Among the folks who inhabit that musical scrap-book in my head, the name "Al Cromwell" crops up often.

Al was a fine singer and guitarist who played on and off in Toronto for many years, and never seemed to find "a comfortable fit" for his great talent in the folk scene here. He was a very handsome, compact and graceful man of African heritage, with an articulate manner of speaking and seemed to have some of Josh White's style in his guitar playing. I always sensed that being Black among all us lilly-white folkies was very tough on Al. He was constantly asked to play Blues but (like Josh) really enjoyed British ballads and singer-songwriter stuff. He really liked my take on Yeats' "Wandering Aengus" and asked for a tape so he could learn it. Don't know if he ever did. What I DO know, is that in the days when I was too shy to go right up to musicians and say "hello", Al took me in tow, and introduced me to folks like Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and Bukka White. I'll never forget that.

He was an extremely private man and it was only years after meeting him, that I found out he was from Ontario (and not from the Maritimes where there were many Black settlements). He seemed to have many unanswered questions floating around his brain, and turned to Scientology for answers, which needless to say, alienated him even further from the rest of us. His suspicion of Recording Companies kept him from being represented on vinyl (or tape or CD) and consequently all many of us have is the occasional jam session tape to remind us that the guy was "GOOD". Sometimes it seemed that the fates (as well as Al's own idiosyncracies) conspired to keep his music somewhat of a secret. Three times I had him on my radio show, and EACH time the tape malfunctioned, so there's no record of those great performances.

In later years he became an itinerant window-washer, to suppliment his music income, and I had to chuckle when I'd see him bopping along Bloor street with the tools of his trade. Al just wouldn't have made a good "telemarketer", or waiter (what a lot of actors and musicians do to pay the rent).

I remember how hugely excited he was when he found a GREAT Martin D-35 at a verrry good price and how it rejuvenated his playing and his enthusiasm for music. Sadly I also remember how devistated he seemed when he had to sell it a few months later for peanuts, to pay some landlord his back rent. Al simply WOULDN'T talk about it...but oh boy, was his heart broken.

He passed away without much notice a few years ago, and I miss him. Had he been able to afford a computer, I think Mudcat would have done him a HUGE service. He'd have found a community that would have made him comfortable.

Anyone else know 'em?

Rick

It was Flattop's mention of Al in another thread that got me thinkin' about him