:02 AM

...got called away for a minute. Anyway, years later I ran into Sandy and Caroline at a folk festival, re-established contact, told them my story, and remained connected to them from then on. At one festival, Sandy asked me, "Tell me about this 'Mudcat" place you mentioned before...". I don't take credit for his presence here, but I was one of the ones from whom he heard about it!

At another festival he introduced me to someone by saying, "I made her what she is today!"

I started learning guitar the week after that fateful concert at the Audubon. I taught elementary music for 25 years, lead community sings, direct Animaterra Women's Chorus, and in all I do I remember the influence of both Sandy and Caroline. I have many more memories that I'll tell as time and internet access permits!

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: SINSULL
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 10:42 AM

That's wonderful, Allison. Never heard your story before.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Big Mick
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 11:08 AM

Yep, Sins, pretty cool story from our Allison (with two L's). I continue to be touched by how many of these stories are out there, from all walks and levels of the folk scene. Could there be a more compelling example than Art's? I know that typing, for our friend Art, is no small task. But it was important to us, so he did it and it is a treasure!!!

Methinks that what a person does in life is certainly important, but the way you are remembered, and by who, is more important. I know that in my life, this man expressed such interest and such caring, that it affected me in a profound way. In our minds we might think that we were very special to him. When I read of all the others that were touched in the very same, very profound way, it makes me realize what a giant he was. I was very special to him, but so were every one of the folks who have shared their own remembrances. Can you imagine the great heart, and the infinite love this man had? It was all centered around music, and his absolutely convicted belief in the importance of a community of friends, of "good people".

I think we are all coming to the realization of how very lucky we are to have had this wonderful man in our lives. To paraphrase something Kendall has said of Folk Legacy many times, when you can say that you were friends with Sandy Paton, well ....... that's saying something.

Can you imagine the reunion with Rick?

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,Pete Kraemer
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 12:05 PM

I am stunned. There is little I can add to what has been written here, other than my personal sadness, condolences to the Pattons, to all who knew and loved Sandy, and my grateful thanks for his and Caroline's friendship.

Thank you, Sandy, for a life truly well lived. I will remember you always as a gentleman, a gentle man, and a friend.

Peter Kraemer

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: MikeT
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 12:41 PM

Stunned also, just saw this. Like others, I have loved Folk Legacy, all the records songs and musicians. I can only add my love and prayers to all, and my gratitude to the Patons for lives dedicated to the music I love

Mike

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 01:34 PM

I first heard of Sandy & Caroline here on the mudcat. So many people here thought so highly of them, and Sandy's posts were so warm and informative, that I jumped at the chance to go hear them when they appeared at a restaurant in my hometown of Branford, CT.   It was a wonderful evening.

Saw the Patons several times at their booth and in workshops at NOMAD and NEFFA, until the end when Sandy no longer was able to sing and then no longer even attend. Caroline carried on beautifully with her glorious singing, but I always missed Sandy's presence.

Here are some photos on flickr with Sandy and Caroline, some of which I took: Patons on Flickr.com

I always thought that I'd see him again.

Here are the words to a song I wrote a few years ago that really say what I'm thinking on this sad occasion.

Goodbye, My Good Old Friend
Barbara Shaw, 8/10/2005

It takes a long, long time
To learn how to walk this row
And when you've got it right, you know
It's time to let it go.

(Chorus)
Goodbye, my good old friend
How I hate to see you go
Your visit was a godsend
I just want you to know.

Some folks get wise with age
And the wisest ones don't mind
The road that lies ahead of them
Or the burdens left behind.

And when the day is done the greatest
Thing you leave behind
Is memory of the time we shared
And your picture in my mind.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: maeve
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 01:41 PM

To those who are struggling for words- We all fumble for the right words in threads like this and among family and friends. What we can each do is consider our own experiences, and speak or write about what that special person and his/her life have meant. Your experience of Sandy and Folk Legacy is unique, and might just be the recollection that helps another grieving friend heal.

I'm looking for the words too.

maeve

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: greg stephens
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 01:49 PM

One of the very good guys

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 04:29 PM

This must be so hard for Caroline and her family; to lose Kaelan and Sandy in such a short space.

May I offer my love and sympathy to all. I'll miss Sandy here - I never met him, but I liked reading his contributions. I think that in calling his business "Folk Legacy" Sandy has passed on a priceless inheritance already; Art Thieme's post testifies just how valuable that has been.

I'd love to hear more stories about Sandy's visits to Britain in the 1950's; it strikes me that with Jean Ritchie, Alan Lomax, Ken Goldstein and Sandy Paton there was a strong American influence on the revival of folk music in Britain and Ireland. They all spread the news that traditional music and song still flourished, and encouraged a new generation to learn from such great singers as Jeannie Robertson.

Matthew

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: bradfordian
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 04:44 PM

As has been said many times already in this thread, a gentle man who "touched" so many people with his easy going manner. He exuded such warmth and geniality. We all know the folk world has been immeasurably enriched.
My condolences to his family.

Sleep on beloved, sleep and take thy rest.
Lay down thy head upon thy Saviour's breast.
We love thee well but Jesus loves thee best;
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.

Bradfordian

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: JennieG
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 06:43 PM

Sad news....I have just read this thread, I've been away for a couple of weeks. While I have never met Sandy or Caroline they come across as such lovely folks. Condolences to Caroline and the rest of the family.

JennieG

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: Genie
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 06:52 PM

Yes, very sad news. Sorry Sandy was in such poor health for so long before passing on, too.
Like Jennie, I never had the privilege of meeting Sandy or Caroline, but it's clear thier contributions to the folk community, as musicians, folk historians, and just plain menchen, have been tremendous.   Wish I could have met Sandy in person. So glad he's left so rich a trove of recorded music behind.

My condolences to Caroline and the rest of the family.

Genie

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: M.Ted
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 09:07 PM

I met Sandy only once, and we talked about Uncle Dave Macon, particularly how he'd turned a mishmash of old time songs into recordings, and how important that those recordings had been. It was like I was chatting with an old neighbor, or maybe a favorite uncle.

Much later, it occurred to me that he had a lot in common with Uncle Dave--first, because they were both central, seminal figures in their respective areas of music--known and listened to by everyone that came after. Second, because they took a kind of live music and managed to turn it in to recorded music that stood on it's own.

The fact is, the music industry in general never really knew how to create folk/traditional records that captured the essence of the music, or that reflected the great gifts of the performers. We had to "listen through" a lot--records tended to be either"So and so "Live" at the Whatchamacallit" or "So and So" has a Swinging Hootenanny".

