Let's see.... where to start? Dropping in on Helen -- which we did regularly, at all hours -- meant getting immediately involved in whatever was going on, whether it was a meal, a song session, or house-cleaning. She had a dog, Nigel, a Springer spaniel with the wettest dewlaps in captivity, and a penchant for getting into interesting predicaments. DC-area folkies mostly considered her and her house a refuge, a place that felt like home, but with a no-nonsense mama, for sure.

The songs, the visiting folkies, the intense interest in the lore, the instruments (though Helen only plays piano, she tolerated just about everything musical, with certain local exceptions). I think it was the "Young Tradition," or maybe John and Tony, who started annotating their songs as being "HSSK #29," as in "Helen Schneyer's Soup Kitchen #29," as if she were a contemporary of Child.

The singers doing the bleating on "Feed My Sheep" (mentioned above) were most likely Johnathan Eberhardt and Andy Wallace, with possibly Mike Rivers as well. The song about "Beulah Land" is "Dwelling in Beulah Land," from her Folk Legacy LP.

I wish she still lived "down here," and also wish it weren't so far to go to visit her.

Bob Clayton