Toronto Folk History

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: GUEST,Ruth Jones McVeigh
Date: 18 Aug 11 - 03:00 PM

I remember Doug and Al Cromwell very well indeed. As a matter of fact, a friend of mine just made a CD of the two of them, and solos, from an old treasured tape I had many years ago.
If anyone can provide me with contact information for Doug (Al died in 1995) - I will happily send them the CD.
Doug Bush later took the name of his bio dad - Johnston - and I'm not certain which name he finally settled on.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 09 Apr 09 - 12:12 PM

I don't know how to combine the threads, but there's another little thread going about a Toronto singer named John Layton that people following this thread might be interested in:


John Layton - Toronto Singer

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: PHJim
Date: 08 Apr 09 - 10:31 AM

Eve,
Jamie's living in Prince Edward County and playing with Mark Despault as one of his projects. I play quite a bit with Zeke Mazurek who lives in Wellington and we've played on the same venu as Jamie a few times.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: meself
Date: 08 Apr 09 - 10:23 AM

He just dropped in on the Seamus Creigh obit. thread the other day ... Jamie's contributed quite a bit to folk music in this country himself, at various times and places.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 08 Apr 09 - 10:17 AM

I used to do sound at the Flying Cloud when Jamie was around a lot. I always loved his playing -- I gather he's in Newfoundland now.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: GUEST,Danno
Date: 08 Apr 09 - 05:14 AM

Great memories from Toronto in the late '70's and '80's -
Stan Rodgers doing an annual gig for Tam Kearney in Fiddler's Green folk club, fiddle players Ali Bain and Jean Carignan having a tune at Mariposa on the Island, Eric Bogle singing "The Band played Waltzing Matilda" at (appropriately enough) the Tranzac Club, plus all the great local talent that appeared at the folk clubs and folk festivals.
Toronto band Tip Splinter, with songwriters Jamie Snider and Kieran Wade in the line-up, used to do a regular gig for Mariposa at the Flying Cloud folk club, also at the Tranzac: check them out here

Click here

and

Click here

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Peter T.
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 05:23 PM

Gary, your name was tossed around in the parent thread to this one, entitled "Canadian Folk Music", including an announcement of the rebroadcast of your "Inside the Music" series.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 04:48 PM

I was just thinking that we needed some Gary Cristall in this discussion. Welcome! I hope you are able to come back and contribute some more.

I'd love to hear more about La Coterie (from anyone who knows!)

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: balladeer
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 03:03 PM

Hey Gary. Your name came up on the Canadian Folk Music thread.
I hope all's well in your corner of the universe!

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: GUEST,Gary Cristall Artist Management
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 02:15 PM

Hi folks. Bob Bossin put me on to this discussion.
I;m working on a book on Canadian folk music and have delved fairly deeply into the Toronto scene. I'm actually off to Toronto today (from Vancouver) and I hope to talk to one of the owners of La Coterie where folk singing in public (aside from the left wing scene)started in 1957.

Anyways... about Hoot. There are nine issues in two runs. The last one came out in early 1967. I have put together a complete collection of Hoot as well as all nine of Sing and String, the earlier and other Toronto folk mag.

If anyone wants info on Hoot I am happy to oblige... BUT I am pretty busy and takes me a while.

Nice to read this stuff...

Gary

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 02:11 PM

So Hoot magazine was put out by the Guild? What kind of stuff did the magazine cover?

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: balladeer
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 01:56 PM

I have no idea how long Hoot ran.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: PHJim
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 12:35 PM

My wife tells me that I can't throw anything out and I guess she's right. I still have two old Hoot magazines, the only two I owned. How many issues of Hoot were put out? I'll have to look up my copies. One of them had a picture of Ian Tyson, Sylvia Fricker, Ted Scaffer and Pete Seeger sitting on someone's livingroom floor playing and singing on the inside front cover.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: balladeer
Date: 07 Apr 09 - 01:35 AM

Well, Eve, you also may not know I babysat a lot for Estelle and Jack when Paul was just a little gaffer, which meant I spent lots of time chatting with Paul's mom and dad about the emerging scene. (I also got to listen to their great record collection after Paul was tucked in.)

