Little known '60s Folk Singers

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: lisa null
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 01:23 PM

Hi:

Boy does this thread conjure up old memories --especiay of Tex who i knew quite well in Boulder (1960), I was a freshman at theUniversity (briefly) and he had just finished gunsmithing school. In Boulder there was another talented singer named Judy Roderick who I learned a lot of songs from only to discover, later, that they had come from Sandy Paton who had been spending time in Aspen. What a great musical scne Boulder was back then -- not just at the coffee houses and bars, (there and in Denver), but at the the University itself....both at the folk music jams and with the YPSL's (Young People's Socialist League).

Jackie Washington played in Denver at that time, and i think Dave Guth did too. later, when i transferred back east to school (Sarah Lawrence), I remember jamming with a wonderful folksinger named Carly Simon who played with her sister soon after that as the Simon Sisters.

As for Martha Burns. she now lives in DC and is one of my good friends.

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: lisa null
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 01:27 PM

Oh yes, if there was one singer (who had a Folkways record) i would like to see from back then, it is Stanley Tripp of Vancouver. I wore that album out.

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: mrmoe
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 02:37 PM

Ah yes, the Hedge & Donna thread reminds us of folk duos:

Hedge & Donna
Pam & Ray (the Claytons)
Bill & Renee (Bill Staines and Renee Beghosian)
Mike & Chris (later Orlen & Gabriel)
Williams & Vallen

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 03:46 PM

Hey lisa: MEMORIES OF TEX KOENIG
I met Tex in or around 1967. He was so New York and Village. Spoke of Bobby Roberts(Hey Joe), Dylan, Tuli Kupferberg(Fugs), Ginsberg, Hendrix, and was always laughing. We did some shows together, one where we came back real early, like 5 in the morning. I said "Tex, I'm baffed, I need to sleep NOW." So he said "O.K., I got one bed, if we sleep on it sideways, we can get a couple of hours, then you can drive home." So, I can say in the nicest way that I slept with Tex Koenig! It was such a wacko memory. Sideways in a bed with a 6'4" 360lb. New Yorker. Tex was always about food..."You know Bob, It's not a TRUE wop sauce if it doesn't have any pork in it." (All you Italians out there, he loved ya.) Gunsmith, we talked hours about knives, Randals, the Art. So, one night we went to Chinatown. We worked together doing studio stuff, it was called Soundbox '71. In McGill's studios, here in Montreal. So Chinatown was always the thing. We both studied AIKIDO with Max Villadorata here in Montreal. My girlfriend at the time studied with Lee Siu Pak, "Master Lee" Yang style Tai Chi Chuan. So, we're in Chinatown, and Tex had brought in some "Flying Stars", a martial arts weapon that is thrown. We're into the food and Tex whips these things out. Master Lee, who spoke very little English, says "I know this" So Tex, who is sitting opposite him around one of those immense tables that are common in Chinatown, passes one of the weapons to Master Lee by handing it to one of the approximate 15 people around the table, who one by one, get it to Master Lee. Mister/Master Lee says, "like this," and motions to throw the star, which slips from his hand because of some grease on his fingers from the food. I'm sitting next to Tex and this thing comes straight at us...but curves, and heads straight for Tex, who catches it after it bounces off his chest, and lands in his beard, nicking his throat. A spot of blood appears, a nick really.(Saved by a beard) Everybody laughs, especially Mister Lee. The "oops factor" in martial arts, where the guy who is supposed to have control makes one teensy slip. What a memory! We also hung around the Back Door, another club in Montreal. Tex got a job behind the coffee bar. I was opening for Jerry Jeff Walker, who just got a hit with Mr. Bojangles, and rides in on this huge Honda bike, he'd just bought after a gig in Ottawa...Others who played the club...Doc Watson, along with Merle, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, John Hammond, David(Maverick Child)Rae(a killer player), Jesse Winchester and many others. Club's gone now, still got the memories. Paul Geremia, my old friend/teacher from Providence was there too, Tex always called him "Pauly". So Paul tells this story about this gay guy who gets on a bus in New York with an umbrella, and forgets it while paying his fare. The Bus Driver, with the Brooklyn accent says," Hey Cinderella, ya forgot yer magic wand!" The gay guy walks up to him, touches him with the umbrella's handle and says," POOF, you're a piece of sh*t." You can only get this kind of stuff with Folk Music kids! Tex Koenig. I will NEVER forget him. Goodnight everybody. bob

