The Mouthpiece. Providence, Rhode Isand.Thayer, maybe. Too many years gone by to remember. An L-shaped room. Strange to play, since one audience was in one part of the L, which couldn't be seen by the other. sometimes material would go over on one side, and you'd get a different reaction on the other. Weird. Ken Lyon would play there, with me in the front row watching. I'd only begun to play at this time, so it was like a school to me. He'd do "Stewball", "Thunderbird Lullaby Means Everybody." "House of the Rising Sun", and other classic stuff...The place was kind of a link to the Boston scene. This is when I met Roy Book Binder, Bill Staines, Bill Madison, Chris Smither, Paul Geremia, and others.
I was with Roy in his apartment one night taping old records, about 8 hours worth on my reel to reel. Both he and Paul were into the real deal, like Pink Anderson, Son House, Blind Willie McTell, etc. The list is long.
This led to trips to "The Sword in the Stone" in Boston. The Newport Festival was a big thing, but somehow I never went. Everything was revolving around school, learning to play, and the Folk Clubs. This was the time when I saw Tom Rush. "Panama Limited", "No Regrets", etc. My college friends included people like Ron McLarty("The Memory of Running," "Traveller," "Sex in the City", "Spencer for Hire," etc.
Vietnam was hanging over our heads.(The time when Phil Ochs, Dylan, Country Joe and the Fish, Richard and Mimi Farina, Bruce Murdoch, spoke real loud to a whole lot of people...) You're taking final exams and the letters would be coming home, "Mom send me my shotgun, the gun they gave me doesn't work..." Flunking out meant in three weeks you'd be in Saigon...That Marine Sergeant. a huge black man, getting the boys ready for induction. "Now some of you come in here wearing panties and shit like that, well let me tell you sumthin', we gonna give you a test, and iffin' you don't pass, we gonna make you take it again..." All of that, of course, means nothing. (R.I.P.J.F.K.) Because we've come such a long way in 40 years...Oh fnerk, I forgot! We're STILL in some war somewhere...My mistake...(May God Bless your soul, my high school friend, Lee Menconi, shot in the back by a sniper...)
Sorry 'catters. I can't forget...(stream of conciousness writing right now...)
Back to music...
It makes you wonder how all of that was a moment in time, where just the right blend of personalities, music, and passion all came together.
And when you look at what's around you today, the Rap & Hip-Hop and all of that. I feel blessed to have be given the opportunity to have passed through that time...

bob