From here on, I have to qualify everything I say, by saying again, all my Toronto folk memories were formed between 1958 (when Tom Dooley hit big, and a zillion kids, me included, said to themselves, "Hey, that's so simple anyone can do it!" and April 1964, when I left for England right after my 21st birthday, became totally immersed in the London scene, and lost touch completely with life as it was unfolding in Southern Ontario. Which is simply to say I don't completely trust my memories of the times to be accurate.

It seems like I knew Estelle for a long time before she took over the helm of Mariposa, and I knew she liked to organize stuff. It may have been at a party at the Klein home on Humewood (there were lots of those, and one of them was where I interviewed Bob Dylan, but that's another story) - anyway, it may have been at one of those gatherings that a bunch of us began tossing around the idea that if we banded together we might be able to agree on a standard fee for gigs. It's likely Estelle was the ringleader, but I think her sister Pearl might have been in the thick of it as well. So we had planning meetings and drew up some possible aims and goals and it was all a lot of fun and felt like - o God, here comes the cliche - it felt like we were creating a family for ourselves. We were becoming a team. And it was fun and not at all desperate. The meetings were social as well as businesslike and I looked forward to hanging out with everyone who attended them, but I can't remember who all that was.

At some point, AFofM woke up to the new world order and discovered that folksingers were getting all the gigs, and the word went out that we had to join the union if we wanted to continue working, so we all joined, and we all worked for scale after that, and I guess the guild carried on with other good works.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 06 Apr 09 - 11:57 PM

Hey, I didn't know you helped found The Guild of Canadian Folk Artists! I had a long talk with Estelle Klein about that at one point when she heard that I was a member of Local 1000 of the AFM. I think she wanted me to know that Local 1000 was not the first organization of it's kind.

I'd love for you to explain what it was and why it came to be and what your involvement was, Joanne.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: balladeer
Date: 06 Apr 09 - 10:49 PM

Re Peter's question: "Hoot" was a little magazine produced by an organization I helped found, called The Guild of Canadian Folk Artists (later, the TORONTO Guild of Canadian Folk Artists - or was that just a discussion we had of an idea that never became reality? - ah the vagaries of memory). I was Hoot's first editor, hence I wrote its first editorial on its first-ever editorial page.

I didn't stay with the mag for long because I was on the road a lot and gone to England by early 1964. For almost forty years, I hung on to one copy of that first issue. It was in a box, along with a copy of the Chatelaine Magazine issue that included me as the only solo girl act in its major article on folksingers in Canada circa 1963. Also in that box were posters and playbills from many of my shows at home and abroad - some featuring the U.K concerts I did with Tom Paxton, John Renbourn, Alex Campbell, and a host of other folks who went on to do very well for themselves in folk biz.

When I met Paul Mills and made my solo CD with him in 2000, we filled the accompanying booklet with photos of many of those bits of memorabilia, including the cover of Hoot#1 and the Chatelaine photo, and after that, I lost the need to guard the paper collection with my life, so I may very well still have that one solitary issue of Hoot, packed away among the early publicity photo layouts, etc, but I haven't come across any of it since we moved into our present home in 2002.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 06 Apr 09 - 09:10 PM

Jackie Washington is a national treasure.

And we should be clear for any Americans reading this thread, we are talking about the Canadian Jackie Washington, not the Boston-area musician. The Canadian Jackie Washington came up as a jazz musician in Hamilton, Ontario, and has been on the music scene for about 80 years. He knows over 1400 songs, lots of obscure old swing tunes, and since the mid-70's has performed at a lot of folk festivals across Ontario and Canada.

There's nothing better than sitting at a folk festival stage where Jackie is holding court.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Peter T.
Date: 06 Apr 09 - 08:07 PM

hey, Joanne, do you still have any copies of "Hoot"?

