Obit: first hungri i headliner, stan wilson

Subject: RE: Obit: first hungri i headliner, stan wilson
From: lesblank
Date: 23 Jun 05 - 10:15 AM

We have lost one of the icons of our genre with the passing of Stan Wilson. He influenced so many of the folk music artists in the 60's and 70's who made it and many of us who didn't !! A kind gentle man with a wonderful knack for a song, he wrote and sang some like one of Gabriels' choir and the rest like no body else could !! He played an old beat up guitar as if it were endowed and I shall miss him. I only saw him perform once - at the Purple Onion in San Francisco in 61-62 but I still remember him doing "I Am a Moonshiner" like it was yesterday. I often wonder why those of us who worship get to live longer than those worshipped - rest well Stan - we'll never forget you.

Subject: RE: first hungri i headliner, stan wilson di
From: Margret RoadKnight
Date: 22 Jun 05 - 01:25 AM

Sad news.
Lovely singer ... I have one LP, and he toured to Australia in the mid-'60s.

Subject: first hungri i headliner, stan wilson di
From: chantal
Date: 21 Jun 05 - 04:31 PM

If this news has already appeared here, please forgive my error in repeating it.

On June 9, 2005, the death took place of wonderful Stan Wilson, who founded what became the San Francisco sound, carried on by The Gateway Singers, Kingston Trio, Travis Edmonson and a host of others who directly credited Stan Wilson as their mentor.

There will be a Memorial Service for him on Wednesday, June 30 – 11 am at the McGee Ave Baptist Church 1640 Stuart Street in Berkeley

The following obituary appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle:

"    Folksinger Stan Wilson, one of the key figures in the '50s folk boom in San Francisco, died from a stroke at his Berkeley home on Thursday. He was 83.

            Mr. Wilson, who recorded more than seven albums in his long career, was the first entertainer to play the famed hungry i when the club opened in 1952. At first, he appeared only on weekends, but soon he was performing six nights a week at the historic North Beach nightspot for more than three years.

            Two of his compositions, "Jane, Jane, Jane" and "A Rolling Stone," were recorded by the Kingston Trio. It's likely that Mr. Wilson, who was said to have turned down an invitation to join the group, influenced the trio's repertoire and style.

            Mr. Wilson distinguished himself by playing a wide variety of material --

            calypso, folk, ballads and pop standards. He recorded for the Cavalier, Verve and Fantasy labels and was widely known as a protégé of folksinger Josh White, whose guitar Mr. Wilson carried in a battered, travel-sticker-covered case for the rest of his life.

            Chronicle critic Ralph J. Gleason wrote in 1962 that Mr. Wilson, along with White, the Gateway Singers and the Weavers, "helped make the beginnings of the folk music invasion."

            He was inducted into the Bay Area Blues Society's Hall of Fame in February.

            Born in 1922 in Oakland, Mr. Wilson was raised in Berkeley, where he earned letters in football and track at Berkeley High School. He served with the Merchant Marine during World War II.

            A political activist long before the era of sit-ins and demonstrations, he was suspended on a "loyalty" charge from his job at the post office in the '40s for having sung at a Civil Rights Congress meeting.

            He spent time in the mid-'60s teaching music on the Navajo Indian reservation in Arizona. Even after he retired from performing, Mr. Wilson taught guitar at Feather River Camp in Oakland and played school assemblies in San Francisco and Oakland.

            "He loved kids, and he loved working with them," said his sister Jerri Lange, the pioneer black broadcast journalist. "He loved teaching them songs from around the world. That was his happiest time, as much as the hungry i."

            He was married twice and had four children: Paul, Wayne, Randy and Deborah. Memorial services will be announced.

by    Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic Saturday, June 11, 2005