Claire Bear,

Well, no, I don't recall his name. I was mainly a trad music fan then as well. Just 20 years old and soaking up anything that would head me in the direction of the real thing that I could. I never did miss a single one of those first 6 or 7 U. Of Chi. festivals. And they are still going strong. More power to them !! What a gift it was to be able to sit in Ida Noyes Hall and talk with and listen to people like Clarence Ashley and Roscoe Holcomb and Carter Stanley and Fred McDowell. (Fred and I split a jar of moonshine back stage one night in Mandel Hall.) And the New Lost City Ramblers were there to hold it together, run workshops and tie it together for us city kids who did need someone to put it in context for us.
So many other of the great roots masters were brought to Chicago in the middle of some very cold winters. I do owe a lot to the Folklore Society there.

Art Thieme