John Dwyer - Songs & Stories -Guitar List photos

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: johnross
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 02:07 PM

In the interests of moving this topic back to a focus on John Dwyer, I've started a new thread here for more general discussion of preservation and access. Please join us there.

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 12:34 AM

Jon, I'm not an archivist, but I work around a bunch of them (I'm a writer, housed in the administration of the library, and we share the floor and staff kitchen with Special Collections). I read finding aids often enough that it would certainly make sense to develop some along the way as I wade through Dad's stuff. (This reminds me of those bad commercials "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV. . .")

First, I'm going to look at Dad's stuff as it is now and see what it tells me before I start "arranging" it myself. He was, after all, a reference librarian. He kept citations, he documented everything, and he tended to drop notes and pages of stuff and photocopies into stacks, files, boxes, that might be related materials, etc. So there may be someplace to start. But he was a packrat, so there may be a process of taking those files of mostly germane stuff and pulling out the odds and ends that ended up in there by accident. ;-)

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Miken
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 12:00 AM

Maggie, it's good to hear you're finally able to tackle this project. I'll be greatly interested in the progress, and more than willing to help in any way I can. Hmmm, my brother's a librarian and has archive experience. I'll sound him out. He's at Eastern Wa. Univ.

Mike Nelson

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 11:49 PM

John Ross' suggestions have found a great deal of support here in Vancouver. We have tapes going back to the founding of the Folk Song Circle in 1959. Nothing lasts forever and we need to start urgent thinking about how best to preserve our own history and in what format. I am going to use John's very well-thought-out draft Project as a base for our own, with perhaps local funding and copies or links to everyone else. But regardless of where the material is STORED (a question becoming more and more academic when one asks oneself where one's emails are stored), we certainly could use a Finding Aid or three for North West folk materials. Are there any, um, librarians or archivists in our midst?

Jon Bartlett

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 05:06 PM

Roly, I found that little number recently and it's now tucked away in a glass-front bookcase. The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. It's like Christmas every day around here. I've finished tiling a most of the floors and painting walls so I can put up shelves and open boxes of books that haven't seen light of day for several years.

Along with the Penguin book, I'm finding many other gems, books that were part of his creative process. Books of mythology, limericks, dictionaries, atlases, a rhyming dictionary, local history in the Northwest, to describe just a few. Clearly a part of the "collection."

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: RolyH
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 03:47 PM

Maggie

I never did say thanks for putting up that story about the Penguin book when I put one up for auction a while back.

Thanks

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 03:38 PM

I agree Maggie ... this thread you started may well lead into several others. Hopefully, some real education will happen. And also hopefully, I'll be able to decide how to best deal with the many boxes of reel to reel tapes, as well as cassettes, of the best of the music that happened in this area in the 50's and sixties. CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 03:30 PM

John, as you say, this is probably a good time to move the topic over to a thread with a name to do with NW Folklife to get into the details of this archival process. The system at Mudcat is great for pulling up old threads. For those reading along, I received a long description via my home email of the project underway. For more information about NW Folklife in general, there is a lot to be found at Northwest Folklife.

Meanwhile, once I start unpacking boxes here I'm sure I'll have a few general questions to do with the music that will be best posted here.

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: johnross
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 01:49 PM

This is not the right topic to discuss the audio archive project in detail (I think there's at least one NW Folklife topic around here someplace). But to answer Mark's question, we are considering making some "best of..." CDs from the archive, if we can figure out the rights issues.

Meantime, Northwest Folklife has issued a bunch of highlights CDs, cassettes and LPs over the years. They're all officially out of print, but it might be possible to find a few for sale. Send me private e-mail and I'll see what I can do.

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 10:09 AM

er. . .perhaps that should read "especially when a governmental entity like a City is involved. . .

