Yes, welcome!!!! I don't know if we've ever met, but I was there then at the same time you were too. I was on the North side---but I got to Hyde Park for that first U. of Chicago Folk Festival in '61. I'd been going there since '59-----the year I graduated high school---- from Lakeview High. By '60 I'd found Pete Leibundguth's store called the Fret Shop on 57th Street and often just ambled in there to shoot the breeze when I was back in Chicago from Univ. Of Illinois down state. In '61 I tape recorded PAUL DURST, the old Wobbly you mentioned, in his big chair by the door of the Fret Shop. Several threads here are full of my reminiscences of Paul.

And while I was taping Paul back in Dec. of 1961, Mark Dorinson was trying out a guitar in the background. At one point there is a large "CRASH" audible on that tape. It was Mark dropping that guitar on the floor! And Fred H. was an old, good friend. So was Mike Bloomfield. Severn Darden was at Second City back then I think---unless I'm confusing him with Avery Schreiber. I did see Darden do a play called "Rhinosaurus" somewhere during those years. Inman and Ira were good performers I thought. Their renditions of early Oscar Brown jr. songs like "Bid 'Em In" -- about a slave auction market -- was pretty hard-hitting to say the least. Last I saw Ira Rogers, though, he was less than holding it together. It was sad to see. Roy Inman wasn't around at all---by then.

I was born in '41. Could be we were both there in Chicago at the same time---but passed like melting iceburgs in the night...

Those first ten U. Of Chicago Folk Fests sure did influence me. I followed the folksinger road for close to 4 decades until I couldn't do it any more.

Anyhow, welcome to Mudcat. I'm here less now, but it's a good place to hang out on line. Enjoy!

Art Thieme (who can't join Mudcat for tech reasons I don't comprehend.)