Tom,
Well nobody, really. Just a kid with a guitar who decided to play at The Sword In The Stone on an open mic night. Would have been in the Summer of '69, probably.
I remember I played a rendition of John Fahey's "Last Steam Engine Train" as my opener. Fahey was my guitar idol- I played a lot of his tunes. Can't recall what my other 2 alloted songs were. One may have been a cover of Dave Van Ronk's cover of "Ace In The Hole", which I was quite fond of at the time. I was pretty nervous. Sang too loud to compensate. I was not the hit of the evening.

I'd moved to Boston from Syracuse, NY, on a whim and with a new girl friend, in the Spring of '69.
For some reason, Boston seemed like "the place to be". A number of people I knew moved from Syracuse to Boston that Summer. Syracuse did not seem like "the place to be".

I had a $20/week room on St. Botolph street (can't remember the exact address) during a 2 month period, when my gal and I broke up for a while. We later got back together. Happy ending. I bid the cockroaches Adieu. We moved to a great 3rd floor apartment on Harvard St. in Brookline. $140/month-that was a lot back then. Worked for the Telephone Co.- still good 'ol Ma Bell, back then.

My best Boston story:
A friend of mine, Danny, who was a very good harp player, also moved to Boston that summer with his girlfriend.
Danny and I had played music together since high school.
He comes to my place on St. Botolph one day and says: "Hey, I sat in with this guy last night." (I forget the club he mentioned) "He's a pretty good guitar player and writes his own songs. Name's Townes Van Zandt. I told him about you, and he wants to meet you and get together and play some music."

My reply: "Nah, I'm not into it right now. Not playing too much right now." (I was all bummed out about breaking up with my gal. Life had lost all meaning. LOL).

Pretty funny, huh? Nobody had heard of Townes Van Zandt at the time, at least I hadn't and Danny hadn't either, and we kept up pretty good with who was who on the "folk" scene. Always wondered what would have happened if I'd taken him up on it and played some tunes with Townes. ;-)

Fond memories of Boston back then. Saw Fahey and Seatrain at the Catacombs. Tom Rush at The Unicorn. John Lee Hooker at The Jazz Workshop. Ken's Sandwich Shop, on Boylston or Commonwealth, I believe. The Sphinx Bookstore at Central Square. And of course The Co-Op at Harvard Square for all my folk music needs.

When did you host The Sword In The Stone "Hoots"?