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 05:13 PM

Hey Kids! Don't wanna take up too much room here, but this thread got the 'ole memory going and I thought you might enjoy this. Reverend Gary Davis played the Back Door too. He's got this big Bozo guitar that he's using and I've got my '65 Gibson J-50. The Rev says, "Play sumpthin", so I start off with this riff, and he says, "don't you be playin' none of that Rock and Roll!, play the 'natrel Blues! He says, "you ain't from here, are you boy?" I go, no, I'm American. (The Marines had invited me to Saigon, because they thought I might be good at killing people. I thought playing the Blues was a better idea.) So Gary says "You know, anyplace you hang your hat is home." And, "All women are beautiful." You know, it took 30 years to realize, being blind, was he jiving me? But, no, he was going for a deeper spiritual truth...So, I take him for a ride in my trusty '60 Corvair, and we head back to my place near the mountain here in Montreal, where there's a massive steel cross that is lit every night. A Montreal landmark. I'm describing the scene to the Rev. and he just gets quiet. I didn't ever see him again. God Bless you Rev. bob

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: bobad
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 08:18 PM

Some great reminisences there Bob, thanks for that. I was living in downtown Montreal at the time (late 60's early 70's) and saw many of the acts you mentioned at the Back Door. I recall a John Hammond gig where the audience, at encore time, was requesting tunes that weren't exactly firing John up so I called for "Hootchie Cootchie Man" and John says "That's my man" and launches into his great version of that tune. My slight brush with fame.

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: Charley Noble
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 08:21 PM

Thanks, Bob, for your posts!

We seem to be missing some of the blues folks but maybe because they were too well known:

Lightning Hopkins
Brownie McGee
Sonny Terry

And I'm not sure if anyone mentiioned "Mac" McClintock ("Jerry, Won't You Oil the Car")

There were a whole lot of folks in Ann Arbor and East Lansing but apparently no one in Michigan is posting on this thread. I may have to dredge 'em up myself!

Is Charlie King too young to mention?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 08:44 PM

"Oh yes, if there was one singer (who had a Folkways record) i would like to see from back then, it is Stanley Tripp of Vancouver. I wore that album out."

Do you mean Stanley Triggs?

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 08:57 PM

Hey bobad/Charlie: Looks like I gotta write that book I was always thinking about. John Hammond is just great. We met at the Back Door. It might have been during one of those gigs, and strangely enough, I vaguely remember the incident you mentioned. We walked up the street during the break and I was asking him questions about how to get the vibratos he was getting. You think it's rubbing the string on the wood, but it's more like dancing on the string from the top like a clothesline/trampoline, a downward push. Just keep trying to do it, it will come. B.B. King's way is more on the board with the hand technique, and he gets that sound. The one thing, among many that I admired about John and Paul Geremia, was their ability to get that tone on the harp. Some guys used to dip the Marine Bands in water to get it. Both Paul and John can do it just like that. I just saw John in a video with him speaking to the audience. The years have calmed him down, he used to have a bit of a stutter. He was just talking away and it made me smile. When you have guys like John Hammond and Paul Geremia, who must have clocked millions of miles and thousands of shows...That's a "National Treasure" as the Chinese say. They, to me, are just as relevant and important as say, Robert Johnson. I should let somebody else say a few words. See ya. bob

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: bobad
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 09:31 PM

Get writing that book Bob, you're a great raconteur and you have some wonderful stories to tell. Put me down for a few copies at least.

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,Seonaid
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 10:56 PM

Wow! Memory Lane is crowded!
Does anyone remember the Beers Family? Loved their stuff, but very few folks seem to remember them. Robert was the absolute king of the big psaltery.
Liz Dyer -- egad! I could listen to her forever.
Raun MacKinnon seemed a little embarrassed to be reminded a few years ago about the album she did when she was 18, but I still love it.
For "little-known" in the folk venues but magnificent otherwise, I nominate Barry Hansen of the '60s UCLA folk song club, who is now (I believe) "Dr. Demento."
Dave Elson of McCabe's was the first person I ever hear pick Irish jigs on the banjo. Smokin'!
Do the Wurzels count as a folk group?
Probably the most obscure group I ever heard (at either the Ash Grove or the Troubador in LA) was a pick-up band billed as the "Pseudo Mountain Boys". Their mandolinist later joined the Stone Ponies, and their bassist is a theater organist.
I'm sure I'll think of more eventually -- this is a great anti-Alzheimer's exercise for those of us over 60!