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 10:05 AM

Mark,

I agree, this is an excellent beginning--but good as it looks, there are questions to ask and answers to sort out. I've already had Dad's papers for four years, waiting to get myself into a position to sort through and organize them. I'm about to that point. Three separate universities, in the general area of the Northwest and Western Canada have people who have said they'd like to see the papers there (this isn't the same as a formal arrangement, this is purely preliminary networking). Someone else suggested the museum set up around Jimi Hendrix's work, because it is central, and funded (How is Microsoft stock looking this month?). I'd like to donate them somewhere (I don't think anyone is going to offer to buy them, but a valuation and donation at least have tax advantages) where they can be processed soon. I am willing to work on them as much as I need to (I want to do this) and have discussed informally the possibility of compiling a CD of Dad's work to sell in order to raise a small endowment for the collection, if this will hasten it's availability to people who want to use it. I have a friend down here in Texas whose husband is a producer for some big names in established music circles, so know I can rely on them for useful information in pursuing this project as far as the quality of the sound, even if it ends up being a garage operation distribution-wise.

This also leads into the larger question that Bob Nelson and Jean Smith and I have discussed--what to do with the collections of people who are long-deceased, where their materials are stored in basements of friends? I would love to be in a position to pull all of these together into a substantial body of Northwestern musical archival resources and see that they all get the attention they deserve and allow those who wish to research their works to have easy access. These materials first have to be safeguarded and assessioned. Again, the question of funding the job for whoever houses it--can funds be generated by releasing some of the material in compilations?

I think several of us are sitting on some valuable and delightful musical resources, and this Folklife/City of Seattle move may be a good one. But I need a lot more answers first (especially when a governmental entity like a City are involved. Winds shift so quickly there!).

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 04:03 AM

Wow, Maggie, talk about an offer you can't refuse--that's amazing! John, are there any compilations planned for public distribution?   (Best of Folklife 19...) I'd love to hear something like that.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 12:56 AM

Hi Jon, things are quite hectic right now. I'll be PMing you shortly. CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 12:30 AM

John,

Thanks! I'll email you. Who all is involved with this project? (Agency/entity-wise and people-wise).

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: johnross
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 10:19 PM

Maggie: Within a few months, Northwest Folklife will have the equipment in place to make high-quality digital copies (better than CDs) of cassettes and reel tapes. And we've just convinced the City of Seattle to store our master tapes in the City Archive's climate- and temperature-controlled vault.

John was an important part of the Folklife Festival, and we would love to include copies of his tapes in the Northwest Folklife Archive--and we'll make copies on CD or cassette for you at the same time. Please get in touch with me via e-mail here or offline.

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 29 Oct 02 - 10:42 PM

Hi Bob, yes I do indeed remember. Come and visit up north some time! Our Wintyer Ballads & Blues is on at Camp Sasamat 22-24 November this year. Great food, good wine, songs, hot tubs... all for $90 Can (about $14.35 US I think!). Jon

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Oct 02 - 12:32 PM

I collected every bit and scrap of paper, along with cassettes, reel-to-reel, and his LP's. One brother got a chunk of the albums (those I thought I could most easily re-acquire for the collection) and the other brother took the reel-to-reel player, so I'll have to get my hands on one of those to find out what's on these tapes. I also kept the original recording cassettes that Dad was planning to tape over.

At this point I have all of his recording equpiment in one place, but haven't set it up. I'll report back once I start unpacking boxes.

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 28 Oct 02 - 07:52 AM

Hi John, I believe you are quite correct about meeting John Dwyer at John and Sally's in the mid 70's. I believe I was there also. I still remember that house echoing with the wonderful voices. I'd never heard such shanties before! I remember some of the treasures John had collected over the years. It might be interesting to see what material surface. CHEERS, Bob Nelson (Everett)

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 28 Oct 02 - 02:21 AM

John's connection to Vancouver and the Vancouver Folk Song Society should not be lost. He drove up from marysville to sing with us every first and third Wednesday, oftentimes with Jean Smith. He even served three terms (1986, 1987 and 1993) on our Board of Directors.

I believe I first met him and his outrageous sense of humour at John and Sally Ashford's parties at Seattle Folklife, which is probably ?1976 ?1977.