The Folk-Legacy catalog is truly a thing of wonder, because "It's all good". He had a vision of how folk music should sound on vinyl, and knew how to realize that vision. In that way, he was as much of a genius as any of the big name music producers. More so,
even, because they tended to have big budgets and rooms full of equipment, and expensive help. He often had little more than splicing tape and a razor.

There are others here who can talk about how he did what he did, and I hope that they will. I've been listening to, and loving, the music since I was a kid. He tapped into a spring that continues to give us a gift that is fresh, pure, and essential, even now that he is gone.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: GUEST,Ed Brown
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 07:33 AM

I just this morning learned of Sandy's death. We will all miss Sandy's presence as we go forward in our lives. May we be comforted by the thought that eternity is not about time.
We are still singing and laughing with Sandy at all those points in space and time our memories recall. He is still there with us at the old SMU Eisteddfod and at so many other festivals, concerts, memorial services, and more.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Big Tim
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 09:00 AM

I never knew him (except via Mudcat) but I believe that I would have liked him.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: JedMarum
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 09:08 AM

Such an impact on the world of folk music. Everywhere I go I hear the story repeated. Sandy's impact and influence was so great and so much appreciated.

ia

Vaya con Dios, our old friend.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Celtaddict
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 02:32 PM

I have followed this thread, in sorrow for our loss and in joy for our having had Sandy and Folk-Legacy, and have thought like many others of what a FOLK LEGACY Sandy created. In person, both Sandy and Caroline were both fascinating and gracious, comfortable to be with despite their wonderful knowledge, talents, and accomplishments. Several posts have made me think of this song, which I am going to request tonight:

Only Remembered

Up and away like the dew of the morning,
Soaring from earth to its heavenly home,
Thus would I leave from this world and its toiling:
Only remembered for what I have done.

cho: Only remembered, Only remembered,
Only remembered for what we have done;
Only remembered, Only remembered,
Only remembered for what we have done.

Shall we be missed when others succeed us,
Reaping the fields we in spring time have sown?
Nay, for the sower shall pass from his labor,
Only remembered for what he has done.

Only the truth that in life we have spoken,
Only the seeds that on Earth we have sown,
These shall pass on ward while we are forgotten,
Only remembered for what we have done.

From Randolph's Folksongs of the Ozarks

The seeds, and the truths, from Sandy Paton have been mighty indeed.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 02:41 PM

I never met Sandy Paton, and but for the Mudcat his name would have meant hardly anything to me. But I always read his posts with interest and pleasure, and from them and from other people's reactions I gathered he was someone special. I will miss him as another 'friend I never knew'. My sympathy to his wife, who seems to be a very special person in her own right, and to his family, for two sad losses in such a short time.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Rex
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 03:20 PM

Hard times for Mudcat. We can all be grateful for Sandy's dedication to traditional music. It was good to have him here in the Mudcat camp as well.

Rex

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: nager
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 06:14 PM

My deepest sympathies to the family. I never met Sandy but we emailed from time to time and he sounded like a wonderful man --Paul.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: GUEST,Ed Trickett
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 10:07 PM

Goodbye Sandy, It's been 45 years since you decided to include "The Golden Ring" as part of your Folk Legacy legacy and over 40 years since I met you and Caroline at Bob and Evelyn Beers' wondrous Fox Hollow festival. Over those years I must have spent the equivalent of six months living at Folk Legacy either through recordings or visits. I watched your kids grow up, felt the joy you and Caroline experienced as grandparents, spent hours talking after the typical recording session finished at 2-3 am about matters great and small. We shared parts of our life histories, why songs rather than singers came first, talked about the corrupting influence of capitalism on the folk music revival, and, of course, politics. You forgave my many foibles, I think, and always welcomed me into your house and world. You put up with so many of us during the Five Days Singing period, Caroline was always so gracious as were you about our invading your living space; your kids would come by, check in, and go their ways. In earlier times, Lee would share his presence and his Glenfiddich. I worked with you professionally in so many recordings with so many wonderful musicians; saw how you dealt with us odd bunch of, shall we say, characters who would have tried the patience of a saint; marveled at your working with quite traditional recording equipment to produce the most exquisite recordings of the music you loved, splicing by hand, mixing voices through how you placed us around the microphone, not afterward through technology. What you gave us on Folk Legacy recordings was what we really sounded like at the time, not a "sound" created after the fact through mixing; It was hard, certainly for me, to get it right all the way through. I think you allowed me over 30 takes of "Brave Boys" before it came together. But that was the way you thought the music should be done, and you were right.

But those were some of the earlier memories. More recently, when Dina and I visited you and Caroline in April of this year, you were looking back and lamenting getting older; you told me getting old was not all that great, but your wit, sense of dignity, and ability to tell a story trumped everything else. You told us about your times with Paul Clayton, and that you'd just read the book about his life that Bob Coltman had just written. You were every bit the engaged scholar of the music you dedicated your life to singing and preserving. Dina and I brought you up to date on our family. You weren't sure we'd meet again. We did, but under the worst of circumstances, at the memorial service for your grandson Kaelin. Caroline asked that I sing "Gently down the stream of time", and I wouldn't have had the courage to do that without her asking. But the service was both a very moving remembrance of Kaelin and an affirmation of the affection and appreciation of the musical community you and Caroline forged over the past 50 years. David Jones, Kathy Westra, Jerry Rasmussen, Priscilla Herdman, Sally Rogers, Jerry Epstein, George Ward, Lyn Burnstine, the Dildines, Joanie and Neal, your long time friends Karen and Lee, and many others from years gone by, were all part of that. We had a chance to talk a little then, and I told you how important you had been to me over the years, and you, characteristically, didn't seem to believe me. I didn't have the words, and the setting wasn't just right, to tell you why I feel that way, but I do want others to know now what I wish I had said to you more directly then.

You were always a person of the greatest integrity about your life and your work. You were a person of principle, you knew what you cared about and you knew how to care about it. You were a principled risk taker in the way you approached Folk Legacy recordings. You believed in recording people whose approach to music you believed in. That was primary, breaking even or even making a little was not. The traditional musicians whose music you preserved in the early Folk Legacy years would not have a voice today were it not for you. I think you were pretty sure that Abe Trivett and Marie Hare would not go platinum. Or me either, for that matter. But your faith in what you cared about made these recordings a reality.

You knew how to listen to a song in a way that few others did. You approached recording with an uncanny sense of what the song should sound like, a deep respect for the traditions out of which it came, and a thorough appreciation of how newly crafted songs fit into the ongoing tradition of folk music. There was just something about you that brought out the traditional in us. Most of us you recorded were never full time professional musicians—not a shrewd business move! But of the more full time musicians you did record—Bill Staines, Archie Fisher, Rosalie Sorrels, Jim Ringer, and, of course, Gordon—I think their recording with you represented the best of their work.