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 09:03 AM

Another one of my inspirations growing up in Maine has been Edward "Sandy" Ives, teacher and folklorist at the University of Maine at Orono. He's responsible for collecting many lumbering ballads from Maine and Canada, publishing and recording them as well. I suppose he's better known for his academic accomplishments but he's also a fine singer and an inspiration to generations of students, including myself. He also wrote a wonderful book about the ballad "The Bonny Earl of Murray."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: Scrump
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 09:20 AM

Do the Wurzels count as a folk group?

Yes, IMO, but hardly a 'little known' one, even in the 1960s, when Adge Cutler was still their leader. They reached the British Top 40 pop charts with "Drink Up Thy Zider" in 1967.

(Of course the Wurzels became even more well-known in the 1970s, after Adge's sad demise, and topped the UK charts with "Combine Harvester", a parody of Melanie's Brand New Key, written by Irishman Brendan O'Shaughnessy.)

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: curmudgeon
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 09:29 AM

Paul Geremia has also been know to dip his "harp" into a glass of beer -- Tom

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: Cool Beans
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 09:39 AM

Since Charley Noble mentions it...I wasn't in Michigan in the 1960s (I'm there now) but some of the almost-famous folks from there and then are Chuck Mitchell (Joni's ex), Ron Coden (still around, still performing and a neighbor of mine) and Phil Marcus Esser (not sure where he is).
The Raven Gallery was a premier folk venue in Southfield, a Detorit suburb. It's been a very good restaurant, Sweet Lorraine's, for many years.

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: mrmoe
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 09:42 AM

....ah, Paul Geremia....."I wrote this song when I was so lonely there was two of me....."

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 12:29 PM

My God. Here I go again... The year was 1963. Everybody was pumped with the Kingston Trio. Charlie and the MTA...Oh, he'll never return, yeah he'll never return, and his fate is still unlearned, he may ride forever neath the streets of Boston(Bill Madison, Bill Staines, Sword in the Stone). I'm in High School. Two friends, Jerry and Dick and we form a group we call "The New Bad Trio" aptly named because nobody in the group could play an instrument. We did have a guitar, which nobody knew how to tune, which, I guess was irrelevant, because the three of us didn't know a single chord. So we let Dick HOLD the guitar, I played the bongos, and Jerry stood there doing backups to my vocals. We did a show in front of the whole school doing Charlie and the MTA with me on lead vocals. Smash hit. Girls coming up to us, telling us we were great. So I said to myself,"wait a minute, this might turn into something." So I try playing the guitar with the loose as a moose strings, mimicking chords. Just making noises. I find a friend, who had a guitar, a Gretch. he was taking lessons, and the guitar was in tune, And, the light shines through. He knew a CHORD! The Holy Grail!. Well, I learned that chord, my figures hurt because the strings were tight like steel. But, it wasn't until the second week of February 1966 that I began to play guitar. In College I met another guy who knew 3 CHORDS! As I forced my hands to change from one chord to the next, a struggle. But hour upon hour of repetition, deep desire, and persistence got me to the point of playing a progression, A clear breakthrough. I played my first "gig" in the girl's dorm, so scared that my knees were hitting together, shaking. There was a coffeehouse. And this guy called Paul Geremia, was going to be playing there. I always carried a notebook where I would draw pictures of the chords, and later try to play them. I made sure I was in the front row when Paul began to play. When I saw that, it was like seeing God. I wrote in the book, "Forget it." What he was doing was way beyond what I could even write down or draw, I followed him out the door, asking many questions. That's where it all began, and I'm sure many of you reading this have a similar story. It is why Folk Music is important. It is why you are participating in this. It is beyond music. It is Life. From the sea shantys of the Brits, to the Bluesmen of the Delta, to the AUDIENCE. The audience is the show. The audience is the vital component that makes it happen for all of us who perform. This is why Mudcat is a great thing.
As for Paul, I choose not to remember the beer. I choose to remember the greatness and the passion, and the generosity of a great player who taught me how to play the Blues. God Bless ya Pauly. bob