Jon Bartlett

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Oct 02 - 01:04 AM

I'm reviving this thread just to let a few of John Dwyer's friends know that I'm FINALLY unpacking the boxes of stuff from his house (it was in storage until this summer). I think there are 13 boxes moving boxes (small U-Haul) with pages of words, music, photocopies, liner notes, cassettes, etc. Once I get a place set up for sorting all of this stuff, you may be hearing from me.

Maggie (now logging on as Stilly River Sage--I wrote to this thread with my own name for a while, but I don't know how to access that account any longer--forgot the password and lost my cookie--so use SRS to reach me).

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Dec 01 - 02:36 AM

Mike,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I'm trying to catch up with shopping and life in general after finishing a seminar paper for class last week (graduate school, philosophy dept., environmental ethics in particular).

I was at San Juan Island NHP in the summer of 1985. It isn't a big park, and when I was there I think there were four or five seasonal interpretive rangers, two of them women. I imagine the staffing has remained about the same level, but the seasonal rangers are just that--seasonal--and we have wanderlust in our hearts. I worked all over the U.S. before getting married and having kids stopped me for a while. (Unfortunately, it stopped me in Texas, not in Washington! I'll get out of here one of these days. The summers here are killers).

I'm pleased to see that Bob and you and Don are back in contact again. Now maybe you'll go ahead and sign up and be something other than "GUEST,GUEST,Mike Nelson"! And perhaps you three will expand on the stories of the good old days for the rest of us on the list?

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 08:55 PM

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 10:53 PM

HEY MAX ... AND ALL MUDCATTERS! Just in case you need some justification for MUDCAT, let me tell you what just happened. Mike Nelson and I just spoke, person to person, for the first time in 39 years (1962 - 2001). He found bride Judy and I, and Don Firth, thru MUDCAT. Are you ready for this ... it turns out that he lives about ten miles from us and is a local phone call away! How's that for a surprise. Thankyou MAGGIE for reviving this thread!. CHEERS and Merry Christmas to all! Bob

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: GUEST,GUEST, Mike Nelson
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 09:55 PM

Maggie,

Thanks for the direction to the hootenanny thread! Brings back a lot of old memories as do Don and Bob's postings.

I caught your post on the F.H. Irish music camp thread and was intrigued by your mention of the Nat. Park at the English Camp. Guess from Don's recollection earlier on this thread you worked there as a ranger? I grew up in Friday Harbor in the late 40's and early 50's. I remember a few years ago having a conversation at the English Camp with a lady in a rangers' uniform about the Crook family, the history of the area, etc. Could that have been you?

Thanks again and hope to meet you sometime.

Mike

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 06:08 PM

You know, I REMEMBER that first time I actually met Mike, and it was pretty much as you described. The weirdness even continued after I quit singing on the "Ave", just before we left for California. I had been singing for Stan at the Cooraborrie (sp?) on Friday nights and when I left, Mike took over. For the few weeks I stayed in town, I would often run into paying customers on the ave that complimented me on "last night's performance!" Pretty strange, but good memories. By the way Don, have you ever thought of being a comic? CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Don Firth
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 03:36 PM

Good grief, yes! I remember Mike Nelson! Took a few guitar lessons from me at one time, sang at the Pamir House, The Place Next Door, and various other places, then kinda vanished from sight, at least from where I was milling around.

Bizarre situation. Mike Nelson and Bob Nelson were each other's doppelgänger. Both had (obviously) the same surname; in age, they were within a year or two of each other; physically they were about the same build; they both wore glasses; they tended to dress alike; they both looked like they'd got their hair out of the same box of Brillo pads; and they both sang folk songs. Before they even met, they were constantly being mistaken for each other. Those who could tell them apart and didn't know better, automatically assumed they were brothers. Endless confusion with great potential for mistaken identities and comic-opera plots. When they did finally meet (at Howard's Restaurant in the University District, if I remember correctly) they both stared at each other for a long time and slowly circled like a pair of wary tomcats. After all, each had been accused several times of being the other (outraged fathers, angry husbands, etc.). Had they ever decided to form a duo, it would have been like something out of the Twilight Zone. Fascinating!

