If Toronto folksinger Al Cromwell had been ambitious, I think he would be perhaps as well known to most people who know the 60's
folk and blues scene as Ritchie Havens was. Al was incomparably smooth. Uncharacteristically, Al got heavily into booze a his early fiftees and died, I'm not sure why, but probably for reasons that had much to do with his downfall in general. Duke, do you remember Al . . . do you remember his Josh White, Oscar Brown sort of delivery? Do you remember Brigitte D. and Doug Stewart, too? The
Dupont restautant? Gee, so long ago. Would we ever have imagined then that we were headed for dumb and dumber, and dumber stil, ecologically above all. Ah, yes, the last time I saw Al was when he played "The Work Song" at my anti-fur demonstration on Yongue street. He did the verses free tempo using a kind of flemenco style continual strum, and then shifted into a shuffle beat for the chorus . . . I've been workin' . . . I've been workin' . . . you know the rest, I'll bet. Oscar Browne died, too. Zal, as you must know. How about Doug Bush? Were you a friend of Chick Webb's?