Subject: RE: Bob Nelson Interview From: Joe Offer Date: 23 Oct 10 - 12:17 AM Here's something new: Published: Friday, October 22, 2010 Everett musician's mission gets attention in D.C.By Julie Muhlstein, Herald ColumnistHeraldNet, Everett, Washington Bob Nelson is up to his ears in a task that's close to his heart. He is converting about 300 reel-to-reel tape recordings and hundreds of cassette tapes into digital CDs. When I met the Everett musician more than a year ago, he had already spent months working to preserve vintage folk music for future generations. Nelson is an original member of the Pacific Northwest Folklore Society, a group that dates to 1953. Now 73, he recorded much of his material in the folk scene heyday, when artists jammed at coffee houses and other haunts in Seattle's University District. I wrote about Nelson in May 2009. He was looking for a repository for the musical archives he is creating. Since then, he has had an encouraging conversation with a folklore expert at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The national library, he said, is interested in preserving his collection of reel-to-reel tapes, which contain the songs of Walt Robinson, Bill Higley, David Spence and other popular performers from those long-ago hootenannies. While saving the music he loves, Nelson has been surprised by personal connections he has made. The technical undertaking comes with meaningful rewards. “I am hearing from survivors. I've had several of those experiences through my archiving,” Nelson said. The music of one folk artist from Seattle's past, Terry Wadsworth, has Nelson corresponding with a Minnesota man. Patrick Gipson is the brother of Wadsworth, a singer and later an actor who was 42 when he died in 1982. Nelson made the connection through an online folk discussion site called Mudcat Cafe. He never imagined anyone would respond to his recent post, which said: “I'm looking for the brother of the late Terry Wadsworth, of Seattle. I have a tape recording for you.” Gipson did respond, and has since traded e-mail with the Everett man. By phone from Red Lake, Minn., the 61-year-old Gipson said Thursday he was thrilled to discover Nelson had a tape of his brother. “It's a song I hadn't heard since the '50s,” said Gipson, a radiology supervisor with the Indian Health Service. Both men remember the guitar-playing Wadsworth as wonderfully talented and charismatic. “He came out of Tacoma. I met him in about 1957,” Nelson said. He remembers Wadsworth as “a skinny kid” who showed up in the University District “singing at coffee houses and just hanging out.” “Terry was extraordinarily talented,” Nelson said. “The music just exploded out of him.” Gipson said his brother ended up in California, where he acted in commercials, TV shows and a few films. Using the name Terence Locke, he had a role in the 1976 movie, “Goodbye, Norma Jean.” “He was the most talented man I've ever met. When Terry walked into any room, he was noticed,” Gipson said. He said his brother married more than once and had a daughter. Thursday, Gipson sent an e-mail to Nelson in Everett. Because of renewed curiosity about his brother, Gipson did a recent Google search. “By following a few threads and a couple of dead ends, I found a brief posting from Terry's long-lost daughter. I have been looking for her for 20 years or more,” Gipson's message to Nelson said. “For many years, I thought I was the only one that missed Terry,” Gipson wrote in another e-mail to Nelson. By phone Thursday, Gipson was pleased to share that he may soon become acquainted with a niece he never knew. “Because of this connection with Bob, I found out Terry's daughter has been looking for me,” he said. Somehow, it's as though old songs on dusty tapes have come to life. Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com. Learn more For information about our region's folk music legacy, visit the website of the Pacific Northwest Folklore Society: www.pnwfolklore.org. ...and an earlier article:
Published in Everett Herald: Friday, May 22, 2009
RETIRED EVERETT CARPENTER
NOW HAMMERS OUT FOLK SONGS
By Julie Muhlstein Herald Columnist |
Subject: RE: Bob "Deckman" Nelson Interview From: katlaughing Date: 23 Oct 10 - 12:35 AM Roope! What a wonderful *new* connection you've made. Thanks, Joe! That's a gem of a Mudcat story!! |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: open mike Date: 23 Oct 10 - 02:35 AM great news about you hammering out music, deckman!! keep up the good work.. Laurel |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: gnu Date: 23 Oct 10 - 07:51 AM I second what what kat and Laurel said! |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: Rapparee Date: 23 Oct 10 - 07:59 AM Yeah, well...okay. I suppose it's alright to do what you're doing. Probably commie songs though...Joe McCarthy would not be pleased. |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: RoyH (Burl) Date: 23 Oct 10 - 08:50 AM Bravo Bob! It's a great thing that you are doing, valuable work. I envy you because back in the early 1960's I went collecting and gathered up a tape full of people who'd be considered 'source' singers and musicians. Later I loaned it to someone who was anxious to learn about the music -he said - but he brought it back with pop music recorded over it by his kids. Three of the people I had recorded were dead by then. I should have chased up the other three but I was too disheartened. You