Good to hear from you, Mike! How are you? Where have you been? Where are you now? What have you been up to all this time? Dropped me a line. [e-mail].

Don Firth

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 02:57 PM

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 01:25 AM

Mike,

Your name sounds familiar, though I wasn't old enough to be part of that folksinging circle at the time you mention. I was one of the kids sent to bed when people started getting serious about the songs (and into more adult content. So I adjourned upstairs, supposedly tucked into bed, and listened at the heater vent). If you want to see Don Firth in action, visit this Mudcat thread.

John Dwyer died in November of 1997.

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 12:36 AM

Mike Nelson ... you olde son of a gunn. Get in touch with us. "US" is me and Judy Thompson Barberie Nelson. And yes, you and I did sing at the "P" house, lo those many years ago. I'll give you my private e-mail address: [e-mail] ..... Judy and I have been looking for you! CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: GUEST,GUEST, Mike Nelson
Date: 19 Dec 01 - 12:20 AM

New to Mudcat and diving in and out of the threads. John Dwyer's name familiar so looked in. Didn't know John but had heard of his work. Bout forty years ago I DID know Don Firth who expanded my new found interest in folk music and threw in the odd guitar lesson as well! I remember many a late night with a bunch of folks from the coffee house scene on the Ave; the Pamir House comes to mind. All these familiar names ( and some faces) are coming back: Phil and Viv Williams, (we were the old Turkey Pluckers), the Ashfords, Alice Stuart, Nancy Quense, Mike Loeb, Judy Flenniken (?) DECKMAN,if you're the same Bob N., many more. Great to hear you are still around and singing! Guess I better register, would surely like to get in touch and get up to date on happenings over the years. Nice surprise!

Mike

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 11:56 PM

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 07:35 PM

Beyond the bawdy ballads John knew so well, I also enjoyed his readiness to inflame the "gender wars." ... for lack of a better term. I remember one time, back in the 60's I think, he and I traveled from our homes North of Seattle to Centrailia. The beautiful Linda Allen was running a wonderful coffee house called "Apple Jam." John and I were supposed to perform a formal 'concert' centered around historical folk songs of American History. As usual, we had planned well, rehearsed, and drove down together singing all the way. We did the first half of the concert as planned, and then after intermission, the plans went to hell. John had been visiting with Linda Allen during the break and he invited her up on stage to sing with us for the last half. I didn't know her well yet, and in front of my unbieliving eyes, John starting singing the gender challenging songs ... you know, female put down songs, etc. I started squirming onstage, and the next things I knew, Linda grabbed her guitar and gave him one back ... then two back ... then three back! After a half hour of this marvelous repartie (sp?) I started looking for the back door. As I remember, we all parted friends. CHEERS, Bob And thanx for re-introducing this post. It's GOOD this time of the year to remember dear friends.

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 01:30 PM

Hi Maggie ... you just saved me a postage stamp. I have that article in an envelope all set to mail to you! And yes, I find it almost impossible to separate the image of your Father and the "Dalliance" songs. I'll post more a little later today. Right now I have to go out and build a deck in the freezing rain! CHEERS, Bob Nelson

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Dec 01 - 12:46 PM

I'm reviving this thread momentarily to call some of the Washington State contingent's attention to a little "remember when" article in the Everett Herald last week (yeah, I know, it's just "THE Herald" these days). Visit here for a glance back 25 years. I think I have the posters to this somewhere around here.

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: StillyRiverSage (inactive)
Date: 20 Jan 01 - 12:18 PM

Another thread has introduced the topic of Bawdy Songs--and it's no huge segue to come back to the John Dwyer thread with bawdy songs in mind. I grew up with his learning songs from the McCurdy "Daliance" and "Son of Daliance," etc. I'm resuscitating this thread to see if anyone else thinks of "bawdy songs" and "John Dwyer" in the same synapse?