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 09 Mar 07 - 08:09 PM

Lawdy, Lawdy, somebody HELP me, Great God Amighty, I be searchin' for a rescue...back up the thread with the Cohen thing. We've already talked about the David Blue/Cohen, Bruce Murdoch, Patrick Sky thing, but there was also Bobby Cohen(session guy in Mtl), and Andrew Cowan(Stephen Barry Band), Leonard Cohen(a whole other thing). Is everybody still awake? And yes, pdq., Carole Kaye(a Monster Bass player) got it right. Howard Roberts, Dennis Budimir, Tommy Tedesco, Toots Thielemans, etc. right during the 1966 "Route 66" era were doing most of the work on t.v.. etc. I had the opportunity to meet Howard Roberts at a Musician's Union Seminar hosted by Frank Quinn(my Jazz guitar teacher). By 1971, I had hit the wall with the fingerpicking thing, steel picks, Dobro thumbpick. I wanted to advance my blues technique, so I got into Jazz. I had to stop with fingerpicking, and take up the flatpick, like a junkie giving up the needle. Frank would run me through the Berklee Jazz course, one time with me sweating, (Frank could play the guitar either left or right handed. Frightening.) "What chord is THAT?" I didn't know. He had walked me through the harmonic jungle so far, that if would have asked me my name, I wouldn't have been able to tell him. So, I'm looking at the chord and I don't know what it is. He says, "C". I look again and he's right. The old C chord EVERYBODY in Folk uses! CEGC. I go, man, can I do this? You see, the world of Folk and musician's everywhere were all intertwined. Like ships passing in the night, everybody ran across everybody at one point or another. Well, almost. So this seminar things coming up with Howard Roberts. I go to see Fred Torak, one of the few geniuses I've met. Perfect Pitch. He was the one they would call when The Ice Capades were in town, and needed somebody who could cut the parts fast. I show up with John McLaughlin's "Birds of Fire" album, and play it for Fred, who before my eyes, starts to write out the music. WHILE IT IS PLAYING! Astonishing, Black notes on paper, FAST, like a typewriter! We go to the Seminar that Howard Roberts is giving. A humble guy. He says" You know, I won the 1958 DownBeat Poll for Best Jazz Guitarist and I knew ONE scale." It was that pentatonic thing everybody uses in Blues, Hendrix, everybody. So, Howards on stage and he has this folk guitar that got cracked, so he had it rebuilt with an F-top. Dark colored. He says, "you know, as session guys, you are going to have to be able to hear the individual notes within a chord." He turns his back to the audience and strums a chord. Torak goes, E minor 7 Flat 5! The whole room looks at Fred and Howard says, Right! But just to tell you, there will always be the Fred Toraks, David(Maverick Child)Raes, and the David Brombergs out there...Folkies. Ha Ha Ha Hee Hee. So I take a walk with Howard (I take lots of walks, following Mr. Lee's(back up the thread) advice, " be the fool, you can know." Which means, learn from EVERYBODY who will teach you.) Howard tells me the boys in L.A., the crowd that pdq mentioned were pushing the music as far as it could go during the era, and that he was working on his next album, called "Equinox Express Elevator" where they were using Orange Squeezers(a compressor), and envelope followers and every other trick the big studios had at the time to come up with an album the likes of which, nobody had ever heard before(shades of Joe Meek. Brits gotta know) MASSIVE sound, deep delays, rotary speakers, everything. Got to keep to the theme of the thread here. Sandy Bull, Oud, middle eastern influences, EVERYBODY had that. Must have listened to that til it wore out. Mike Bloomfield, among the deadliest, had to have touched just about everybody. Clapton=Clapton. You will be able to hear the genius if you get quiet with it. It's what he's playing, but it's also what he's not playing, like Miles. Boring? Not in my world. Ewan McColl, for sure. Kudos to all the Brits, Peter Green, Clapton, Alexis Koerner, Roger(Jim)McGuinn(who I opened for at The Golem.) Hands down, the best acoustic folk performance that I have ever seen. Nearly two hours of hit after hit. Did he write THAT? Yep.) Anyhound, if it wasn't for the Brits(so many) kicking in with their Love of the Blues, it just would not have been the same. Tex is back in at this point. Chinatown. I say to Howard. Bet you like Chinese food. "How did you know?" Easy, Musician! Only place open til 4am besides the Delis. Into the night. bob

