Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy with Peter Weldon
From:
Thomas Stern
Date: 07 Jun 25 - 10:04 PM
Some tidbits about Peter Weldon
(some copied from other threads.....)
In the 1960s, Montreal natives Kate and Anna McGarrigle established themselves in Montreal's burgeoning folk scene while they attended school.[4]: 7–8 From 1963 to 1967, they teamed up with Jack Nissenson and Peter Weldon to form the folk group Mountain City Four.[4]: 9–10 The sisters wrote, recorded and performed music into the twenty-first century with assorted accompanying musicians, including Chaim Tannenbaum and Joel Zifkin.[4]: 11, 83
McGarrigle was also a songwriter; her song "Heart Like a Wheel" was the title track of Linda Ronstadt's 1974 album, and her song "Cool River" was recorded by Maria Muldaur.[5]
In 2016 Anna and her older sister Jane (1941-2025) wrote a book together, Mountain City Girls.[6]
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Historic, early recordings from Kate and Anna McGarrigle’s beginnings as members of the Mountain City Four.
In 1963, Jack Nissenson and Peter Weldon recruited Kate McGarrigle to form a trio. A few months later, Kate’s sister Anna joined, and the group became the Mountain City Four. Playing locally at Montreal folk clubs, the band developed a loyal and substantial following and played into the 1970s.
Kate and Anna began writing songs which were passed from friend to friend, and eventually found their way into the repertoires of Maria Muldaur and Linda Ronstadt. While in L.A singing backups on Maria’s first record, they were invited by Greg Prestopino to record a few of their other compositions. Greg passed the demo on to Warner Brothers Records who quickly offered Kate and Anna their own recording contract and they were off and running. For several years, the Mountain City Four continued as the opening act for Kate and Anna’s live shows and contributed backup vocals and instrumentals to the sisters’ early studio recordings.
The McGarrigles origins shine brightly on Mountain City Four which contains sixteen previously unissued recordings from 1963–1964, 1969–70, and a final one in 2012 two years after Kate’s passing which featured members of the Mountain City Four’s extended family. The tracks include classics like Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon Of Kentucky,” the traditional “Will The Circle Be Unbroken,” Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s “This Train,” and “All The Good Times,” written by Lead Belly and Alan Lomax.
Mountain City Four is produced by original member Peter Weldon and Jane McGarrigle. The packaging contains photos and liner notes from Weldon, both Jane and Anna McGarrigle, and Joe Boyd, outlining the history and sharing memories of the Mountain City Four. Not only is Mountain City Four a window into the origin of one of the world’s foremost singer/songwriting sisters, but a look into the incredible folk music scene of the 1960s.
CD / Digital Track List:
Jesulein Süss/Will The Circle Be Unbroken
Mean Old Frisco
Erev Shel Shoshanim
Motherless Children
Dark As A Dungeon
Blue Moon Of Kentucky
Reuben Ranzo
You’ve Got To Walk That Lonesome Valley
En Filant Ma Quenouille
This Train
The Log Driver’s Waltz
V’là Le Bonne Vent
You’re Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond
All The Good Times
Sam Hall
Shenandoah
Cat No.: OV-501
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Subject: Norm and Liz Doyle
From: mike gouthro - PM
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 01:24 PM
Norm and Liz were immigrants to Montreal from the UK in the mid 1960s. Neither performed but they brought a love of folk music performance to Montreal.
In Dec 1965 they created The Montréal Folk Workshop in rented room on Park Ave called Moose Hall. They paid the Moose Lodge a $10 nominal rental for each Wednesday's show. Moose Lodge made decent revenue from beer sales with audiences ranging from 40 to 100 depending on the drawing power of the featured act. The featured act delivered two half hour sets at 9PM and 11PM. The rest of the evening was filled with a half a dozen or more open mic performers who were allocated a three song time slot.
On opening night in 1965, Dave Van Ronk dropped by for a set. In January 1966, the Mountain City Four collective returned from a sabbatical for the first of several performances ending in 1970. The McGarrigle sisters emerged from this collective a few years later. Mike Seeger performed once and Richie Havens broke attendance records in 1968 with 130 in the audience. Jean Carignan's shows also racked up overflow houses.
Work opportunities forced Norm and Liz Doyle to move to San Francisco (I think) in late 1966 but the Folk Workshop continued under various managers and venues until 1973.
I'd love to hear from anyone with memories of the MFW but my main purpose is to learn if anyone knows of the musical endeavors of Norm and Liz either before or after their time in Montreal. They made a real mark on the Montreal folk scene by providing a more relaxed, beer facilitated club open to more diverse folk styles than the coffee houses of that era. And they planted the first seeds of the open mic concept in Montreal
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FOLKWAYS FW 8710 Songs of South Africa LP 1961
sung in Afrikaans by S?himon Ash with guitar
acc Peter Weldon, banjo
Folkways FG 3547 LP 1962
KAREN JAMES with guitar
Through Streets Broad and Narrow
with additional banjo and guitar, by Peter Weldon, Vocal assistance by Peter Weldon and Jack Nissenson
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sj