Maggie

Subject: Lyr Add: DEAD DOG CIDER^^
From:
Date: 12 Jan 01 - 01:07 AM

This brings back alot of memories of John. He was such a musical sponge. One of my favorite tunes of his was sung at Song Circle last Sunday -- Dead Dog Cider


DEAD DOG CIDER
(John Dwyer)


In the year of 1642, in a little cider mill
A poor old dog lay down to sleep, for he was feeling ill
He chose a most precarious perch, above an apple press
And in hie sleep he tumbled in, and perished in distress

Which caused hsi master for to grieve, likewise his mistress too
And for their sorrow to relieve, they sampled of that brew
Gadzooks! said farmer Atwater, the likes I ne'er did sup
Come summon all the neighbors in and bid them drink a cup

Well everyone that drunk that night, got drunk as drunk could be
They marvelled how that cider had acquired such potency
But the farmer kept his counsel as he had another drop
When all at once that poor old dog came floating to the top

Well a silence fell upon that crowd and everyone did frown
They recognized poor bendegal, though he was upside down
The parson lost his collar and collapsed upon the floor
While the squire lost his britches in his rush to reach the door

Fear not said farmer Atwater, for in all me life I vow
Ben never bit no man nor beast and he wont bite noone now
And this shal be his epitaph, here lies poor faithful Ben
What perished in a cider vat and quickly rose again

Now if your down in Devon, and you goes into a bar
Just ask for dead dog cider, thats the best there is by far
Accept no imitation and you'll sleep just like a log
You'll always recognize it by the hair of the dog

Great to hear from you, Don and Mark -- its good to know that you are well. By the way, that party in 1998 spawned an annual gig -- this year will be sometime in February at Mercer VFW - by the name of "Founder's Music Evening"

Bruce

HTML line breaks added. -JoeClone 1-Apr-01.

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Don Firth
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 05:32 PM

Maggie, count me in, too. Yep, Rich Passage. That's the Seattle-Bremerton run.

Thanks for the e-mail. I'm up to my ears in busy-ness right now, but I'll be answering you sometime within the next few days.

Don

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Stewart
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 12:29 PM

Thanks everyone for your stories, particularly Maggie for sharing in your last post. Although I sat in a circle singing with John most every Sunday evening for a year, I've learned a lot more about this remarkable person. I'm looking forward to hearing from other people who haven't contributed yet. And how about some more of his songs?

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 12:38 AM

Maggie, thanks for sharing. Count me in on the celebration. If you're not careful, you'll SO MANY FRIENDS that you'll have to charter the whole damned boat. I'll have to do a little thinking, but I suspect the Seattle to Bremerton run would be appropriate.

Hugs to you, Bob

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: StillyRiverSage (inactive)
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 12:18 AM

Barbara,

The wake/hoot/potluck dinner we did for Dad in January of 1998 (set up by Jean Smith--thanks again, Jean!) saw a packed room at Camp Long in West Seattle. And as the Song Circle singing started, it was clear that this group knew him well. There were some beautiful ballads sung, and through the evening there were some sincerely sweet and sad songs sung in his honor. Invariably after a sweet song, the next guitar would pluck out a few tones of the next song, and an audible groan and laugh would rise from the group as a bawdy or particularly punny song would rock the gathering. Though I don't remember what it was now, Stan James sang the most agonizingly, ironically, grim song I've ever heard in my life. I remember at my turn asking for the group to sing "The Golden Vanity," figuring everyone would know it.

That evening so impressed me of the importance of his work in gathering songs and music that I went out to the house that night afterward and packed up the remaining albums and books so they wouldn't become lost in the process of settling the estate. I then flew off to Texas to get on with life for a while. When I returned in February to clean the house to put it on the market, I knew full well that the shelves (over by the door out to the deck) were empty. The entire house was completely empty. I stood in the sunset-lit room one evening, so sad, wishing there was some sign from him that there was something remaining of him there. My attention was caught by something protruding slightly from the top of those book shelves. I stretched up to find a slim volume, I have it here--The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs--from the high school library where he was librarian before moving to Everett Community College. Probably the first book he ever checked out (and never returned!) to start learning songs. I examined it, and it dropped open to "The Golden Vanity." I haven't been able to get that same result with that book since then.

