Midchuck, you are correct.Jim Ringer was a fine singer whose song (the words) ALWAYS came first. He never got in the way of the tale he was telling. "California Joe" is one of the best ballad songs to come from the American western history ever. And it is grounded in truth. It pretty much happened that way. Jim Ringer was never underappreciated by me and my folk friends and cohorts. This folk thing has never ever been a huge body of water so it was pretty much impossible to think about a big presence within our small pond. We were pretty much resigned to and content with doing what we did passably well by staying true to our vision of what was appropriate. It was done for love and not much else. Subsistence was all we managed and that was o.k. if we were allowed to do it our own way. That, I always thought, was Jim Ringer. We would've taken more remuneration iof it'd presented itself on our terms---but if and since it didn't do that, it was still a grand perk to be left alone to do our thing. You said, "folk was in a slump" when Mr. Ringer came along. Folk was as good as it could get then I thought. It was going strong in Chicago about that time from what all I recall. Could be you were just off somewhere else about then. Jim, either alone or with Ms Mary McCaslin, was just superb. -------- But the way he went. It truly was a sad waste for Jim to self-destruct---as it was for Billie Holiday and so many others over the entire arts spectrum.
But I bet you knew all this. I just felt like putting my thoughts together by printing 'em ouAs Jerry Rasmussen used to say all the time, "In folk music, there is no such thing as a career move !!!"---- I say that in full realization that it goes against everything the Folk Alliance is trying to do. But we all know that what they call folk music isn't that at all !
Art Thieme