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: balladeer
Date: 06 Apr 09 - 07:49 PM

To PHJim: I too played regularly at the Black Swan in Hamilton. Most people I come across only seem to remember as far back as the Stratford location. Pleased ta meetcha.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: C. Ham
Date: 06 Apr 09 - 04:45 PM

Jackie Washington is a treasure. I think he's close to 90 years old now and still a great musician and singer. I saw him perform last year with two of his great proteges, Ken Whiteley and Mose Scarlett, and was enthralled.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: PHJim
Date: 06 Apr 09 - 04:39 PM

Growing up in Hamilton and Dundas, I was first exposed to live folk music at the Black Swan on Houston St. S., The Ebony Knight, The Happy Medium and a few other coffee houses. Jackie Washington, Cedric Smith and Al Cromwell were the first musicians I recall seeing as a teenager in the early sixties. Jackie became and has remained one of my musical heros.
I've asked this before, but does anyone know whether Ted Schaffer or John Layton are still involved in music?

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: balladeer
Date: 06 Apr 09 - 12:43 PM

Adrien: I don't believe I've ever met Ray Materick, but I certainly know about his work. I'm under the impression that, after a few years away, he is once again busy and active in the creation of music and remains well known in folk/blues/pop circles.

Was there ever a time when he was actually forgotten?

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Beer
Date: 06 Apr 09 - 10:33 AM

So no one knows Ray Materick?
Adrien

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 05 Apr 09 - 11:58 PM

Great to hear people's memories of the Toronto folk scene.

David Parry was such a wonderful storyteller and singer -- I miss his presence around the Toronto folk scene. I'm good friends with Evalyn and in fact we do some performing together with another Toronto songwriter, Karyn Ellis, as "Girls with Glasses."

And hi Jim, if you are who I think you are, I definitely remember you!

My sense from talking to many people is that Mariposa was really very transformative for a lot of people, in terms of hearing new music, meeting people and becoming connected to the folk scene in Toronto. I'm curious about people's memories of who they saw there, or things that happened there that shaped their musical journey.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: balladeer
Date: 05 Apr 09 - 11:00 PM

Mike, speak to Mike Regenstreif. He knows everything worth knowing about the goodle days in Montreal.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Beer
Date: 05 Apr 09 - 10:15 PM

I really think Mike (in all due respect.)that what you are requesting should be addressed in one or the following threads:
1) Montreal 60's Counterculture Question
2) Montreal Sixties

If you had no luck maybe you could just rephrase your question.
Curious though. What is your question?
Adrien

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: mike gouthro
Date: 05 Apr 09 - 09:59 PM

To balladeer, Duke, PHJim, Jerryraven

and others who remember the Toronto folk scene of the 1950's and early 60's, I'd be most grateful if you could share your memories of the Montréal scene of the same period which precedes my familiarity of venues starting in 1964. I don't want to distract from this Toronto thread but I had no luck with this request in a long Montreal thread last year. Thanks.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: balladeer
Date: 05 Apr 09 - 10:35 AM

Jerry! YOU PLAYED WITH BOB GIBSON!!!!?

(Can you tell he was a hero of mine - at least as an artist?)

"Twelve o'clock, all's well,
Twelve o'clock, and all's well
Towncrier calls, ringin' his bell
It's twelve o'clock and all's well
Except for the girl with the tear in her eye,
Whose sailor has left with a bitter goodbye
He promised to love her, that they'd never part
Now he's gone and he's left with her heart."

***

"There's a hundred dead at Gettysburg
But the great battalion's home ..."

Bob Gibson's songs were a guilty pleasure for me. I loved them and I sang them, but sheepishly, because they were kind of pulpy, like tabloid stories. However, his Civil War Trilogy is a masterpiece, imho.

Are you still performing, Jerry?