If that isn't enough, on another day, I whimsically thought to myself "I wonder what else he can produce in these book shelves" and I found, to my surprise, another book, this time The Sex Lives of Slugs. I knew it was Dad maniputlating the shelves! I think, just on the off chance that there's something magical about those shelves, I packed the boards up with the stuff I put in storage.

If this doesn't seem too maudlin, I still have Dad's ashes. I've been intending to scatter them into Puget Sound off of the back of a ferry. I don't think the family is ever going to get together at one time to do it, so next time I'm in the Northwest, maybe I can find a fine day and anyone who is interested can go along on one of the ferries. I'll ask the captain to let me scatter his ashes--I hear this is pretty standard on the Sound. I wonder how the accoustics are in Washington State Ferries for folk singing?

My parents were divorced back in the late 1960's, and my mother, Carol Husby, died six months after Dad. Her death was not so sudden, and there was time to reflect on the process. I sat in the hospital room with Mom and my sister one day in May, 1998, when they discussed Mom's funeral plans. And that Mom wanted to have her ashes also scattered from the deck of a ferry. It was so sad, and yet so funny, to have my mother say "I will be scattered off of the Kingston run, so you'll have to scatter your father off of the Mukilteo ferry."

I don't feel bound by this plan, however; if anyone has suggestions of a particularly good run let me know. Which run would be the one with the admonishment "don't navigate by cow" from his "Notice to Mariners"?

Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Barbara
Date: 09 Jan 01 - 07:33 PM

I remember complaining to John at Singtime that too many of the bawdy songs were the same and told from a man's point of view. I think I might even have said boring. And darned if he didn't take off with a whole set I'd never heard before, and much more entertaining. I think he even sang Willie the Weaver... though he may also have sung the Ball of Ballynoor... someone did.
He taught me Zeke's outrageous parody to Maire's Wedding, the chorus of which goes: "Toora loora loora loo,
You hate me and I hate you
But there's nothing we can do:
There's no divorce in Ireland!

Was he a curmudgeon? I never noticed. I thought he was a flirt, and charming. Sure could sing wonderfully! Stayed up half the night with about 10 of us one year to sing songs with harmonies.
I miss him.

Mary, don't forget Becky Benton(?) who died this last year and wrote all those wonderful NW songs.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: MMario
Date: 09 Jan 01 - 04:00 PM

stewart - you wouldn't be able to e-mail that NWC file out, would you? say - to Joe Offer, or Me?

MMario

---

Yeah, Stewart, if you've got a Noteworthy Composer NWC file and can put the lyrics of the first verse in so we know how to match it to the notes, please send it in to me as an e-mail attachment. thanks.
-Joe Offer (click to e-mail)- ^^

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: GUEST,Phil Cooper
Date: 09 Jan 01 - 03:16 PM

Dear Maggie,

As I mentioned, I thought that John's copying the whole set for us (since they were long out of print) was one of the nicest things someone could have done for us. The second time we played Seattle, he handed us the box with the tapes. There was a nice note on the top forgiving Margaret and I for the puns we used in the previous fall performance. It only takes a couple of live faces in the audience to make a performance stand out in your mind as "a good time." John was a true enthusiast in the best senses of the word.

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: StillyRiverSage (inactive)
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 12:00 AM

Phil, Bob,

I have Dad's copies of the albums of the MacColl and Seeger's "Long Harvest" collection. One of these days, as I mentioned above, I will do something useful with them.

And Bob, you're right, he did encourage a lot of people in their singing, but he always deeply, *deeply* enjoyed the works of others in the group, Song Circle, Seattle Folklore, etc. and aspired to do as good a job with his music as these others did. In particular he admired Don Firth; I remember when Dad first started learning guitar from Don, how animated he was after those lessons. I realize now that he caught on quickly, as befits the passionate student in any field. But when I heard Don sing the first time, I knew why he felt the way he did. Others, like Stan James, and John and Sally Ashford, many I'm forgetting right now, and more recently that scamp Bob Nelson, some names that go way back to my early childhood, were role models. He talked about Suzi and Jean all of the time, and the places they were all singing. (I'm sure I'm not the only one in the group who had singing phone calls when he was learning a new song).

