Info: banjo player Perry Friedman

Subject: RE: Perry Friedman
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 08 Dec 10 - 12:00 PM

Thanks Fred and BigJ for reminding me of Paddy Doody. A top bloke.

Subject: RE: Perry Friedman
From: GUEST,bigJ
Date: 08 Dec 10 - 11:45 AM

Thanks for that Fred.
Yes I must have been mistaken about Collector; it was the Topic one I was thinking of.
The Little Black Fly was a Wade Hemsworth (Canadian) song I think.
You're quite right about Doody too - mind you he had a good wake - pity he wasn't there to enjoy it.
Regrds,
John

Subject: RE: Perry Friedman
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 08 Dec 10 - 10:21 AM

hi John. Perry Friedman was indeed Canadian. I can't add much more to that except that he recorded an e.p. for Topic sometime in the 1950s (could that be the Collector e.p. you were thinking of?).

TOP56 Vive La Canadienne. Perry Friedman:
Vive La Canadienne / The Shining Birch Tree / Mary Ann / The Grand Hotel / The Red River Valley / Great Big Sea Home

The Shining Birch Tree was reissued on a Topic sampler called Men at Work, which I think I've still got. If you could use a copy please holler.

Didn't PF also write The Little Black Fly, which a group called the Calton Three used to sing. Remember them? :-) In fact I recall another Canadian song called Farewell to Nova Scotia, which the trio also sang and which I think they got from him.

It's at times like this that I particularly miss Paddy Doody. If he was still alive, he could have given you chapter and verse on the man. Where he came from, what he recorded, what colour socks he wore, and probably where he bought his lunchtime sandwiches from.

Subject: RE: Perry Friedman
From: GUEST,bigJ
Date: 08 Dec 10 - 10:03 AM

Thanks for that susanne.

Subject: RE: Perry Friedman
From: GUEST,susanne (skw) cookieless
Date: 07 Dec 10 - 08:34 PM

Perry Friedman disappeared behind the Iron Curtain. He lived in (East) Berlin more or less for the rest of his life, considerably helping the GDR's folk revival on its way, and died there in 1995 at the age of sixty. The German Wikipedia has a short article on him: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Friedman

Subject: Perry Friedman
From: GUEST,bigJ
Date: 07 Dec 10 - 06:54 AM

I've just been making a CD of a 1960 HMV LP called "A Jug of Punch" made by Peter Kennedy for the EFDSS.
Among the artists featured are Frank McPeake, Seamus Ennis, Isabel Sutherland and Shirley Collins.
Some of the accompaniment is provided by a banjo player from Canada (I think) by the name of Perry Friedman. While he was here in the UK he made an ep for the Collector label on which he sang 'A Great Big Sea' and 'The Shining Birch Tree'.
I don't remember hearing anything of him since those far-off days. Anybody got any information?
Thanks.