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Jerryraven
Date: 05 Apr 09 - 08:59 AM

You're right. Played there with Bob Gibson. Watched him change all of his strings in about 5 minutes.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: balladeer
Date: 04 Apr 09 - 06:55 PM

Jerry - The Fifth Peg (kind of the Hugh's Room of its day) wasn't actually located in Yorkville Village, but further south on Church St.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: balladeer
Date: 04 Apr 09 - 05:21 PM

Hi Jerry:
I remember Hackett and Raven - I may not have caught your show, but certainly knew when you were in town. Don't get me started on my Zal Yanovsky stories ....

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Jerryraven
Date: 04 Apr 09 - 04:50 PM

I played the Toronto Folk Scene in the early 1960's with my then partner Don Hackett. We were based in Buffalo at our own place called "The Limelight Gallery" a folk club in downtown Buffalo. Hackett and Raven, as we were known, played regularly at "The Purple Onion" and then at the "5th Peg" in Yorkville. We also played in Hamilton at the "Downstairs". One thing that sticks in my mind was letting a 17 year old kid play my guitar between sets. Zol Yanofsky.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: balladeer
Date: 04 Apr 09 - 02:30 PM

Now that I've reached the time in my life when memory can play tricks, I am a bit self conscious about posting to this thread, which is so very memory related. In the past day or two, I've done a bit of research on line to try to confirm exact dates and places where certain things took place. Alas, everything I've read so far gets the dates wrong by more years even than I would, and of course (to my knowledge) most of what I remember isn't documented in any public place.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: PHJim
Date: 04 Apr 09 - 02:30 PM

My first contact with the Toronto Folk Scene was througfh Ted Schaffer (sp?). My friend Jim Cox and I had formed a folk trio circa 1960 with my brother Gary. Jim's dad told us that he had a friend who would give us some pointers. We drove to Toronto and Mr. Cox introduced us to his friend Ted. He taught me the Carter's scratch on the guitar and helped Jim with basic up-picking on the banjo. He also told us about Sing Out! magazine and the Mariposa Folk Festival which was to be held that summer at The Oval in Orillia. We went to that festival and all the rest of the Orillia festivals.
I attended the first Toronto Mariposa, held at Maple Leaf Stadium. My brother Bob and our friend Dennis slept beside the Princess Gates. I met Mississippi John Hurt that weekend (though I didn't know who he was. I was just excited that he actually knew Gary Davis) I ran back to find Bob and Dennis to tell them that I'd met a friend of Rev Gary's. Imagine my surprise when he appeared on stage later in the festival. Some other performers were Skip James, The Greenbriar Boys, Joanie Anderson (later to become Joannie Mitchell) Buffie St. Marie, Gordon Lightfoot, Tom Kines, David Rea... I saw Al Cromwell in the audience, but I don't think he was on the bill.
The police said that we weren't allowed to sleep by the Princess Gates, so we were invited by Terry Whelan, who had been Gord Lightfoot's partner in the Two Tones at the first two Mariposas, to sleep in his back yard. I recall there were a bunch of us sitting around picking and singing in his yard.
Thanks for starting this Eve. I don't know if you'd remember me, but I met you at Mike and Pat's in Port Hope and at Aengus's as well.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Peter T.
Date: 04 Apr 09 - 02:00 PM

Sorry, I was wrong -- can't think how I got it wrong. David was a wonderful guy, a dynamo.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Folkiedave
Date: 04 Apr 09 - 01:41 PM

One of the links to Fiddler's Green was David Parry who died an untimely death at 44.

I think you will find David Parry was 52. He is on the record "Friends of Fiddler's Green". His widow Caroline is still alive and lives in Ottawa in the Britannia area. David worked at the Museum of Canadian Civilisation at the time of his death. (As does Shelley Posen from Finestkind).

His son Richard Reid Parry is/was in Arcade Fire, the daughter Evelyn is also a singer, poetess etc.

http://www.answers.com/topic/david-parry

If you don't mind someone from the other side of the pond joining in!!

