BS: Cambridge,MA, coffee houses 1963-66?

Subject: BS: Cambridge,MA, coffee houses 1963-66?
From: ballpienhammer
Date: 05 Oct 02 - 02:08 PM

anyone?

Subject: RE: BS: Cambridge,MA, coffee houses 1963-66?
From: Don Firth
Date: 05 Oct 02 - 02:22 PM

Baby, Let Me Follow You Down by Eric von Schmidt and Jim Rooney; University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst. I have the Second Edition, issued in paperback, published fairly recently. It was originally published in 1979. It centers on the people, clubs, and coffeehouses in and around Cambridge, Massachusetts during this period, and before and after. Full of direct quotes and absolutely packed with photos. A "must have."

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Cambridge,MA, coffee houses 1963-66?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 05 Oct 02 - 08:04 PM

Would I be correct in surmising that Club Passim was the center of the Folk scene in Cambridge at that time, although it had a different name, something 49?

Oh to have been around at that time. Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton ....and all for free.

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: Cambridge,MA, coffee houses 1963-66?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 05 Oct 02 - 09:31 PM

Hi Murray, hope you get some sun down there soon. That would be the club 47. Around the corner is the Nameless, not sure when it started but I can remember some time in the mid to late 60's. The Plough & Stars on Mass. Ave was another joint (not a coffeehouse but a bar). I remember Spider John Koerner (sp?) playing there often back then also had my first taste of Irish Trad there. The other side of the river (Boston) had a few places too. Peter Johnson was putting on a good number of traditional Irish/English/Scottish musicians & booking them any club, coffeehouse, bar or stage that he could, on both sides of the river back then. Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Cambridge,MA, coffee houses 1963-66?
From: GUEST,curmudgeon
Date: 06 Oct 02 - 08:20 AM

Passim used to be the Club 47, which had been originally located at 47 Mt. Auburn St.

In Boston, there were three cofee houses on Charles St., The Orleans, which became the Sword In the Stone, the Loft, and the Turk's Head. Other clubs in the city were, at different times, Cafe Yana, the Unicorn, the Rose, and the Golden Vanity.

Subject: RE: BS: Cambridge,MA, coffee houses 1963-66?
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Oct 02 - 03:15 PM

>Oh to have been around at that time. Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton ....and all for free.

Well, not quite free. As I recall, admission -- if you could get in -- ran about $2.00 per show. To get in to Club 47, you also had to have a membership card. Making the 47 a "private club" was a way of skirting the Cambridge entertainment licensing regulations.

Subject: RE: BS: Cambridge,MA, coffee houses 1963-66?
From: Abby Sale
Date: 06 Oct 02 - 04:11 PM

But those were the clubs. There were coffee houses, too. Where you could here people for free. Or even yourself. No stage - just personal interaction. I spent most of my at Tula's but a few years earlier. I think it was still there in 1963.

Subject: RE: BS: Cambridge,MA, coffee houses 1963-66?
From: johnross
Date: 06 Oct 02 - 09:01 PM

The chronology of some of the above posts is a little confused. Club 47 closed, and the space became Passim some time in 1968. Peter Johnson's concerts were several years later, around 1972.

Another place that booked a lot of folk music in those days was the Unicorn, in the Back Bay.

Subject: RE: BS: Cambridge,MA, coffee houses 1963-66?
From: Tweed
Date: 06 Oct 02 - 10:55 PM

What about Taj Mahal or Allan Wilson (Canned Heat, Son House guitar whiz)? Anybody ever run into either of those guys when they were in that area? Mebbe I got the wrong town though....

Subject: RE: BS: Cambridge,MA, coffee houses 1963-66?
From: ballpienhammer
Date: 08 Oct 02 - 01:27 PM

spent some Navy time in those houses...Dave von Ronk, Schmidt, Rush,
Paxton, Baez...pretty much free...Unicorn and The Rose were two of my favorites...PP&M at the Boston Garden I think, I was there every night...good old days......