You were a scholar without formal education to prove it. You knew your folk music, you read voraciously and never stopped (Your telling me about reading the Coltman book on Paul Clayton shortly after it came out last year was a simply stunning example of your life long engagement in keeping up with your chosen field). The library of ethnomusicology, folk tales, and song books that is your house was, I thought, second only to the Library of Congress; that is, until you told me a couple months ago that Lisa Null may not agree with that assessment. But when it came to folksong, you were like a birddog with a scent; you'd call traditional musicians to ask about a work or phrase on a song they recorded that was incomprehensible to the listener; you'd track down the history of songs many of us more intellectually lazy folks failed to do and write about them in your now-famous notes that used to accompany each Folk Legacy recording. And you were a wonderful writer, who knew the power of words and the value of choosing them carefully.

Perhaps most of all, you were a generous and caring person with your many talents, your time, your friendship, and your willingness to be there when needed. When Dina and I decided to marry almost 20 years ago, we asked if you would, in your Justice of the Peace role, perform the ceremony. We will always remember and be grateful for your officially joining us together. Others have written about your many acts of kindness over the years, and I wanted to add to their memories of you and your family my deep and abiding appreciation for the ways in which your life, and that of Caroline and your kids, has enriched mine and my life with Dina.

The ripples of your life will go on, you know. Last night we were having dinner at a Japanese-Korean restaurant near our house in Chicago. I usually tune out music in restaurants, but I heard something familiar. Over the speakers in the ceiling came a lovely voice singing Wild Mountain Thyme. We just sat there smiling, precious memories flooding our souls.

And so my friend, I'll bid you adieu. I'm a better man for just the knowin' of you.

With love and appreciation always, Ed

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 10:49 PM

Ed,
What a wonderful tribute.
Art

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: lisa null
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 11:12 PM

Wow Ed:

You said it for us all. As for Sandy's collection of "ethnomusicology, folk tales, and song books" -- I cut my teeth on it as a singer and student of folklore. Perhaps there are bigger collections, but when coupled with the tapes, the recordings, the coffee, and the conversation-- I cannot think of any learning environment that came close!

Sandy-- I know it's time to let go, but it feels as if we have only just begun!

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: KT
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 11:16 PM

What a beautiful post, Ed, and a wonderful, heartwarming testimony to the goodness of your friend, Sandy.

"And you were a wonderful writer, who knew the power of words and the value of choosing them carefully."

As are you, Ed. Thanks so much for sharing them with us, and in so doing, giving us a little bit more of Sandy.

KT

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: Big Mick
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 11:55 PM

Ed, I remember when you took me outside at Prince William and sang "Along The Famine Road", and told me you would send it to me. I was so excited that I told Sandy that in my world that was like getting a song from Elvis. Sandy laughed so hard that I thought he might pass out. Still makes me laugh just thinking about his reaction.

Your words captured the essence of the man in a way that no one else could. We are in your debt. Thank you.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: JohnB
Date: 31 Jul 09 - 12:11 AM

I just opened Mudcat to check on the status of Johnny Collins arrangements. I REALLY did not think of seeing something like this.
My sicerest regards to Caroline. I really do think I have to go away now and have ANOTHER drink.
This year is not turning out out be particularly pleasant, too many friends joining that Heavenly Choir.
JohnB.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,George Stephens
Date: 31 Jul 09 - 01:17 AM

I've often wondered if Sandy (and Caroline and Lee) ever fully appreciated the profound effect they had (sorry, have) on so many lives by introducing so many of us to this music with the "records edged in black", and being helpful and welcoming to any one, regardless of knowledge or sophistication, who had an interest. I won't say anything as insipid as "folk music saved my life" ('though I'm sore tempted...), but it sure made it worthwhile, and Sandy has to take much of the credit. Surely my proudest singing moments were in Sandy's "Hobo Songs" workshops at NOMAD. Go to sleep, you weary hobo.

George

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: bbc
Date: 31 Jul 09 - 06:25 AM

Ed, thank you so much! You said many things about Sandy that rang true for me, as, I'm sure, they do for many others who knew him. Your music, (& that of Ann & Gordon) recorded by Folk Legacy, was one of the key factors in starting my Internet romance that has spanned 9 years, so far. I met Patons as a teacher & librarian &, though our tastes were not the same, we shared a love for words & literature that enlivened our conversations. On his last Thursday, true to form, Sandy asked us to pack his current book & the next in line before we left for his doctor's appointment. Like me, he never wanted to be without reading material. Ed, I'm sure that Sandy knew of your regard for him. It's just that, when we're doing something that comes easily to us, we don't tend to see the full merit in it. Sandy had a finely honed musical sense & he was true to it (as you noted), regardless of financial benefit. We've all reaped the benefit of his work & it has enriched us in ways that money can't buy. If you didn't say exactly what you might have wished at Kaelan's memorial, that's ok. There was so much going on, that day, that it wasn't the best setting for communication. You were there & I know the Patons appreciated that. Caroline spoke of it to me. When someone dies, it seems there are always regrets--things we wish we had said, done, asked. I hope this thread gives us a chance, in some sense, to have that communication, to share that love & that grief. I'm glad you were able to visit before the concert in April (That was my folk club.).

best,

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 31 Jul 09 - 06:38 AM

Ed,

Thank you.

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,Glen Reid
Date: 31 Jul 09 - 09:32 AM

So sad to hear of the passing of another folk music icon and a freind.
I first got to know the Paton's when I was down there with Rick Fielding, working on his "Lifeline" album. It was 2 weeks of total folk immersion and oh the storys that were told and the songs we sang.
It will be forever a cherished memory, thank you Sandy.
My heartfelt condolances to Caroline, David and Robin.
Glen

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,Sheila Cogan
Date: 31 Jul 09 - 11:59 AM

As one of travelers with the Portable Folk festival in 1971, our time with Sandy, Caroline and Lee changed our lives. During those 10 weeks on the bus, I and I believe everyone gained perspectives on our lives and futures that forever changed us.

We understood when we returned to the Bay Area, from both the inward and outward journey of 3000 miles at 30 miles an hour downhill, that the group of 17 of us (including two dogs)had created a musical legacy, of sorts, that should be captured and recorded. Kenny Hall and the Sweets Mill String Band whose members, with the exception of Kenny, were on the bus, became the first Bay Record. It was modeled--package, black-and-white cover and album notes--after the Folk Legacy style; it felt "right."

Several of the group members were later recorded by Sandy and Carolyn--Jim Ringer and Jon Wilcox (there may be others. It's been awhile.)

Though I left the record industry behind some years ago, I never left the music. The "music" is a deep part of who I am though I don't perform publicly anymore.