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: Suffet
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 12:08 PM

Come hear a guaranteed 100% authentic little known New York folksinger from the 1960s in person this very same evening! If you missed him at the Broadside hoots and at the Gerdes Folk City hootenanny nights, if you didn't get to hear him at the South Street Seaport or outside the gates of Fort Dix, if you didn't catch him at a coffee house in Queens or on Long Island, if you failed to notice him at the Four Winds and the other pass-the-basket houses in Greenwich Village, and if you never heard him on Izzy Young's or Bob Fass's shows on WBAI-FM, now it the chance you have been waiting 40 years for! Also come celebrate the release of I've Been Up On the Mountain, his newest CD!

Steve Suffet
Old Fashioned Folksinger
Accompanied by MacDougal Street Rent Party at the
Peoples' Voice Cafe
Workmen's Circle Building
45 East 33rd Street
New York City
Tonight • Saturday • March 10, 2007
8:00 PM • Doors open 7:30 PM

Also appearing...

Holly GoAnarchy
Anarcho-Feminist Folksinger-Songwriter

Suggested admission: $12.
Peoples' Voice Cafe and Workmen's Circle members: $9.
TDF vouchers accepted. No one turned away for lack of money.
For information, please call 212-787-3903.

Be there!

Please.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: lisa null
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 07:54 PM

Bob Ryszkiewicz: Thanks so much for sharing the reminiscences about Tex. I do remember how he was not only a mountain of a man but how much he loved the martial arts-- philosophically as well as physically. In Colorado, in 1960, he was big and strong but not overwhelming in personality or size -- all that was left to come. What he was was a serious singer and thinker with a lot of good songs.

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: lisa null
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 07:57 PM

Thanks to "Guest" for reminding me that Stalnley Tripp was actually Stanley Triggs. I heard his folkways record in 1960 and really loved it. Anyone know what happened to him? he belongs on this list!

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: Alamosa Bill
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 08:39 PM

I would like to report the passing of one of the finest i2 string guitarists, Mark Spoelstra, on Feb 25th 2007. To read more about Mark, his website is www.markspoelstra.net

Spent lots of time at the old Club 47 in Cambridge, Ma. Was there when Tim Hardin blew into town and Dayle Stanley let him do a couple of sets between her sets. Tim was great and is missed.

Alice Stuart is still performing around Seattle & th Pacific Northwest.

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 10 Mar 07 - 09:30 PM

There must be some kinda HOOT goin' on at a new coffeehouse in heaven. Mark Spoelstra's passing was noted in another thread as well. Then Eric Von Schmidt, Tex Koenig, John Foley, Lindsay Cameron, Artie Gold(Classical Music expert). Most of those I just heard about. I wonder if it's pass the hat up there. I do know that John probably started it, and that Tex has already found the best Chinese Restaurant. bob

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: Suffet
Date: 11 Mar 07 - 01:21 AM

Greetings:

My gig last night in New York City went really well and there was a pretty decent turnout, especially since I was up against David Rovics at the Vox Pop , Alan Friend (another 1960s folkie) at the Park Slope Food Co-op, and a belated Purim party thrown by a woman who is very active in the local music scene. However, only one Mudcatter made her presence known. Thank you, Emma. I suspect there may have been one or two more. If there were any others in attendance, could you please give me a holler?

Thanks.

Next stop: NEFFA. Then it's off to the Jacob's Ladder festival and a mini-tour of Israel. It's hard to believe that 43 years after I first got up on a coffee house stage I'm still a little known folk singer. [grin] I'm certain, though, that isn't the record.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: Mark Ross
Date: 11 Mar 07 - 09:36 AM

I remember many a night in Chinatown with Tex. He would never let me order , or even look at the menu! With him and the taxi drivers we would eat and schmooze till the the sun came up. I loved the places he took me to.. He told me once, "Never record anything that you can't take on tour." Which I think is good advice.

