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'Come for to Sing' Magazine

16 Aug 12 - 08:18 AM (#3390866)
Subject: RE: req/ADD: I Come For to Sing (Bob Gibson, et al.)
From: Chris in Portland

For those of you in Chicago, the Old Town School has most of the issues of the great folk mag "Come for to Sing" done by the even greater Emily Friedman. Joel has a complete index on the Fox Valley website. Contact the Fare-thee-wells' website for more info on Bob Gibson.
Chris in too hot Portland


16 Aug 12 - 01:53 PM (#3390988)
Subject: 'Come for to Sing' Magazine
From: Joe Offer

Chris, I don't want to get the song mixed up with the magazine, so I've moved you over here.
As Chris says, Juel Ulven has a complete index of the magazine at the Fox Valley Folklore Society Website. Back issues of the magazine are for sale for $4 apiece, plus shipping. I'd love to have a collection of back issues, but the price is pretty steep. It would be really wonderful if the magazine could be made available online in PDF format. I'd be willing to help make that happen.
There's a PDF copy of an article from the magazine about Hazel Dickens at http://fvfs.org/CFTS/Hazel_Dickens_in_CFTS.pdf

-Joe Offer-


16 Aug 12 - 04:16 PM (#3391051)
Subject: RE: 'Come for to Sing' Magazine
From: Phil Cooper

I loved Come For To Sing Magazine. Emily had me write record reviews in a few issues. A shame it ceased publication, but I understood why Emily dropped it.


16 Aug 12 - 04:25 PM (#3391055)
Subject: RE: 'Come for to Sing' Magazine
From: RoyH (Burl)

Why did she drop it Phil? I only ever managed to get hold of half a dozen issues of the mag, don't think it had an outlet over here, but I thought it one of the best folk mags around. It's where I first saw some of the writings of Art Thieme, which is a pretty good recommendation. RoyH


16 Aug 12 - 11:47 PM (#3391215)
Subject: RE: 'Come for to Sing' Magazine
From: Phil Cooper

Hi Roy,

   She burned out on the work and stress of putting out the magazine on schedule (completely from volunteer help and ad revenues, she even paid her own way to festivals). That, plus the loss of a couple good friends who were performers who passed way before their time should have been up. She now is a lecturer for the need for medical ethics in the US.


17 Aug 12 - 04:35 AM (#3391266)
Subject: RE: 'Come for to Sing' Magazine
From: GUEST,from Tokyo

Thanks from Japan.

Kiyohide


17 Aug 12 - 08:09 AM (#3391324)
Subject: RE: 'Come for to Sing' Magazine
From: RoyH (Burl)

I understand Phil. I had a spell at producing a magazine, and it ain't easy. Not on your nerves or on your pocket. Thanks to her for the mags she did produce, and much success in her current occupation. RoyH


17 Aug 12 - 08:51 AM (#3391332)
Subject: RE: 'Come for to Sing' Magazine
From: Chris in Portland

Joe,I agree. Digitizing the issues would be a great project for the Old Town School. Phil, might you help find a champion at the School for such a project? Mark Dvorak, maybe? It would be great if the school could set up a volunteer team for this. I'm sure some donations could be raised from here and the School. Greatest thanks to Emily and all those who worked on the mag. I never would have learned any number of songs, if not for those wonderful song sheets.
Chris - another 100 day in Portland!


17 Aug 12 - 05:34 PM (#3391514)
Subject: RE: 'Come for to Sing' Magazine
From: Phil Cooper

Hi Chris and Joe, I could talk to Juel about digitizing the mag. I'm not sure the OTS would be up for that. Come for to Sing became a free standing publication and not connecting with the Old Town School for quite awhile.


20 Aug 12 - 05:18 PM (#3392893)
Subject: RE: 'Come for to Sing' Magazine
From: CupOfTea

I didn't arrive in Illinois and learn of "Come for to Sing" until it was just about wrapped up. I have a large stack of back issues that were just being given away at Fox Valley years ago. Every once in awhile I go through them & still get educated, and find songs I didn't know 15-20 years ago, but want to learn now and there they are in CFTS.

I learned much about the Northern Illinois folk music world by reading those back issues & the things I learned - and the community it represents- are part of the reason I go back to Fox Valley every year for the festival. Chicago & environs have, and have had for a long time, such a deep wealth of folk music talent and practitioners. CFTS reflected that, as well as the wonderful folks who were passing through.

The folks writing in CFTS were (and are) wonderful. Ian Robb's articles called "Boreas" were just gems. It might be my memory, but his writing in CFTS was a bit more strongly opinionated than later articles in SING OUT. It'd be great to have some of the more general things reprinted - in writing about traditional music, so much of it transcends the time it came from.   

Joe, wish I had known you'd wanted some - in a recent de-clutter, I got rid of all my duplicates, passing them on to a guitar teacher & union activist in the area. Next time I look, I'll see if there are any duplicates I missed. I know I've got the index issues. Would it make sense to digitize THOSE first? Making this trove of valuable information, interview, insight and strong opinion available would be a serious good deed. It's the sort of thing the historical society here might undertake. It seems like something The Old Town School of Folk Music SHOULD get behind creating and archiving, though what it offered was more allied to SING OUT.

Joanne in Cleveland, who ALWAYS comes for to sing.


21 Aug 12 - 05:30 PM (#3393325)
Subject: RE: 'Come for to Sing' Magazine
From: Phil Cooper

I mentioned the digitizing thing to Juel the other day, when I was over to help organize workshops for this year's festival. He said there are some release issues with some of the magazine. Many performers agreed to have songs printed as a one time thing, not something to be put on the web. This was years before the internet and many folks wouldn't mind. But there's more to it than it seems.


22 Aug 12 - 01:59 AM (#3393455)
Subject: RE: 'Come for to Sing' Magazine
From: GUEST,Lindy

To Phil Cooper:

Saw your post and wanted to ask you if you ever reviewed any albums by a folk singer from the Boston area named, Dayle Stanley?
She had two albums out in the 1960's and I have both of them.
She had a beautiful voice. A little like Joan Baez with a soaring soprano voice.
And did you ever review any albums by Canadian folk singer, Bonnie Dobson?


22 Aug 12 - 03:54 PM (#3393740)
Subject: RE: 'Come for to Sing' Magazine
From: Phil Cooper

Hi Lindy, no, I never reviewed albums by Dayle Stanley. I didn't start doing reviews for Come For To Sing or OP magazine till the late seventies/early eighties. I have heard of Bonnie Dobson, though I never reviewed her recordings either. I stopped writing reviews when I started performing more. Not that I ever said anything real negative (I always thought that if I could find nothing good to say about a recording, that I didn't get the point of what the artist was trying to do, therefore, someone else would be better qualified to do it). I also didn't say that every album I ever heard was a work of genius.