Like the Beers, who are still there in our lives and hearts, I will miss Sandy.

Thank you Sandy and Carolyn for all you have done for us.

Sheila Cogan

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 31 Jul 09 - 12:15 PM

Let me add my thanks to you, Ed, for the beautiful post. I wouldn't even attempt to add anything to it.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: DonMeixner
Date: 31 Jul 09 - 02:06 PM

Thanks Ed.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,Guest David Jones
Date: 31 Jul 09 - 03:35 PM

Thank you Ed, for your letter to Sandy, you are the best.
David

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: gnu
Date: 31 Jul 09 - 03:48 PM

Ed... tears and smiles. Good on ya.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: NOMADMan
Date: 31 Jul 09 - 06:15 PM

Returning to Connecticut after a couple of weeks away, I was greeted by this sad, terrible news. For all of the time I have been involved in folk music events in this region - over 35 years now - it seemed that Sandy was all over the place - at concerts, festivals, workshops and other events. Even when he wasn't physically present, his influence could always be felt. I can't even guess what direction my own interests would have gone if it hadn't been for that influence.

Years ago, when NOMAD transformed itself from a small, mostly dance event to a more ambitious traditional dance and music festival, it was Sandy's support and encouragement that made it possible. We could not have done it without him, and it is not likely that NOMAD would have continued providing a gathering place for friends of traditional music as long as it did.

Sandy was also helpful in my radio programming efforts in New Haven, making sure we always received the latest additions to that magnificent Folk-Legacy catalog, and providing advice, suggestions and background information for my broadcast Child Ballads project.

It is so difficult to accept the reality of his passing. Somehow, it seemed that he would go on forever. In one sense though, we will always have him - in those wonderful recordings he made and his informative posts here on Mudcat.

We have lost a giant. Our world is poorer for his passing and enriched by what he did for us while he was here.

Regards,
John

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Jul 09 - 07:15 PM

Thank you, Ed. Means more than we can say to read your words to and of Sandy.

Please keep the stories coming, folks. It is really wonderful for those of us who weren't able to ever meet Sandy in the 3D world.

Thanks, again,

kat, my Rog, and grandson Morgan who is the proud owner of TWO limberjacks courtesy of Sandy & Caroline

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: KathWestra
Date: 31 Jul 09 - 10:14 PM

What an overflowing heart-full of memories are here--and what a testament to the community that Sandy helped build. Thanks to all. Thanks especially, Ed, for a beautiful and touching tribute. Kathy

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,schlimmerkerl
Date: 31 Jul 09 - 10:27 PM

Son of a bitch. That boy could sing.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: georgeward
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 12:25 AM

"...you knew what you cared about and you knew how to care about it."

Not only is it true, Ed, but it's something I think it would have mattered to Sandy to hear.
Knowing you, I'm sure he did hear it, whether or not you ever said it in so many words.

Thanks for that, and all the rest.

- George

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,Larry Kaplan
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 02:32 AM

These messages will continue for a very long time because Sandy was indeed a very great man, and this news haw and will send a shockwave not only across the US, but I am sure the world.

That's how much Sandy and his wonderful family was--- and is respected. You know this is so when at times like this you think back to your own life when his presence and all his work marked epochs and moments. For me it was discovering that there was a vanguard out there defending and discovering the folk traditions and offering a perspective that could draw you away from the popular culture that prevailed. His work informed me, and helped us bring up our own children who still know what LPs are, the artists he believed in and supported continue to inspire, even though some of them too are gone.

Sandy's humility came from a very honest realization that he was put on this earth to do at least one thing exceedingly well while having at the same time, a healthy respect for the importance (and challenges) of others in making the world a better place. I think with that perspective he may not have had time to notice all the other amazing things he was and did as well. There were many.

Why are we all writing these "posts?" It's because Sandy made himself accessible, even transparent. You saw him and Caroline everywhere---festivals, concerts, the smallest venues, wherever there was music and people who appreciated it. You could talk to Sandy, and darn it, he was really interested in what you had to say. Anyone. His laugh stood out in crowds because in those crowds, among friends he didn't even know he had, he was truly happy. How could he not be? Everyone was speaking his language. He lived and breathed the traditions he has helped preserve. To some of us this might even look like he made sacrifices to do that. But when his story is told in its fullest, notice one thing: he was someone who loved everything he did, and everyone he knew, uncompromizingly, and fully.

I knew Sandy and spent alot of time with him and his family. While not a good excuse, time and distance has taken its toll. But I was with Sandy when Kaelan was born; though not with him to say good bye to Kaelan, I could feel his pain hundreds of miles away, and I feel so badly for this remarkable family. But at a time like this I realize that nearly everyone knew Sandy just as much as almost anyone else---which is a remarkable thing. Such a public, yet intimate friend to so many people. Being able to do that is another one of his legacies.

Rest in peace, Sandy, I will miss you dearly. My heart goes out to your family who I know carry the torch. LK

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,Alan Oakes
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 03:22 AM

Thanks Ed. Moving words.

Miss you. Hope to see you soon.

I just realized I've known you longer than the 41 years I've known Sandy and Caroline. By-the-way, you are one of the best singers I have ever heard.

-Alan Oakes

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: BusyBee Paul
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 04:45 AM

Us UK Catters at Gainsborough Folk Club have been following this thread in respectful silence since none of us knew Sandy or, indeed, the Folk Legacy.

However, Jacqui.C made her regular visit to us last night and was delighted when one of our regulars sang a Utah Philips song. She then sang a song in Utah's memory and later one for Sandy. She also gave us more information on the man and his Legacy - how appropriate that is!.

Kendall - we're taking good care of her and I know she wishes she were with you at this difficult time.

From the backwoods of Lincolnshire,
Deirdre

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 06:36 AM

I can only echo Deirdre's words. I guess Sandy was something of an unknown quantity to us in the Lincolnshire (UK) backwoods, but the tributes in this thread, and jacqui's words and songs last night, left me (at least) in no doubt about the great man he must have been.

Good to see and hear you again jacqui, especially at this difficult time.

God Bless.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: kendall
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 07:27 AM

I'll write a tribute later; right now I'm just not able to.
Sandy, if you are watching, I know I ended a sentence with a preposition. One of the best educated people I ever knew. Damn, this is so hard.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: maeve
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 07:39 AM

Kendall- You will find your words. When you do, they are sure to be worth the wait.

