Sue Draheim - bad news

Subject: Sue Draheim - bad news
From: BanjoRay
Date: 01 Mar 13 - 08:09 PM

A Facebook letter from fiddler Suzy Thompson:

Dear friends of Sue Draheim,
Wayde, Sue's sweetheart, has asked me to tell Sue's friends and colleagues some very sad news. Sue Draheim, our beautiful fiddling friend, has incurable brain cancer. About a month ago, she had a seizure, was hospitalized. In the hospital for a week while they did lots of tests and and found that she had a brain tumor, which was removed once they got the swelling down somewhat. At first they were hopeful, but It turned out to be the most nasty kind of brain cancer, glioblastoma, fast-spreading, incurable. She is deteriorating quickly. The docs have said that there's no use in doing any kind of treatment, as the cancer is spreading so fast and is so aggressive. She and Wayde are headed home, which is near Berea KY. I'm going there next week to help out.

Sue can't reply to emails, her verbal skills and sequential thinking is pretty much gone, but if you send an email to Wayde, he will read it to Sue, and I'm sure she would love to hear from her friends even if she can't reply. I'll forward anything posted here, too. Wayde's email is: kentuckylucky(AT)hotmail.com

There will be a concert to honor and support Sue, at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, on Mon. April 1st. All net proceeds (after the Freight takes their cut) will go to Sue and Wayde to help with their expenses. I hope you'll be able to attend and join us in celebrating Sue's life and music.

I don't even have words to describe how this makes me feel and for Eric it's much worse, he's known Sue since 1968 and the Colby Street house days (before my time), from when she was just beginning to get into playing folk music. I met Sue in 1976 and immediately asked her to join Any Old Time and we've been close friends ever since. In sadness, Suzy Thompson — with Val Mindel and 2 others.

Subject: RE: Sue Draheim - bad news
From: Dave Swan
Date: 01 Mar 13 - 09:39 PM

What rotten news. Thanks, though, for passing it on.

Subject: RE: Sue Draheim - bad news
From: open mike
Date: 01 Mar 13 - 09:52 PM

(perhaps the thread title can be adjusted to include benefit concert at Freight to get the word out about the fundraiser) I hope you get good attendance at the concert to pull together support for Sue and Wayde. Suzi, I am sorry to hear this news. Hugs to all.

Subject: RE: Sue Draheim - bad news
From: GUEST,steve s.
Date: 01 Mar 13 - 10:40 PM

Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950). Spoon River Anthology. 1916.

60. Fiddler Jones


THE EARTH keeps some vibration going        
There in your heart, and that is you.        
And if the people find you can fiddle,        
Why, fiddle you must, for all your life.        
What do you see, a harvest of clover?                 5
Or a meadow to walk through to the river?        
The wind's in the corn; you rub your hands        
For beeves hereafter ready for market;        
Or else you hear the rustle of skirts        
Like the girls when dancing at Little Grove.         10
To Cooney Potter a pillar of dust        
Or whirling leaves meant ruinous drouth;        
They looked to me like Red-Head Sammy        
Stepping it off, to "Toor-a-Loor."        
How could I till my forty acres         15
Not to speak of getting more,        
With a medley of horns, bassoons and piccolos        
Stirred in my brain by crows and robins        
And the creak of a wind-mill—only these?        
And I never started to plow in my life         20
That some one did not stop in the road        
And take me away to a dance or picnic.        
I ended up with forty acres;        
I ended up with a broken fiddle—        
And a broken laugh, and a thousand memories,         25
And not a single regret.

Subject: RE: Sue Draheim - bad news
From: GUEST,John Foxen
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 09:11 AM

Very sad news. I know only her work with John Renbourn but that was absolutely marvellous. Very best wishes.

Subject: RE: Sue Draheim - bad news
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 10:51 AM

Sorry to hear this. Like John above, I was only familiar with her work with John Renbourn and Richard Thompson. She was someone I would have liked to have met.

Subject: RE: Sue Draheim - bad news
From: GUEST,John James
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 01:04 PM

Even though it is many years since our paths were entangled, reading about this news of Sue's illness I found deeply upsetting.
Poor Sue, I trust she is being well cared for.
Bitter sweet memories.

Subject: RE: Sue Draheim - bad news
From: RolyH
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 03:00 PM

First heard about Sue because of her involvement with the early Albion Band line ups and her playing on RT's Henry The Human Fly. Very best wishes.