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Beer
Date: 04 Apr 09 - 01:17 PM

Do you folks happen to remember or know Ray Materick who lives in Hamilton? His big hit was "Linda Put the Coffee On". However it is his other songs that are far greater. Wonderful writer. Went into the rock scene for awhile but his earlier stuff I would think have brought him to some of the Folk venues in Toronto.
Adrien

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: balladeer
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 06:30 PM

Hey Duke, great to see you here. Just for the record, the Sharon you mentioned above, spelled her last name T-R-O-S-T-I-N before she married Joe Hampson and made history with Sharon, Lois, and Bram.

And speaking of SL&B, back before Bram Morrison hooked up with Sharon and Lois, he had a lovely career as Alan Mills's guitar accompanist, and spent a lot of time on the road as a result. (You may recall Alan Mills was a great collector and performer of actual Canadian folk songs, unlike some of us who sang songs from everywhere and felt guilty about not doing enough to carry on the Canadian legacy - but that's another story.)

Circa 1960, The Bohemian Embassy in St. Nicholas Street was the place to be on a Sunday evening. The hootenanny that happened there was extraordinary by today's open-stage standards. Sometime in the last year or two, before his very sad and too-early passing from this earth, Peter Kastner sent me a pencil-scratched program from one of those nights. It had his name and my name back-to-back, but also the names of folks like Amos Garrett and Bill Cosby and Gordon Lightfoot. If you were gigging in Toronto from in or out of town, you might stop by of a Sunday night and play a couple.

And that's how I met Bram. He had a night off from his steady gig with Alan and he chose to spend it hanging at the hoot. He backed me up on a couple of songs that night. Come to think of it, that's also how I met Amos. He accompanied me on The House of the Rising Sun on the Embassy stage the first time I sang it in public. It became my signature song until the Animals turned it into a mainstream monster hit. I lost interest in it after that.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Duke
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 05:39 PM

I first hit the Toronto folk scene in the late fifties. I spent most of my time between the Village Corner Folk Club and The one on Scollard St. called ??? That's the problem with going back like this, my memory is shot. Balladeer might remember the name. "The Clef Club"? I think that was it. Of course I spent a lot of time visiting all the other clubs depending on who was playing where. I met a lot of performers over the years, balladeer being one of them. A lot have become somewhat famous. Although they may not remember me, I certainly remember them.

When I first went to the VCC it was run by John Morley and Roy Davies who would do an act of Flanders and Swan music. Of course they had the folk singers as well. In the early days, Jim McCarthy, Dave Wiffen, Al Cromwell, Doug Bush, Ian and Sylvia, Claus Van Graft, Dave Campbell, Sharon Troston and many many more.

more to come!

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Beer
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 04:30 PM

Exactly Eve.
Adrien

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 04:23 PM

Joanne, please tell the stories here. That's what the conversation is about- anyone who doesn't want to read can skip the thread!

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Peter T.
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 04:11 PM

One of the links to Fiddler's Green was David Parry who died an untimely death at 44. He was the director of the Poculi Ludique Societas (the medieval drama group at the U of T) which also roped in the Morris Dancers, et al.   After rehearsals -- late 1970s, early 80s, the group (to which I belonged as an actor) would often head for the Tranzac.

I only mention this because I never went with them. They were a bunch of weird folkies.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: balladeer
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 02:49 PM

As I feared might happen when Eve first asked me what I remembered from the sixties, I'm starting to be bombarded by memories. Trouble is, I'm not quite sure what is true and what is half-truth informed by gossip of the day, and in any case, bits are missing.

I can't go on writing without telling what I know of the Gerrard Street Village, but that story may only be of interest to a few.

I'm thinking maybe I should re-activate my blog over at:
www.myspace.com/crabtreemills
and just ramble on for a while.

That way I will only bore you to death if you choose to come find me.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 01:32 PM

At one point I actually found some film footage from Mariposa on a website somewhere. I think it was a film licensing company, and they were advertising stock footage - you could watch tiny snippets of some of the scenes. If I remember right, I got to that page by Googling "Toronto folk music history" or something like that.