It's lovely and comforting to me to see how the ripples leading out from this one person's life continue to spread. The memory that is strongest for me right now is that of Lizzie Higgins, speaking with respect and affection, telling me about the young Sandy and Caroline Paton and their little son when they were in Scotland making field recordings.

maeve

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: maeve
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 07:47 AM

In fact, here is a photo of Caroline and baby David with Lizzie's mother, Jeannie Robertson. photo at Folk Legacy site . There's Sandy at the top of the page.

m

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,stringsinger
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 12:03 PM

I think that I may have posted this but don't see it here so if I have, please forgive me. Sandy, Valucha and I were a temporary folk trio in Chicago in the Fifties when Sandy was visiting there. Sandy and I did a folk concert, both as separate acts there. Sandy was one of the most informative Americans on the singing styles of the British Isles that I had ever met. The last time I saw him was in the Eighties at the SMU Eistedfodd at the extraordary "Dirty Songs Workshop" with David Jones, Cliff Haslam and Louis Killen. It was an amazing workshop where after the songs were completed you could look about at the sea of red faces laughing with embarrassment. I think this is an important aspect of folk music. People like folklorist Ed Cray (Ramblin' Man: bio of Woody Guthrie) covered in his book the Erotic Muse.

Sandy could demonstrate the difference in singing styles from the UK to the US. One song I associate with him is a version of the Hangman ballad which has a great chorus:

"O the prick-e-lie bush,
It grieves my heart full sore.
If I ever get out of the prick-e-lie bush,
I'll never go there any more."

Then onto: "Hangman slack your rope............"

Sandy was a wealth of information about all kinds of folk music and a terrible loss to the folk community.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Partridge
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 12:03 PM

So very sorry to hear this news.

Reading about this much loved man has been beautiful

much love from Yorkshire

Pat xxx

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,WYS in Vacayland
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 07:35 PM

SO SORRY. All love sent.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,Lauren in Beloit
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 09:47 PM

My thoughts are with the Paton family at this sad time. May Peace find them all.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 09:58 PM

Hey Lauren in Beloit: Just curious. You in Beloit, Wisconsin? I grew up in Janesville, and most of my family still lives there. My wife and I get out every couple of years.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: bbc
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 08:09 AM

It seems hard to believe that, just one week ago, I saw Sandy alive &, then, later that same day, bid him farewell. Linnea posted the following message on FaceBook yesterday:
"Kaelan and Sandy's ashes were released together at the top of a mountain today."
Sandy had a good death, as he'd had a good life. A week ago, Saturday evening, he & his family gathered & he was able to express his love for them & his wishes regarding his passing. He asked for his ashes to be commingled with Kaelan's, such a touching expression of his continuing love for his grandson.
As I've read the posts on this thread, I've gotten to know Sandy even better than I did before his death. I appreciate the insights & stories from earlier in his life that many of you can share. Please continue to share them. Caroline is aware of this thread & will be reading each post, as she is able. I shared some, last night, when she & I had dinner together. She is doing well & deeply appreciates the love that you all have for her & her family. She is considering dates for Sandy's memorial, probably sometime in the fall.

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,Rita Weill Byxbe
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 12:20 PM

Oh, Caroline~
My heart goes out to you--as it always has. I've only just found out that Sandy died. That he lived happily with you and the rest of his family to such a rounded age consoles me.
Every so often I thought to myself, "I really must get in touch again with Sandy & Caroline." It's my own fault that I didn't.
Losing your soul-mate is a shattering experience, as well as a great physical shock, as you are finding out. Eat as you must. Sleep as much as you can. Feel the great waves of love sweep over you from all of us, everywhere.
We're still here in Berkeley. Ethan a great musician at age 43.
I remember clearly your last night on the radio show, when Sandy sang, "Berkeley's about the best of the lot. It's given me the best thing that I've got. You know what I mean, it's my Caroline, she's the one thing I'm not leaving behind..." Much love to you, sweetie.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 12:31 PM

I plan on paying tribute to Sandy on my radio show this afternoon at 5pm ET. I am going to play some of my favorites from Folk Legacy in addition to music from Sandy & Caroline. I know he would not want me to, but I have to play a cut form his Elektra LP as well.

You can tune in to WFDU online at www.wfdu.fm, and we now archive our shows for two weeks.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: DADGBE
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 01:49 PM

In early winter of 1964 I lay on the rug in a friend's home as we listened to The Golden Ring. It was a life changing experience – who knew?! Nothing has been the same since and thank God for it.

The music was amazing. While it wasn't the first recording of music not made for performance that I'd ever heard but it was the first one that moved me. We stared at that plain black cover and wondered where in the hell Huntington, Vermont was. The AAA map showed us a tiny dot. Christmas break was coming up so I decided to see if I could find this mythical record company. Eventually, in the remote, snow covered Huntington valley I found the village of Hanksville and Lee Haggerty. He invited me to stay as there was nowhere else nearby. The next day, Sandy and Caroling returned from New York where they had been at Frank Proffitt's memorial.

The welcome was almost overwhelming to a college kid who didn't know much of life. Sandy and Caroline treated me as a welcome friend – the way they treated everyone. They were interested in what I had to offer and delighted to share themselves.

Sandy introduced me to traditional music and helped me learn to listen to it intelligently. If that had been all he ever gave me, it would have been enough.

The next summer found me working for Folk legacy as shipping assistant, chauffeur, baby sitter for David and Robin, painter and what ever else was needed. Sandy, Caroline, Lee and I set up and ran the booth at the first Fox Hollow festival where I met so many of you. That summer set the stage for a lifetime of music and connections. If that had been all he ever gave me, it would have been enough.

Sandy shared himself and his encyclopedic knowledge freely with anyone who cared to listen. The only person he treated unkindly was himself. He was never satisfied with his own efforts. When we were recording 'I've Got a Song' he was upset that the pure tenor of his earlier years had given way to a more mature voice – tempered by time and tobacco. No one else even noticed but it drove him crazy. Yet, through the whole process, he always noticed and had a kind word for my efforts as accompanist.

I once found a banjo in a corner behind the spinning wheel and asked him about it. It had been made by Frank Proffitt and used on his last recordings but had fallen into disrepair. The head was split and a peg was gone. Sandy gave it to me with the admonition to fix it and keep it working. It's still my most prized possession and it's played often. If that had been all he ever gave me, it would have been enough.

Farewell friend. Perhaps there'll be more later. I'm crying too hard to see.

Ray Frank

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Deckman
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 02:49 PM

a note to Joe Offer ... I respectfully suggest that this thread be archived. Bob(deckman)Nelson

---

Done. This is easy for anyone to do. Just click the "printer-friendly" link at the top of the page, and then save the resulting page to your computer.
But yes, I'll make sure to save a "safety copy." These are some of the most wonderful posts I've ever read.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: balladeer
Date: 04 Aug 09 - 10:33 AM

Too much death around this summer.

There will never be another Sandy Paton.
He was so woven into the conscience of the American folk scene.
A man filled with character and soul, a large man in every way.
God blessed him with an honest spirit and a perfect complement in his life-long loving partner, Caroline, and God will bless him still.