hung on to your stuff and now the Library will harvest the results and the general public will benefit. Well done Deckman. Burl. |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: kendall Date: 23 Oct 10 - 09:19 AM Good for you, Mate! |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: SINSULL Date: 23 Oct 10 - 09:58 AM Some Walt Robertson in there I hope. Well done, Bob or should I say doing? Mary |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: Stewart Date: 23 Oct 10 - 12:25 PM Some of his Walt Robertson tapes are already on the web here. Good work - keep it up Bob! Cheers, S. in Seattle |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: iancarterb Date: 24 Oct 10 - 12:31 PM I can't wait to see the list. I imagine that Stew is in that pile of tape, and Phil and Vivian Williams and other northwest heros who survive surprise today. Carter |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: Deckman Date: 24 Oct 10 - 01:13 PM Actually ... most of my tape recordings were made in the early fifties into the sixties. This means that youngsters, like Stew, and Phil and Vivian were still in diapers! This project is so labor intensive that I estimate it will be a couple of more years before I'll have a complete catalog of my collection. As the newspaper article menioned, sometimes the unexpected events resulting from this archive work is breathtaking. Yet when things happen, like when long lost family members re-unite, it makes it all worth it. There's gotta' be song there somewhere ..... CHEERS, bob nelson |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: iancarterb Date: 24 Oct 10 - 01:40 PM Well, Bob... I remember hearing a few folkies at the Fair in '62, my first trip to the northwest, and 8 or 10 years later I found out by serendipitous meeting with Mike Nelson that it had been Tall Timber, including Mike and Phil and Vivian, no? '62 qualifies as early sixties, you old geezer, you. Anyway, bless your heart for carrying the 60 pounder during the Early Daze of the Folk Scare. THere is hardly any serendipity like what comes from old tape. Carter |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: Deckman Date: 24 Oct 10 - 02:43 PM I'm talking about the 1860's! (just kidding) bob |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: iancarterb Date: 24 Oct 10 - 02:49 PM That was the period between stone tablet and papyrus recording? |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: Deckman Date: 24 Oct 10 - 03:26 PM I've actually got three boxes of papyrus quarter inch virgin recording tapes left. Problem is I can't find anyone that wants them! bob |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: Joe Offer Date: 30 May 14 - 02:04 AM 2014 Deckman InterviewHere's a recent interview of Deckman, in which he reminisces about Pete Seeger, the FBI, folk music in Seattle, and lots of other things. He sings a few songs, too.https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CUrX0LFlbOg. Here's what Bob says about the interview:
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Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: Janie Date: 30 May 14 - 07:41 PM Thanks Joe. And especially thank you, Bob. Wonderful and instructive interview. |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: ranger1 Date: 30 May 14 - 09:14 PM Bob was the first Mudcatter I ever met in person, and he's been a huge help with the blog project that I've been working on. I'll be checking out that video when I'm a little less frazzled from work. |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: SINSULL Date: 31 May 14 - 01:19 PM I still have my $20 bill tucked away and always know where my next meal may come from. Bob is a treasure of knowledge. Track his threads for some examples. |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: gnu Date: 31 May 14 - 02:39 PM Ditto to all. A treasure. |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: gnu Date: 01 Jun 14 - 02:23 PM Freeresh. |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: Deckman Date: 01 Jun 14 - 03:27 PM It's kinda funny, in a strange sorta' way, but the older I get (and I'm doing that every day) the more I realize what an incredible period of history I witnessed. As I said in this interview that was done two months ago, I was far too young and dumb to appreciate what was going on. What that drunken senator from Wisconsin did (Joe McCarthy) was so very much damaging, not just to Pete Seeger, but this enitre country that we still haven't recovered in some ways. All you have to remember is that just a few years ago we had another charactor as our Attorney General named "Ashcroft" who advised us to "spy on our neighbors". The more I re-visit what I said in that interview, the things that I wish that I had said. Live recording are like that ... "If only I had said" ... etc. I am left with yet another strong thought about Pete's legacy, and that is "GRACE." Look at the grace that he demonstrated to all us though those terrible times. ... makes me humble ... bob(deckman)nelson |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: Janie Date: 01 Jun 14 - 04:24 PM Ahhhh....as well said as what you said during the interview, Bob. You are a national treasure in your own right. |
Subject: RE: Bob 'Deckman' Nelson Interview From: Stilly River Sage Date: 02 Jun 14 - 02:58 PM Thanks for posting this, Joe! SRS |
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