The gigs and the nightlife and the mesmerizing glow of Chicago's Old Town and New York's Gren. Village & Boston's Harvard Square & D.C.'s Georgetown and the myriads of coffeehouses that were everywhere then---------ALL OF THESE were night jobs. Bars (folk nightclubs) in Chcago had either 2:00 A.M. or 4:00 A.M. closing times. They all got an extra hour on Saturday nights---which meant 5:00 A. M. closing time at the Earl Of Old Town. If we got up before noon or 1;00 P.M. we'd be exhausted & couldn't do decent sets the next night--wherever that might be.---We did five sets a night at the No Exit Coffeehouse.

After the gig we were too wired to sleep. Things were just getting going then. We all went out for breakfast. Sat by Lake Michgan and held each other in our arms and in our hearts as we sang the sun up like scrffy Woody immitating Orpheus's. The squares were about to take over the streets so, like vampires, the folksingers and their ladies (or their guys) went stumbling up the stairs for more intimate doings before smoke dreams and our spent and delighted exhaustion prompted the deepest sleep you'd ever know short of death.

And the next day it was the start of a 4-day festival somewhere in Kansas----and it started all over again...

As an old song says----(please accept my new parody)---:

I'm one of the hasbeens---
A folksinger I mean,
I once was a picker
And I used to pick clean,
I used to make the notes roll
Like the soil from the plow,
But you may not believe me
Because I can't do it now.

Yes, that's why revival folksingers were/are night people!!

Love to all,

Art Thieme