Love and blessings be with you always, Caroline.

Joanne (Hindley-Smith) Crabtree

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: SINSULL
Date: 04 Aug 09 - 10:39 AM

It is a comfort to know that neither Kaelan nor Sandy is alone. RIP

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GMT
Date: 04 Aug 09 - 11:52 AM

So sorry to hear this, my condolences to his family and close friends.

GMT

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: Big Mick
Date: 04 Aug 09 - 12:02 PM

He gave you Frank Profitt's banjo? What a treasure!! What a man!!!

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: DADGBE
Date: 04 Aug 09 - 04:53 PM

That was Sandy, Mick. He was an original. He also had an impish and sometimes wicked sense of humor.

When we were working on 'I've Got a Song' he would spontaneously create obscene parodies of Malvina Reynolds' lyrics. For the title track, he would walk around the house singing,
"I've got a dong, it's about so long and about so big around,
But it's got a disease so I can't use it."

For 'Magic Penny, he sang,
"Love is something, if you give it away, you'll end up being poor."

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Aug 09 - 11:13 AM

bbc, how's Caroline doing?

Would love to hear more stories, folks.

Subject: Sandy Paton Memorial 10 October 2009
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Aug 09 - 12:46 PM

Answered my own questions with a phone call to the lovely Lady. With her permission, I post the following:

Memorial and Musical Tribute to/for Sandy will be held on Saturday, 10 October 2009 at Music Mountain. They chose that date in order to not interfere with the Getaway and other fests, plus that was the best date for two of their dear friends from Scotland (sorry I didn't write their names down and do not remember them.)

Caroline sounds very good; I hope I have as much grace and understanding if I ever go through the losses she has. She said please do not worry about her. She has a sister in town, the kids and grandkids are just a few miles away and she is going to learn to use the computer!

She also said, the FIRST memorial to Sandy is to get their business back in order; the past two months were so difficult, it suffered, but they are getting it done and are pleased with any new orders, too.

Sandy's ashes have been mixed with half of Kaelon's and will be spread according to his wishes. (Kaelon's mother has the other half of his.)

As has been said, Sandy had a wonderful, peaceful, pain-free passing. He didn't want any music, but he did want them to hold his hands as they said goodbye that Friday night, then by Saturday he was unconscious and just slipped away. Caroline was grateful it was with such ease. There's more, but I think most of it's already been said before. What extraordinary people they all are and how fortunate we are that Folk Legacy is continuing.

kat

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Aug 09 - 02:34 PM

Ray Frank's post is a wonderful example of Sandy's wisdom. I've seen and heard that fretless Frank Proffitt banjo that Ray restored so carefully. Listening to Ray play it is a trip to heaven. Ray shares his knowledge and talent, and mentors younger musicians with all the generosity and kindness that Sandy gave to him. Ray isn't THAT much older than I am, but he was my first folk music mentor; and he gave me the spirit of Sandy Paton before I even knew who Sandy was.

That's the way these treasures should be passed on, and Sandy did it with such grace. Ray has passed on that grace to many of us in California.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: Peter T.
Date: 05 Aug 09 - 07:23 PM

I knew of the Patons through Rick Fielding, and they meant everything to him. If there is meeting after, I know who's one of the first.

Peter T.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: DADGBE
Date: 05 Aug 09 - 10:25 PM

Thanks for the kind words, Joe!

Best,
Ray

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,MtheGM
Date: 06 Aug 09 - 11:03 PM

Dearest Caroline: I wonder if you will remember me: I used often to meet you and Sandy at the clubs where he sang in London in 1956-57; he would always ask me up to sing. It is long ago and we have had no contact since; but you and he were real friends at the time [I remember you at a birthday party I had in Hampstead in the flat I shared with John Brunner, later one of the most distinguished of sf writers — everyone there was bowled over by the beauty of Sandy's singing]; and I still have some of the EP discs he made at the time for Collector Records which I still often play. Sandy lived to a good age, and I am 77 myself now; but it is always hard. I lost my own darling wife Valerie of nearly half-a-century, whom you might just remember as my fiancée while you were here, two years ago. So I know the grief you are feeling after all these years: and I do offer you and your family my most sincere condolences in your sorrow.
Michael Grosvenor Myer

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,MtheGM
Date: 06 Aug 09 - 11:17 PM

Caroline: PS to message just posted. If you should feel inclined to contact me to renew acquaintance after all this time:

Michael Grosvenor Myer, 34 West End, Haddenham, Cambs CB6 3TE, UK.
e: - [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: bbc
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 09:29 PM

Hi, folks,

Hard to believe it's been a month since Sandy's passing. I had dinner with Caroline tonight & it still surprises me that Sandy is absent. Caroline is getting more up-to-date on orders & asked me to let folks know that she has some time to chat now & would welcome your calls. She still hasn't figured out a way to see the computer well enough to manage email. She appreciates the cards that have been sent, but hasn't managed to read them all yet, since her vision makes it quite difficult. Caroline hopes that many of you may be able to join her at Sandy's memorial on Saturday, October 10th. See information here

best,

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: woodyguth3
Date: 18 Sep 09 - 09:28 PM

Hello friends,

Thank you all for wonderful remembrances of Sandy. It is a great way to know him better. I knew Sandy only casually. I have warm memories of casual conversation at Fox Hollow, NEFFA, and several other places where he and Caroline would perform, or at the Folk Legacy table where I spent all of my lunch money. Moved in part by the posts in this discussion thread, and also by learning of the death of Mike Seeger in the same week, I wrote a song that I would like to share.

The Last Folksinger

Warmly,
-Tom

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Sep 09 - 11:35 PM

Tom, that is beautiful! I think it deserves its own thread, if you don't mind? It's very meaningful in light of the three of them all passing on recently. Thanks for the videos posted on your website, too.

ATB,

kat

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: woodyguth3
Date: 19 Sep 09 - 10:53 AM

Thank you Kat,
It certainly was a painful month. Losing Sandy Paton, Mike Seeger and Sam Hinton. But thoughts of there being a "Last Folksinger" are vanquished by the great enthusiasm for traditional music that I read here in the Mudcat community. For me, these three will live on in the music we sing.

While thinking about Sandy, Mike and Sam, I stumbled across a poster for the last Fox Hollow (1980). On it, Evelyne Beers wrote, "Every time someone opens a fiddle case, tunes a guitar, puts on their dancing shoes, or just stands in the rain, Fox Hollow will be recalled with laughter and tears as we remember events that have changed us all. For many, Fox Hollow has become a legend; that means it can never really cease. It is carried on in our hearts. 'The seeds have been sown...'"

