Whereabouts of Barbara Dane?

Subject: Folklore: Whereabouts the Barbara Dane
From: GUEST,Bluesman James
Date: 27 Nov 11 - 09:15 AM

Greetings to all and a beleated Happy Thanksgiving:
Does anyone have any current information about Barbara Dane? I understand she has a facebook page but it shows little or no activity. She must be in her 80's by now.
For those who are not aware Barbara Dane has a prolific career doing everything from traditional Jazz and Classic Blues from the 50's with the likes of Louis Armstrong and Gene Kurpa to doing stone Blues with Sam Ligthn's Hopkins to singer/songwriter/socal activism.
She is the author/compiler of "The Vietnam Songbook" Now a collector's item.
I recommend going to youtube and doing a search.You will find some remarkable material with the
Firehouse Five- to Pete Seeger to the Chambers Brothers remarkable resume for one person.
She was married to singer/guitarist/Flamenco/MartialArts Expert- Rolf Cahn (a great under rated talent- another thread)
I understand she is living in or around Oakland CA.
Does anyone have current information?

Subject: RE: Whereabouts the Barbara Dane
From: pdq
Date: 27 Nov 11 - 10:22 AM

She has her own website...

                                                                         Barbara Dane

Subject: RE: Whereabouts the Barbara Dane
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Nov 11 - 11:11 AM

Thank you . The last avtiviy listed was 2008. She is in her 80's now and must be limiting her activities with age!

Subject: RE: Whereabouts the Barbara Dane
From: babypix
Date: 27 Nov 11 - 11:38 AM

Barbara is alive and well and living in the East Bay (of San Francisco, CA) area. She is still singing beautifully, and with the conviction and verve she always has. She's moving around a little slower now, but with the help of the internet, still informed, active, and feisty. I'm sure she'd like to hear from you. Follow the link on her website to get her e-mail address. Probably better than Facebook. I don't know how often she logs on.

Deborah Robins-Hanks

Subject: RE: Whereabouts the Barbara Dane
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Nov 11 - 11:54 AM

Thank You! I sent her a "friend request"on Facebook and never got a response.

Subject: RE: Whereabouts the Barbara Dane
From: pdq
Date: 27 Nov 11 - 12:43 PM

We all owe Barbara Dane a debt of gratitude for organizing protests against the Marincello abomination. She gathered together most of the Dixieland revival artists (such as Lu Watters) she had sung with in the 1950s and gave concerts that really drew attention to this project...



Marincello, Marin County

Marincello, the city that never was. In the 1950s the U.S. government gave up tens of thousands of acres of the Marin headlands, north of the Golden Gate Bridge. The military had owned it since 1851 but land was no longer needed for defending the bay. Enter Thomas Frouge, a developer from Pittsburgh. In 1964 Frouge, along with money from Gulf Oil, proposed building a town called Marincello. The 2,000 acre development would house 30,000 people and called for 50 apartment towers, vast tracts of single-family homes, and a "landmark hotel" along the headlands pristine shoreline and hills.

The project was approved by the County Board of Supervisors and construction began. But local conservationists continued to fight the development and in 1970 an appellate court ruled the developers hadn't followed the law and the construction halted.

Eventually a government study proposed the area become a national park. Frouge and Gulf Oil saw the writing on the wall and sold the land to The Nature Conservancy which passed it on to the National Park Service.

Today the Golden Gate National Recreation Area with its 75,398 acres and 28 miles of coastline remains undeveloped and attracts 16 million visitors a year, making it one of the country's most popular National Parks in America.

Subject: RE: Whereabouts the Barbara Dane
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 27 Nov 11 - 09:29 PM

So far as I know, there's only one CD of Barbara Dane folk material available, but it's a superb collection. Rykodisc TCD 1062, Anthology of American Folk Songs. There is a discography at http://www.wirz.de/music/danefrm.htm

The Wikipedia article on Irwin Silber says, "Silber and blues/folk singer/fellow activist Barbara Dane became a couple in 1964." The Wikipedia article on Barbara Dane does not mention Irwin Silber. Not that it's any of my business, but what's up with that?

Subject: RE: Whereabouts the Barbara Dane
From: Mary Katherine
Date: 27 Nov 11 - 10:28 PM

I saw her and heard her sing at Chris Strachwitz's 80th birthday party in El Cerrito this past July. She sounded wonderful and seemed in good health.
Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber were married for many decades. She cared for him devotedly until his death from Alzheimers.

Subject: RE: Whereabouts the Barbara Dane
From: pdq
Date: 27 Nov 11 - 10:42 PM

The "Anthology of American Folk Songs" mentioned above has been issued yet again, this time under its original title "When I Was a Young Girl"

It has the same track list but is supposed to be re-mastered. Probably better sound quality, but I would have no way of knowing that without having both here at the same time to listen to.