Subject: RE: Sue Draheim - bad news
From: GUEST,Suzy T.
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 03:21 PM

Thank you Banjo Ray for posting this announcement. I think I will make a separate post for the benefit concert announcement, but here is the basic info:
Concert for Sue Draheim
Monday April 1st
Doors at 7 -- Cajun music (and dancing) in the lobby til the show starts
8:00 - onstage show starts
Freight & Salvage
2020 Addison, Berkeley
Ticket info and updates here: Freight and Salvage website
with:
Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin
Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum
Tempest
Golden Bough
Tony Marcus & Patrice Haan
Don Burnham & the Bolos
Kathy Kallick
Will Spires
Eric & Suzy Thompson
Gerry Tenney & the Hard Times Orchestra
Miliosa and Rich Lundy with the Live Oak Ceili Band and the Patricia Kennelly Dancers
Great Big Cajun Band with Delilah Lewis, Will Spires, Eric & Suzy, et al.
Classical string quartet music with Paul Hale and friends

Subject: RE: Sue Draheim - bad news
From: GUEST,Jon Berger
Date: 03 Mar 13 - 12:51 AM

I'm really shocked to hear this. I was a huge fan of Sue's because of her work with the John Renbourn group, and she was fabulous in Tempest. She got interested in playing English country dance music through Mickie and Beth Zekley, I think; however it happened, the result was that I got to play quite a few dances with her, and she was an absolute blast to play with. My best wishes to her family and friends, and I'm really sorry I'm going to have to miss the Freight concert.

Subject: RE: Sue Draheim - bad news
From: GUEST,Michael Mullen
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 07:20 PM

This is very sad. Is there any way i can be involved in the Freight concert?

Subject: RE: Sue Draheim - bad news
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 12:55 PM

Very sad news! I only knew her through from seeing her at some Irish sessions at Moriarty's in Berkeley in the late 1980's, and through a few Irish fiddle Club meetings at John Sherry's house, plus hearing her with Tempest. My heart goes out to her family, partner, close friends, and many admirers. We plan to go to the Freight concert.Thank you for posting this news.

Subject: RE: Sue Draheim - bad news
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 12:58 PM

Sad news indeed.

Subject: Concert for Sue Draheim
From: GUEST,Suzy T.
Date: 30 Mar 13 - 12:27 AM

A concert honoring and to benefit our dear fiddling friend, Sue Draheim, who now lives in Berea, Kentucky and has incurable brain cancer.
MONDAY APRIL 1st, at 7 pm, at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley
Tickets are 28.50 in advance, 20.50 at the door.
More info here: http://freightandsalvage.org/concert-sue-draheim

The concert will be streamed live via Concert Window:
We will be live-streaming the Concert for Sue Draheim at The Freight & Salvage, which starts at 8p PT. Wherever you are in the world, you can tune in! You can purchase online tickets for $5 anytime at http://www.concertwindow.com/shows/concert-for-sue-draheim, and the webcast will be viewable on computers, iPhones, and iPads. The show will not be recorded, but you can watch it live in HD.
Income from the webcast will be added to the proceeds from the concert, which is a benefit for Sue Draheim and Wayde Blair, her partner.

Performers:
Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin
Tempest
Laurie Lewis, Tom Rozum & Kathy Kallick
Leftover Dreams (Tony Marcus and Patrice Haan)
Golden Bough
String Quartet with Joe Edelberg, Josie Fath, Emily Onderdonk and Paul Hale
Live Oak Ceili Band and friends, with the Patricia Kennelly Irish Step Dancers
Will Spires
Don Burnham & the Bolos
Eric & Suzy Thompson
Johnny Harper
Delilah Lewis & Karen Leigh
Harry & Cindy Liedstrand
Gerry Tenney & the Hard Times Orchestra

The evening will begin at 7:00 p.m. with Cajun and old time music in the lobby, and will shift to the Freight stage at 8:00 p.m. with a string quartet featuring some of Sue's colleagues from the classical music world. From there, the show will feature many wonderful musicians who played with Sue over the years.

Sue's musical career began in the late 1960s with Dr. Humbead's New Tranquility String Band and Medicine Show, and went on to encompass work with John Renbourn, the Albion Band, Any Old Time String Band, Golden Bough, Tempest, and Caliban. Sue also performed with several regional orchestras, the Western Opera Theater, and the long-running light opera company, the Lamplighters. Since moving to Kentucky, Sue has been playing for contra dances.

"Sue is one of the best musicians I have ever met," the guitarist John Renbourn said. "She is incredibly versatile and her playing in each idiom is always right on the money. When we last saw each other she had a chair in a West Coast orchestra. The enjoyment of listening to Mahler was enhanced by the thought that she could easily slip into the Skillet Lickers. She learned Irish fiddle so perfectly that when the great piper Willie Clancey heard her he was truly moved and I can't think of a higher accolade than that."