Mark Ross

PS Hello Lisa Null, I haven't seen you in over 30 years.

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Mar 07 - 08:36 PM

I'm wondering if anyone ever ran across a Dave Greenberg. I remember meeting him in deepest darkest East Lansing, Michigan, back in the 1970's and persuading him to write out the words to "Walk Me Out in the Morning Dew Today" which I believe he got from Bonnie Dobson.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: lisa null
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 12:16 AM

Mark Ross!
How wonderful to be remembered by you after all this time.... of course, I have followed your long and itneresting involvement in things folkish. It's so much fun to "come out" on Mudcat and discover that the world of people who love so many things I love is still out there connected...


Hope our paths cross soon. Am planning to take up touring again after a hiatus of a quarter century!

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: Scrump
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 08:32 AM

I remember in about 1964, being in a folk club in London, when in walked this young guy with a guitar. He asked if he could do a song, and having got a nod from the organiser, he got up on the small stage there and started singing. A hush fell on the room as soon as he started - everyone there was mesmerised. The song had such powerful words, and he had a charisma that had everyone in the room transfixed. When he finished the song, there was a pause of about a second, and then the room erupted into applause, that seemed to go on for a long time, but was probably about five full minutes before it subsided. The guy thanked us and walked away.

Nobody ever saw him again. We never did find out who the heck he was.

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: balladeer
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 07:00 PM

I came across this thread a few days ago and have been tripping down memory lane ever since. I was a little-known folksinger from 1960, when I played my first gig at the Bohemian Embassy in Toronto, till 1966, when I returned from two years of living and gigging in Britain, only to find the folk boom had gone bust in Ontario. The Purple Onion had become the home of Luke and the Apostles, an electric blues band. The Village Corner and Gate of Cleve were long gone. The Fifth Peg was bankrupt. The Riverboat was pretty much hiring big names only (and I do mean Len Chandler) and there was no place left for a journeyman folksinger like me. One bar-room gig later, I was history. Maybe I'll be seized by an uncontrolled urge to share my Len Chandler stories and my David Wiffen stories and my Doug Bush stories, but for now, I'll content myself with adding a few more names to the list.

From southern Ontario:
The Chanticlairs
The Fernwood Trio
The Pioneers
The Sinners
The Perth County Conspiracy
Sharon Trostin
Cedric Smith
Mary Jane and Winston Young
The Travellers

From London, England:
Redd Sullivan
The Thameside Four (Marion Gray, Pete Maynard, Martin Carthy,
                   Long John Baldry)
Paul MacNeil

When I was little known back then, I went by the name Joanne Hindley-Smith.

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 07:24 PM

Cedric Smith, of course, went on to the role of the father on "Road to Avonlea" for a number of years.

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Mar 07 - 07:16 PM

Let's see, Owen McBride and Sarah Gray used to hang out with Friends of Fiddlers Green in Toronto back in the late 1960's. A whole group of them came storming into East Lansing for a concert at the folk club at Michigan State University, a tape of which I've been mining for years. What an evening!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,Erik Frandsen
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 07:39 PM

From the Bay Area: Mad Michael Hunt. Yes, Mike Hunt. His real name. Very funny guy. Played 12-String.

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Mar 07 - 02:46 PM

Mike Hunt? The guy who wrote "Giovanni Batista Montini"? Yeah, he was pretty funny.

How about Lisa Kindred? She was pretty good.

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: mrmoe
Date: 16 Mar 07 - 03:00 PM

from over in rome italini
the cardinals never say nope
to giovanni montini the pope

didn't he also write my baby died this morning? and silicone?

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 16 Mar 07 - 03:05 PM

Did anyone mention Ken Bloom, the multi-instrumentalist? Anyone know what he's been up to the last twenty-five years or so?

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,Erik Frandsen
Date: 16 Mar 07 - 06:28 PM

"Giovanni", yes indeed, Mike Hunt write that one. And this classic:
It stood 60 feet wide and 20 feet tall
Sixteen catalogues hung on the wall
The half-moon on the door was carved with pride
And the holes in the seats were 3 feet wide in
Big John (great big John)
Played many nights with the lad at the old Lion's Share in Sausalito. Until it burned down. Then we didn't play there anymore.