I think her words could also be said about each of these three men.
~Tom

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2
From: Stringsinger
Date: 19 Sep 09 - 01:11 PM

Evelyn and "Fiddler" Beers were beautiful people. They are sorely missed too.

Frank

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Sep 09 - 04:55 PM

Thanks for the beautiful quote, Tom. There's a story I think you would like, posted here. As soon as I find it, I will post a link. Super Search isn't working rightly so it may take me a while.:-)

kat

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: bbc
Date: 19 Sep 09 - 09:07 PM

Thanks for that song, Tom. I appreciated hearing it & seeing you sing it. Ironically, I saw your post tonight, just as I was listening to Wanda Fischer feature Sandy & Folk Legacy's music on her WAMC Hudson River Sampler radio show.

Subject: Obit: Sandy Paton Obit in UK Guardian paper
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 01 Oct 09 - 04:21 AM

There's a full column obit for Sandy in today's UK Guardian newspaper ( 3rd Oct 2009). I haven't checked to see if it's in the online issue yet.

RtS

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton Obit in UK Guardian paper
From: sian, west wales
Date: 01 Oct 09 - 04:27 AM

Thanks for the 'heads-up' RtS. The item is, indeed, online here

sian

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton Obit in UK Guardian paper
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 01 Oct 09 - 04:55 AM

You had me worried there for a minute - it's 1still st October here in my house.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton Obit in UK Guardian paper
From: bbc
Date: 01 Oct 09 - 06:40 AM

That's a lovely article; thanks for bringing it to our attention. For those who may not know, Sandy's memorial gathering will be held soon--on Saturday, October 10, 2009. All are welcome. Details on another thread or PM me.

best,

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton Obit in UK Guardian paper
From: maeve
Date: 01 Oct 09 - 02:32 PM

In case it disappears, and because Sandy and Caroline and family are so important to so many of us, here's the article in its entirety. Thanks for making note of it, Roger the Skiffler.
From link above http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/sep/30/sandy-paton-obituary
             **********************************************************************

   * guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 September 2009 18.56 BST
"During the late 1950s and early 60s, a wave of American folk singers broke on British shores – artists such as Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Richard Fariña and Bob Dylan. Amid this procession was a personable couple named Sandy and Caroline Paton.

Sandy Paton, who has died aged 80, continued to make music with Caroline for many years, but his most important contribution to folk music was to co-found the record label Folk-Legacy, which has survived the vicissitudes of the independent record business for almost half a century. Folk-Legacy LPs, instantly recognisable by their sober, black-and-white sleeves, introduced enthusiasts both to voices of the East Coast folk revival, such as Gordon Bok and Rosalie Sorrels, and to older practitioners such as the Kentucky singer Sarah Ogan Gunning and the North Carolina banjo player and singer Frank Proffitt, whose tale of the murderer Tom Dooley was turned into a million-selling disc by the Kingston Trio.

Paton's father was a geographer, and the family moved often. He spent his teens in Seattle, painting, acting and discovering folk music, eventually choosing the latter as his profession. In 1957 he met Caroline and later that year they visited Britain, performing at folk clubs such as the Troubadour and Eel Pie Island in London.

Paton recorded three EPs of American folk songs for the small Jazz Collector label and assisted the Scots folklorist Hamish Henderson in recording the celebrated Aberdeen singer Jeannie Robertson and her daughter Lizzie Higgins. While in Britain, Caroline gave birth to their son David, and some of the songs they sang to him appeared a couple of years later on their Topic EP Hush Little Baby.

Back in the US, Paton worked for a time in the record department of a Chicago store, building up its stock of folk albums. On a song-collecting trip to Appalachia, he recorded Proffitt and Horton Barker, a blind ballad singer from Virginia. Impressed by the tapes, his friend Lee Haggerty suggested they create a record label, and provided financial backing.

Based in Burlington, Vermont, where the Patons then lived, Folk-Legacy opened its catalogue in 1961 with an album by Proffitt. There were further LPs by traditional performers, such as two volumes of songs from the community of Beech Mountain, North Carolina, but the mainstays of the enterprise were artists such as Bok, Ed Trickett, Art Thieme and Michael Cooney, and the Scots singers Jean Redpath and Archie Fisher. A popular early release, Golden Ring, was subtitled A Gathering of Friends for Making Music. The phrase succinctly defines the Folk-Legacy ethic.

In a catalogue that eventually topped 120, the Patons allowed themselves an occasional album of their own, and over the years released Sandy & Caroline Paton, I've Got a Song, New Harmony and When the Spirit Says Sing. Paton also continued his field-recording work and in 1977 he produced the collection Brave Boys: New England Traditions in Folk Music for New World Records.

The Patons' services to folk music were recognised in awards from the California Traditional Music Society, the Memphis Dulcimer festival and the Eisteddfod festival of traditional arts in Massachusetts. In 1993 the Commission on the Arts in Connecticut, where they had moved in 1967, declared them "official State Troubadours".

Paton is survived by Caroline and their sons, David and Rob.

• Charles Alexander (Sandy) Paton, folk musician and record company owner, born January 22 1929; died July 26 2009

Sandy Paton obituary"
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk at 18.56 BST on Wednesday 30 September 2009. It appeared in the Guardian on Thursday 1 October 2009 on p37 of the Obituaries section. It was last updated at 18.56 BST on Wednesday 30 September 2009.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Duane D.
Date: 06 Oct 09 - 03:25 PM

(Second try.) I just added a set of 27 images of Sandy from 2000-2009, most of which have never been posted to the internet, from past concerts, 2000 Clearwater Festival, and the Paton Family Reunion Dinner June 13, 2009. To view the set, click here.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: maeve
Date: 06 Oct 09 - 03:27 PM

Thank you, Duane D.

maeve

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Oct 09 - 09:23 PM

Those are really special, Duane. Thank you, very much.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,maddy De Leon
Date: 23 Oct 09 - 02:48 PM

If you get down this far, you have a lot of patience and must have loved our friend a lot, as I did. What a pleasure to walk into a festival somewhere and see Sandy at the Folk Legacy booth. It meant a break, (or many) from hurrying between workshops, to sit down and talk quietly with a good friend.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Big Mick
Date: 23 Oct 09 - 03:34 PM

Great photo's Duane. Thanks for sharing!!

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Feb 10 - 08:05 PM

Sing Out! Magazine, Volume 53, No 2 (Autumn 2009/Winter 2010) arrived today. This tribute from editor Mark Moss was in the Last Chorus section, on page 147.