Here is what Amazon sez:

# Audio CD (October 19, 2009) {another site sez it was 2011, just about one month ago}
# Number of Discs: 1
# Label: Essential Media Group
# ASIN: B002TG4DC4

Subject: RE: Whereabouts the Barbara Dane
From: MAG
Date: 27 Nov 11 - 10:52 PM

Somewhere I still have "I hate the capitalist system" LP -- the title song, which I have heard disparaged here and there -- tho' it has a proud history

(I also found her musical efforts way better than Irwin's -- kind of a one-noter about political purity)

Subject: RE: Whereabouts the Barbara Dane
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Nov 11 - 03:54 AM

This article from Feb 2011 says she's alive and active - and she was doing a concert in Berkeley that month. I haven't encountered her, but I keep hearing mention of her name in Northern California folk circles.
Babypix and Mary Katherine are reliable witnesses to her being alive and kickin'.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Whereabouts the Barbara Dane
From: GUEST,Barbara Dane
Date: 23 Oct 13 - 06:26 AM

Anybody still interested in my whereabouts? Just noticed this thread after all these years.. Kinda slow about picking up on internet stuff, to say the least! So here's a re-cap of things:

I am now 86 1/2 years old, sang my last full concert for my 85th birthday at the Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse in Berkeley. Now I sing smaller house concerts whenever possible, but this last year have been incapacitated by arthritis in the back, bronchitis and/or some sort of COPD in the lungs, etcetera. My husband Irwin Silber's long slow death from Alzheimer's took quite a toll on my own health, but he was my heart and he needed me.

(By the way, just for the record, it is a complete fiction that Irwin had a problem with Dylan "going electric"... it was that he was afraid he was drifting away from his base, the people who understood his poetry best and needed him to produce more of it. Irwin regretted the somewhat patronizing tone he took in that open letter, but never had a chance to discuss it with Bob. After that letter, watching Dylan's development, Irwin felt more and more appreciation for the power of his songwriting and how much it meant to at least two generations of folks, with many more to come.)

Last year I made a recording of "Good Morning Blues" with my grandson Osamu Menendez, who created a great blues backup band out of his Cuban rock band for the occasion. It is now getting lots of play on Cuban radio.

My son Pablo Menendez, guitarist and bandleader of Mezcla, will be here from Cuba in January when we plan to record some of those great old "American Songbook" tunes from the '30s and '40s with a small hot jazz combo.

My son Jesse (a/k/a/ Nicky) Cahn is in Oklahoma City where he writes meaningful songs, sings his heart out with his touchingly beautiful voice, teaches guitar and runs an important weekly Open Mike.

My daughter singer/producer Nina Menendez just successfully wrapped up her 8th Annual Festival Flamenco Gitano featuring some of the greatest figures in genuine Gypsy flamenco.

My great-grandson Mauro Menendez is already 20 years old and invites you to check out the kind of prize-winning beats he creates at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00932NREM/?tag=you09f-20

We've come a long way from my days in the '40s singing in front of shop gates in Detroit, but here we all are, making music each in our own way and all deeply grateful for being able to work at what we love. We all agree that music is not a toy but a necessity that helps heal, unite, and glorify the human race.

With heartfelt wishes for you all to have a peaceful and happy holiday season, with plenty of great music to share, Barbara Dane   

Please reply to: [e-mail] with subject line "Mudcat family"

Subject: RE: Whereabouts of Barbara Dane?
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 09:52 PM

a lovely new recording by Barbara Dane (at age 88) with
tasty small jazz ensemble accompaniment:

DREADNAUGHT DN1701 Throw It Away...          CD 2016
Barbara Dane, vocals
Tammy Hall, piano
Ruth Davies, bass
Bill Maginnis, drums

Pablo Menendez, blues harp (5,7,9)
Richard Hadlock, soprano sax (8)

-1 I'm Sellin My Porkchops
-2 Slow
-3 Throw It Away
-4 American Tune
-5 Blues over Bodega
-6 The Kugelsburg Bank
-7 King Salmon Blues
-8 All Too Soon
-9 Tell Me How Long Blues
10 How Can You Face Me?
11 In My Life
12 What Kind of Country
13 My Brain

Thomas.

Subject: RE: Whereabouts of Barbara Dane?
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 10:00 PM

forgot to include these links:

Throw It Away release - youtube

Throw It Away - CDBaby

Cheers, Thomas.

Subject: RE: Whereabouts of Barbara Dane?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 10:09 PM

Thanks for refreshing this thread, Thomas. I had missed Barbara's post from 2013.

Here's Barbara Dane singing "Throw It Away" in 2014:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4srfEx123Y