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: JZ
Date: 17 Mar 07 - 02:20 AM

Glad to see a few folks mention singer-songwriter-guitarist and pianist Raun MacKinnon!!! She was a teacher of mine, (and a mega-influence on my writing and playing) from the ol' Guitar Workshop days on Long Island. Jeff Warner, Jeff Davis, Charlie Chin, Marty Cutler, Paul Brady (of Planxty, and far from unknown!)the list goes on and on... Paul Kaplan's up in Amhurst, MA. Great singer-songwriter and
folk musician.

Also from Long Island, Bruce Morganheim, who wrote the song "Circle of Light" and many others. He played guitar, fiddle, banjo, viola... I was a very obscure 60's singer songwriter and folkie playing on LI and NYC in the late 60's-70's-80's and then some... So was/is Robin Greenstein, and Cecilia Kirtland. We were Raun MacKinnon's students and products of The Guitar Workshop. I still play some of Raun's songs.

Only one person in this thread has mentioned Jim Dawson- I just saw him at a house concert in Brooklyn in January. He has a new CD out and it's wonderful.He's a powerhouse of a performer.

This is question is a decade off-thread, but does ANYBODY know the whereabouts of singer-songwriter-guitarist Bill Priest? He was amazing. Met him at the Flushing Local Cofeehouse, he was a close friend of Lucinda Williams'. We played some gigs together in the 70's-early 80's on the NYC Village scene, pre-Fast Folk, at clubs like The Banana Stand, and we did a whole weekend openning for Susan Osborne at Folk City. He was from Texas originally, and left NY to go back there. Bill Priest was his stage name. The Song Project (Lucy Kaplansky, Martha P. Hogan, Tom Intondi, Jerry Devine)covered one of his songs, "Tupelo Rain". Will somebody please tell him Judith Zweiman's lookin' for him? Blessings to you all and thanks for a fascinating read!- JZ

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 07 - 01:47 PM

Anybody remember:

Humphrey and the Dumptrucks was a terrific jug-bluegrass band out of Saskatoon in the late-'60s. They lasted through the mid-'70s or so;

Diana Marcovitz was a quirky songwriter from Montreal who was based out of New York City for a while and then disappeared;

Alexandre Zelkine, a guitar-playing baritone from Russia via France and Canada who sang folk songs from all over the world in the '60s and early-'70s.

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: Abby Sale
Date: 17 Mar 07 - 02:21 PM

For Bay Area readers only:

Any recolection of a SF union song (etc) singer named Carl? He was about the leading folksinger in the late 50's & later, I think.

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: Deckman
Date: 17 Mar 07 - 02:43 PM

I've been following this thread for some time. As I re-read it, a question comes to me. Over the many years, and the hundreds (thousands?) of performers we all have known, loved, and respected, why is it that there are so few that "really made it?"

Of course the first questions is: what do we mean when we ask ... "really made it?"

Was it factors of: talent; drive; luck; drugs; bad men and wimmen; or something else.

I'll offer my own VERY personal experience here as an example of what "making it" means to ME!

I'll be 70 next month. Within the next two weeks, I'll succeed in holding my very first quality recording in my hand. I will be singing a solo concert, which will present this CD to the world.

As "Bride Judy" said to me last night when I was writing and re-writing song credits: "You've been working FOR this all your life!" And of course she is correct.

As I write this now, I wonder where Don McCalister, Terry Wadsworth, David Spence, and many others ... could have gone if they hadn't left us so early!