I moved to Toronto in 1981, and I always feel like I missed the best years of Mariposa and the Fiddler's Green Folk Club. There are some fantastic reel-to-reel tapes still kicking around of all kinds of amazing performers at Fiddler's Green. Tam Kearney played me one a couple of months ago and I was blown away by the quality of it. I think they are looking into putting together some kind of retrospective album from those tapes.

Through conversations with Estelle Klein and others who were around, I've gotten something of a picture of the early folk scene, but it's always great to hear people's stories.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: balladeer
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 12:07 PM

For those who may not know, the Mariposa festival was started by a wonderful woman named Ruth Jones, who lived in Orillia at the time. Ruth is still around, and might even read this thread.

I cannot speak about Ruth without mentioning Doug Bush and Al Cromwell, who were a working duo at that time, and who I think may have appeared at that first Mariposa. In any case, they went on to become good friends with Ruth.

Doug and I had also performed together for a while, back before I learned enough guitar to accompany myself (just barely, but it was the sixties, and a girl with a guitar was still a rare sight and therefore a marketable commodity).

Al was a fixture on the Toronto scene until his untimely passing a few years ago. I could always track him down, but Doug seems to have disappeared without a trace. Now and then over the years, I've made attempts to find him (I think Ruth has also) but I've had no luck.

Does anyone out there have any leads?

Joanne

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Peter T.
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 10:56 AM

The Mariposa Folk Festival Archives are now part of the library at York University in Toronto -- I know because I was there for the handover party, which was great fun.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: C. Ham
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 10:26 AM

knew from a year or two earlier when he was in Montreal for a good part of the summer.

I meant to say I knew Utah from a year or two earlier when he was in Montreal for a good part of the summer.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: C. Ham
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 10:24 AM

Your brother was right. After a while they had to get Dylan out of there because so many people were following him around. I got fairly close to him because I was tagging around with Utah taking pictures. I knew from a year or two earlier when he was in Montreal for a good part of the summer.

BTW, Utah had a copy of that picture, and a bunch more that I took that day of him.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: meself
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 10:15 AM

My brother was at that Mariposa festival at which Dylan showed up. He would say it was more like Dylan TRIED "just to be in the audience". He said that wherever Dylan went, there was a crowd of people on his heels ...

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: Beer
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 10:08 AM

OOOOH My!
Ham, I bet you sure wish you still had that picture. What a treasure.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: C. Ham
Date: 03 Apr 09 - 09:47 AM

I moved to Toronto from Montreal a little earlier than Mike Gouthro. But long before I moved, I was making an annual pilgrimage for Mariposa on the Toronto Islands. The Mariposa Folk Festivals of the 1970's exposed me to so much great music that I still appreciate today.

I remember one year, maybe 1972 or 1973, when Bob Dylan showed up just to be in the audience. I took a picture of him talking to Utah Phillips that, unfortunately, I don't have anymore.

Subject: RE: Toronto Folk History
From: mike gouthro
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 11:28 PM

I moved to Toronto from Montreal in 1979 so I can't contribute early roots memories.

But I do remember Cafe On The Park on Eglinton west of Yonge. It was a cozy narrow L-shaped room with a free bar area in front and a paid performance area in the back.

I don't know the owner but he clearly had a passion for folk music. He brought a number of first string performers in from the United States when the (few) other venues in the city exclusively showcased local acts. I saw Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Dave Van Ronk and Eric Andersen there.

Unfortunately, this period was short lived - perhaps a couple of years in the mid 1980's. Some aspect of the operation ran afoul of union interests and the doors were summarily locked.

To my recollection it wasn't until Hugh's Room opened in 2001 that Toronto once again had a venue to host the best folk and roots performers. Later in this thread, I'm sure someone will do justice to Hugh's Room which has been a godsend.

Subject: Toronto Folk History
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 10:32 PM

The suggestion was made to start a thread about the history of the Toronto folk scene, so here it is.

This would be the place to post information, memories, and stories about Toronto's folk past -- clubs, festivals, concerts, whatever. And to tell us about the people who made it happen - the musicians, songwriters, organizers, promoters, fans, supporters, etc.