SANDY PATON
1929 - 2009

Folk-Legacy Records founder Sandy Paton passed away on Sunday, July 26, around 6:30 p.m. He had been in poor health in recent years, suffering from emphysema, which required that he be constantly connected to oxygen. About a month ago, Sandy and Caroline's grandson died tragically - drowning in a river in Connecticut. Sandy took the loss extremely hard.

Sandy, with his wife Caroline and the late Lee Haggerty, founded Folk- Legacy Records in 1961 as an independent recording company specializing in traditional and contemporary folk music of the English-speaking world. Over the 48 years Folk-Legacy has existed, they have produced more than 120 recordings, with Sandy doing the actual recording and taking cover photographs. Folk-Legacy has always exuded the best of what a true, home-spawned independent label should be: the embodiment of a personal passion, with love focused on the music itself.

Sandy was a terrific singer in his own right, as well. He and Caroline were designated as the Official Connecticut State Troubadours for 1993-1994. Hearing Sandy and Caroline sing, or even better the family - with sons Robin and David - was always a treat. Their performances were always participatory, with lots of singing and learning. Simply wonderful.

In a world where meeting your "idols" rarely works out very well, Sandy Paton was an inspiration. His love, dedication and vision for traditional music was unwavering ... but he was never strident, pushy, or rude about his impressive knowledge. This was a guy who was all about loving the music and wanting to share his love for the songs and singers ... always visible in the glint in his eyes and infectious smile he had whenever he sang or talked about the music. And each Folk-Legacy release reflected that passion. Once I "met" my first Folk-Legacy release (the original Golden Ring recording), I was hooked ... and am proud to own almost every release from the label. Hardly "hi tech," but the music Sandy captured, made and shared was the real thing in the truest sense of the words. It was an honor to have known him.

Tax-deductible contributions in Sandy's name can be made to the
Kaelan Paton Memorial Fund and sent to: Caroline Paton, P.O. Box 1148,
Sharon, CT 06069; or Salisbury Bank, P.O. Box 7, Sharon, CT 06069.

Anyone with stories, photos, and/or remembrances of Sandy Paton is invited to send them to Linnea M. Palmer Paton at P. O. Box 472, Sharon, CT 06069, for possible inclusion in a future biography or history. - Mark D. Moss

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: maeve
Date: 04 Feb 10 - 08:08 PM

Thank you, Joe. I appreciate being able to read this tribute.

maeve

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Feb 10 - 08:48 PM

Me, too, Joe. Thanks, very much.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 20 Apr 10 - 07:16 PM

Before fully awake today, I lay there thinking of calling Sandy on the phone. Then I remembered. It's just hard to believe.

Art

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 20 Apr 10 - 07:41 PM

Sandy told me a story that I had never heard before. That's always a rare treat.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Deckman
Date: 21 Apr 10 - 12:12 AM

Even though we'd never met, we knew of each other. Sandy gave me great guidance when I had to write the obit of Walt Robertson for Sing Out magazine. I've never forgotten that. We did talk on the phone alot ... I think we still do? bob

Subject: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: bbc
Date: 25 Jul 11 - 09:41 PM

Well, folks, tomorrow marks the second anniversary of Sandy's passing. He's much in my thoughts & I've just reviewed the threads on Kaelan's passing in June, 2009, & Sandy's in July of that year. Time moves on. Caroline is doing well, although I'm sure she thinks of Sandy (& Kaelan) every day. Whenever I go to the house, I still miss seeing Sandy reading at the table, with a cup of coffee, or sitting at the computer. I miss discussing the concerts I've attended & the performers I've discovered. He was such a special friend!

Folk Legacy is celebrating its 50th year of existence. Its recordings are available, now, on Amazon & sales are up. Duane D. is a regular Folk Legacy employee, not just festival help. I wish Sandy was here to see it!

This weekend, Duane & I visited the Housatonic River site where Kaelan was lost & we spent that time remembering him & his beloved grandfather. They are both a terrible loss to the world, in one sense. At the same time, each was a special blessing & gift. I am so glad to have known them & to be able to remember tham at this time!

best,

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: katlaughing
Date: 25 Jul 11 - 11:13 PM

Beautidul memorial, bbc. Thanks for reminding us and for letting us know how Folk Legacy and Caroline are doing. Somehow, I expect Sandy is smiling, along with Kaelan, seeing how things are going.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 05:27 AM

Sandy, I think of you often, and hold your memory in reverence. I will never forget how kind you and Caroline were to me on my first visit to America. Rest in peace dear friend. ROY

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: kendall
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 06:40 AM

When Folk Legacy first decided to record me I didn't know how to absorb the honor.The second time I still didn't know what to do with it. It was so far out of my reach I couldn't even see it.
Over the years Sandy and I developed a very special friendship, and I got to know the other side of him. His humorous observations, his politics and his caustic wit that he would often show me fit right in with my own. I was honored that this genuine gentleman had a side to him that I never saw him share with anyone else.
One of the most intelligent and knowledgeable people I've ever known, plus, one of the wittiest. I'll never stop missing him. Gotta quit, can't see.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 06:51 AM

Recently, talking over lang-syne with my sister, 85, I mentioned that the young American who sang at my 26th birthday party in Hampstead in 1958 had died a year or two back, did she remember him? "Why, she exclaimed, "that beautiful young man with the exquisite voice! Of course I remember, I have never forgotten him".

Just thought I should mention it.

Still remembered with friendship & affection, Sandy.

~Michael~

I was tickled to death to discover, on joining Mudcat just two years ago, that Sandy had remembered me, and a song I used to sing while he was here, in a post in the late 90s.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Elmore
Date: 26 Jul 13 - 02:20 PM

Thought I'd take this opportunity to remember Sandy on the fourth anniversary of his death. I miss his great posts on Mudcat, his exquisite voice, and his goodness.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 26 Jul 13 - 05:16 PM

He is greatly missed.
Thomas.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Don Firth
Date: 26 Jul 13 - 07:39 PM

Sandy was one of Nature's Noblemen. I cherish his memory.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Jul 13 - 10:36 PM

his memorial is here and at Folk Legacy

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 Jul 13 - 01:09 AM

"Everything passes, everything changes,
Just do what you think you should do
And someday, maybe
Who knows, baby
I'll come and be crying to you."

- Bob Dylan 'To Ramona' lyrics, closing lines.

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: bbc
Date: 01 Aug 13 - 10:23 PM

Thanks for refreshing this thread. For those of us who live near Folk Legacy, Sandy's spirit is, still, easy to sense. Nonetheless, I miss him, sorely. He was a very special man & I feel blessed to have known him in his latter years & called him friend!

Barbara

Subject: RE: Obit: Sandy Paton (22 January 1929 - 26 July 2009)
From: kendall
Date: 07 Jan 14 - 08:15 PM

Time is supposed to ease the grief, but, in this case it has failed.