Good thread! CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 17 Mar 07 - 02:47 PM

Guest: I remember all 3 acts. Diana Marcovitz used to play The Yellow Door. Alexandre Zelkine as well. Humphrey and the Dumptrucks were more Western Canada, but I remember them as well. Disappeared. The only person that I know who might know is Mike Regenstreif(Folk Roots/Folk Branches)CKUT, Montreal. Diana was a wonderful soul. I've often wondered what became of her. bob

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,Coyote Breath
Date: 17 Mar 07 - 03:35 PM

I came late (as usual) to this thread. Anyone mention Paul Prestopino? played with Mike Bloomfield when the later managed the Fickle Pickle in Chicago in the middle 60's. He was with the Chad Mitchel Trio for a while. His Dad was an abstract painter of some note. Also Mike Slossen(sp?) (sometimes called Mike Castle), Jacquie Harrison, Billy Chippet (wonderful and haunting version of Barbara Allen, an on-again off-again brush arbor musician from the bootheel of Missouri). "Doc" Stanley who MC'd the open mic at The Poison Apple in Chicago. I met Mississippi John Hurt there on a Sunday afternoon in 1963 or '64. Doc got in bad trouble, something about a shooting. Lots of talent in Chicago and Milwaukee back then. Peter Stampfel, Rob hunter and another guy I can't remember played in Milwaukee under the name of McGrundy's Old Timey Wool Thumpers. Bill Ross and Sweet Billy Olsen both great five string banjo players. Bill Ross (Rossiter was his true surname) had been a Capuchin monk at one time. Married a gal from Mexico and they lived in Pueblo last I heard.

For a while Rob Hunter was with Steve Weber and Peter Stampfel as Holy Modal Rounders in the village. Rob lived in alphabet city in a walk-up most of whose apartments were shooting galleries.

Ahh... nostalgia!

CB

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,Coyote Breath
Date: 17 Mar 07 - 03:58 PM

Hi there Erik.

As I once heard you: Blind Erik Flatpick. At the Drinking Gourd in SF. Glad you're still around.

Remember Herb J.?(Blue Unicorn) He's up at the Vet's home in Yountville, doing OK as far as I know.

CB

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: Suffet
Date: 17 Mar 07 - 08:13 PM

Greetings:

JZ wrote: "Paul Kaplan's up in Amhurst, MA. Great singer-songwriter and folk musician." Absolutely true, and Paul comes back down to New York City quite frequently. For example, he will be performing at the Community Cabaret of the Community Church of New York, 40 East 35th Street, this coming Friday, March 23, 2007. Also appearing will be Rachel Stone, Carl Sievert, and the Elegant Ivory Duo. Doors open at 6:30 PM and the show starts at 7:00.

JZ also mentioned Robin Greenstein, among others. Robin is still very much on the New York folk scene, after having done one stint as personal assistant to the late Hedy West, and another as a traveling promoter of Martin guitars.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: Deckman
Date: 17 Mar 07 - 08:21 PM

The "Drinking Gourd" in the "City" was a great place in the 60's. Bob

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 17 Mar 07 - 09:40 PM

DECKMAN: You already made it. If you can do what you enjoy, that's a Blessing. Did some checking for GUEST: Diana Marcovitz went to New York, then to Israel, got married along the way and became Danya Bokenboim, a writer. ERIC FRANDSEN: aka "Fastblind" Eric Frandsen, I remember Big John, the "Fastblind" comes from Tex. God Bless him. bob

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,Erik Frandsen
Date: 17 Mar 07 - 10:35 PM

Yeah, I'd forgotten about "Fastblind," but the "Blind Erik Flatpick" tag was hung on me by Ruthann Friedman, probably because I was and am a fingerpicker. Herb Jaeger? Glad he's still with us. How 'bout Mike Heintz, Tom Meisenheimer, Jon Toly (his sister Signe was the first girlsinger with the Airplane, replaced by Grace Slick), all of whom used to play together under various noms du stage, many times at the Zodiac on Fillmore St. The Drinking Gourd, eh? Right next to Stu Goldberg's Marina Music. ("When you need a guitar see Smilin' Stu--he gives credit where credit is due." My first jingle.) Used to teach guitar there with Sam Andrew, Eddie Ellison, and for a very brief time Elmer Snowden(!).

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,Peter
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 02:24 PM

"Diana Marcovitz went to New York, then to Israel, got married along the way and became Danya Bokenboim, a writer."

Diana went home to Montreal for quite a few years in between her time in New York and moving to Israel. Her name is now Danya *Boksenboim*, not Bokenboim.

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 07:56 PM

Thanks Peter...

Subject: RE: Little known 1960's Folk Singers
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Mar 07 - 02:51 PM

There was Tom & Jerry, a couple of high school kids from Queens who were pretty good in the early sixties.