Obit: Martha Redhed RIP (January 2006)

Subject: Obit: Martha Redhed RIP (January 2006)
From: Mary Katherine
Date: 18 Jan 06 - 11:38 AM

Chicago Sun Times, January 18, 2006 Wednesday
Brought folk music artists to Chicago
BYLINE: Dave Hoekstra, The Chicago Sun-Times

Martha Redhed was the matriarch of the vibrant Chicago folk
music scene of the 1960s and '70s, as her home became a soft
landing for folk artists arriving in a hard city.

Mrs. Redhed died Sunday night at her Lincoln Park home from
complications of emphysema. Her exact age was unclear. It
was believed she was 72 or 73.

Her late husband, Bill Redhed, was a partner of Somebody
Else's Troubles, the mid-1970s Lincoln Park folk club that
was also owned by singers Steve Goodman, Ed and Fred
Holstein, Earl Pionke of the Earl of Old Town fame and Wells
Street bartender Henry "The Duke" Nathaus. The club was
named after a Goodman song.

The Redheds lived within walking distance of the Earl of Old
Town at North and Wells.

"When Phil Ochs played the Earl he loved the Redheds'
hospitality," Pionke recalled on Tuesday. He paused and
continued, "But he wasn't a good poker player. Whereas [folk
singer] Bob Gibson would join us for a couple games a week
and he was a very good poker player. Their house was open to
anything that was musical, especially if you were from out
of town; you got no place to go and the Earl don't pay
enough to get a motel.

"They loved music. Their daughter Betsy [who led the
late-1980s band Betsy and the Boneshakers] is a good singer.
At least one night a week Bill and Martha would have a big
cookout for us and our acts," Pionke said.

In fact, when Somebody Else's Troubles opened in May of
1974, the Redheds assisted Goodman and wife Nancy as they
cooked up 1,352 shrimp and 24 pounds of green noodles in
Goodman's debut as "singing guest chef."

Longtime Chicago singer-songwriter Chris Farrell added,
"During the 1970s, their house was a place where you could
find (late Chicago songwriter) Mike Jordan, J.B. Smith (of
the folk band Baraboo) and (singer-songwriters) Mike Smith
and Barbara Barrow," his wife.

The Redheds were instrumental in getting Barrow and Smith to
relocate from Detroit to Chicago. They stayed with the
Redheds before finding a place of their own.

Mrs. Redhed was part of a Lincoln Park scene that will never
be replicated. Just south of Somebody Else's Troubles, 2470
N. Lincoln, was Orphans, another eclectic live music room,
and across the street from Orphans was the politically
charged Guild Books bookstore.

"Martha used to talk about the Bohemian days, even before
the 1960s," Farrell recalled. "She came from the Beats into
the 1960s and 70s. She was a great bridge. She was very
literate. A lot of people didn't go beyond guitar riffs and
pretty folk songs. But if you wanted to talk about William
Butler Yeats. you could talk to Martha."

Mrs. Redhed always had sound advice. In 2003, Smith and
Barrow debuted "The Grapes of Wrath: A Folk Opera" at the
Old Town School of Folk Music. The musical adaptation was a
follow-up to Smith's critically acclaimed score to the 1990
Steppenwolf Theatre production of "The Grapes of Wrath." It
was Mrs. Redhed who encouraged Barrow to use the folk opera
format.

Farrell said, "Martha married Bill Redhed twice. They were
officially divorced, they reconciled and said, 'Lets' go all
the way,' and they got married again."

Mrs. Redhed is survived by daughters Betsy and Cassie.

There will be no funeral. A memorial service will be held in
April.

Subject: RE: Obit: Martha Redhed RIP (January 2006)
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 19 Jan 06 - 11:37 AM

Martha was a lovely person. I didn't know the Redheds well, but always enjoyed playing my music at Somebody Else's Troubles in the 1970s. Good memories of good times. She always reminded me of Ava Gardner---and I am so sorry she is gone.

My sincere condolences to Betsy and Cassie and all the Redhed extended family. There are many pictures of those people mentioned in the article, and all of that era, at the site where the many photos I took back then are located. One photo, especially of Mike Jordan and Al Day out behind that folk club Somebody Else's Troubles with Betsy Redhed holding up devil's fingers behind their head!

http://rudegnu.com/art_thieme.html

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Obit: Martha Redhed RIP (January 2006)
From: Once Famous
Date: 19 Jan 06 - 06:35 PM

Hard to believe that era is already 30 years ago.