Me, I learned songs as a willing but nonetheless captive audience. I was about six when he started taking guitar lessons. He used to ask me what the words were if he forgot them while he was learning the guitar part. He used to sing to each of us in our bedrooms at night, and when Dad was sitting on the edge of the bed, you were essentially pinned by the covers until he sang all he was going to sing. This was usually a mix of new stuff and requests.

Songs influenced our lives, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. We lived in West Seattle until 1965, and used to take the Fauntluroy Ferry to Vashon fairly often. I remember my sister, sitting next to the window watching one of the deck hands walk past, asking "Is that the dirty little cabin boy?" ;-D

Keep up the stories, I love them. (If this runs low on folksinging stories, I could always tell you a few fishing stories...).

Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight. Maggie

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: mg
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 07:21 PM

I had been thinking of doing a workshop at Rainycamp in honor of those we have lost the last few years...Liam Callen, Bob Kotta, Pat Bezio and John Dwyer...maybe more..those are just NW people...so I guess I'll do it. mg

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 05:52 PM

One of the enjoyable things I'm noticing about this thread is the consistant theme we're seeing: John was very encouraging and kindly to fellow singers, be they experienced or beginners; how deeply he touched so many diverse lives. Would that we all could be remembered this well! Bob Nelson

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: GUEST,Phil Cooper
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 04:39 PM

I am glad to see this thread. I was looking through a box a cassettes for the car and came across a cassette that John and Jean Smith did of songs they thought Margaret and I would like. Margaret and I were booked to play for the Seattle Folklore Society in fall of '93 and spring of '94. We met John on our first visit. He liked Margaret's singing of Dick Gibbon's "Sully's Pail." We also chatted some about MacColl/Seeger's "Long Harvest" collection of ballad versions.

To make a long story short, he had a box of tapes of the long harvest when we returned in spring of '94. We only talked with him twice and he made a lasting impression. When I'm old and cackling in a wheel chair about my past, John Dwyer will be one my best memories.

--Phil Cooper

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: GUEST,Cat Haston
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 09:40 AM

Hi - gosh it was nice to find this thread (thanks Jean). My family and I moved to the Seattle area for a year or so in April 1997 from Sunny Scotland (JOKE!!). As a traditional singer over here, it was great to find such a thriving Song Circle over there, and I went along as often as I could. I'll never forget the first one I went to - how I got there I'll never know, between being newly arrived, driving on the wrong side of the road, no sense of direction whatsoever and a pathological inability to read maps. However get there I did (somehow)to find this wee old guy sitting in the corner and beaming with approval whenever I sang an old ballad, particularly in a version he'd not heard before. At the end of the night, when I had to ask the assembled company if anyone knew where the I5 was, he insisted on driving all the way into Everett so that I could follow him, and he could be sure I'd got home safely. Moreover, he came and collected me personally every week thereafter and taught me how to get everywhere I needed to go. Not only that, but the amount of songs and ballads we exchanged in the car during those journeys....... Yes, he could be an old curmudgeon and drive everyone mad, but he was also one of the kindest and funniest people I ever met. I missed him horribly when he went, and it would be great if some of his vast collection could be published. Love to all, Cat

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Deckman
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 04:08 AM

Her name is Suzzy McAleer ... I'll give her a call. CHEERS

Subject: RE: John Dwyer - Songs&Stories
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 02:16 AM

Don, I knew your name sounded familiar, and now that you've reminded me that you were in my car that weekend, I can put a face (and a fine resonant voice) to it! Good to hear from you.

By the way, it's not really possible to talk about John without mentioning his long-time friend and singing partner, Susie, whose last name is lost in my hippocampus somewhere. She was a fine songwriter in her own right, as I recall. Somebody else, or perhaps the lady herself, can probably provide more info.

Aloha,
Mark