Remembering Folk Legends

Volume 2

FOLK

LEGENDS

Gone,

But Not

Forgotten...

SFM

MAGAZINE

folk legends, gone, b

Folk music often features story telling

lyrics, and has been around throughout

the ages all around the world. Some

songs date back to medeival times and even

before those days, for example Greensleeves,

Scarborough Fair, Ave Maria, Song Of

Roland, Foy Porter to name but a few.

The artists and groups I’ve included in this

volume, and those who will feature in future

volumes are folk singers from the early 20th

century and beyond, whom while they are no

longer with us today, their ground breaking

music and songs are available for us to listen to

through recordings of albums and songs made

during their lifetimes.

I have used the majority of links to their music

from Discogs, from where, should you wish

to, you should be able to find copies of their

albums for yourself, also many of them can be

found on Youtube and similar music sites.

Most of the information about artists included

can be found on Wikipedia, should you wish

to discover more about them.

Folk songs address social issues and have

shaped movements like civil rights, antiwar

protests, and cultural change. They are

a vital backbone to our modern day lives,

and it’s wonderful to look back and reflect

on the many talented artists who have made

significant contributions to shaping the folk

music scene as we know it to be today.

Jane Shields - Editor/Producer of SFMM

| 02 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Index

ut not forgotten...

04 UTAH

PHILLIPS

I N D E X

56 ANNE

FEENEY

08 DAVE

GUARD

12 MIKE

SEEGER

16 JIM

CROCE

20 NICK

DRAKE

26 LEAD

BELLY

32 JOHN

HARTFORD

36 JUDITH

DURHAM

40 JOHN

PRINE

46 ODETTA

HOLMES

50 SLIM

WHITMAN

60 IAN

TYSON

64 ISRAEL

KAMAKAW-

IWO’’OLE

68 TIM

BUCKLEY

72 JODY

MILLER

78 JULIE

FELIX

82 TIM

HARDIN

86 CASS

ELLIOT

92 PADDY

MOLONEY/

SEÁN

POTTS

94 THE

CHIEFTAiNS

54 DAVID

OLNEY

janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

03 |

SFM

MAGAZINE

utah

phillips

Bruce Duncan “Utah” Phillips (May 15, 1935 – May 23,

2008) was an American labor organizer, folk singer,

storyteller and poet. He described the struggles of labor

unions and the power of direct action, self-identifying as an

anarchist. He often promoted the Industrial Workers of the

World in his music, actions, and words.

Phillips was born in Cleveland to Edwin Deroger Phillips

and Frances Kathleen Coates. His father, Edwin Phillips,

was a labor organizer, and his parents’ activism influenced

much of his life’s work. Phillips was a card-carrying member

of the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies), which

were headquartered in Chicago. His parents divorced and his

mother remarried. Phillips was adopted at the age of five by

his stepfather, Syd Cohen, who managed the Hippodrome

Theater in Cleveland, one of the last Vaudeville houses in the

city. Cohen moved the family to Salt Lake City, Utah, where

he managed the Lyric Theater, another vaudeville house.

Phillips attributes his early exposure to Vaudeville through his

stepfather as being an important influence on his later career.

Phillips attended East High School in Salt Lake City, where

he was involved in the arts and plays. He served in the United

States Army for three years in the 1950s. Witnessing the

devastation of post-war Korea greatly influenced his social and

political thinking. After discharge from the army, Phillips rode

the railroads, and wrote songs.

While riding the rails and tramping around the west, Phillips

returned to Salt Lake City, where he met Ammon Hennacy

from the Catholic Worker Movement. He gave credit to

Hennacy for saving him from a life of drifting to one dedicated

to using his gifts and talents toward activism and public

service. Phillips assisted him in establishing a mission house

of hospitality named after the activist Joe Hill. Phillips worked

at the Joe Hill House for the next eight years, then ran for the

U.S. Senate as a candidate of Utah’s Peace and Freedom Party

in 1968. He received 2,019 votes (0.5%) in an election won by

Republican Wallace F. Bennett. He also ran for president of

the United States in 1976 for the Do-Nothing Party.

He adopted the name U. Utah Phillips in keeping with the

hobo tradition of adopting a moniker that included an initial

and the state of origin, and in emulation of country vocalist T.


Utah Phillips

Texas Tyler.

Phillips met folk singer Rosalie Sorrels in the early 1950s, and

remained a close friend of hers. Sorrels started playing the

songs that Phillips wrote, and through her his music began to

spread. After leaving Utah in the late 1960s, he went to Saratoga

Springs, New York, where he was befriended by the folk

community at the Caffè Lena coffee house. He became a staple

performer there for a decade, and would return throughout his

career.

Phillips was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World

(IWW or Wobblies). His views of unions and politics were

shaped by his parents, especially his mother who was a labor

organizer for the CIO. But Phillips was more of a Christian

anarchist and a pacifist, so found the modern-day Wobblies

to be the perfect fit for him, an iconoclast and artist. In recent

years, perhaps no single person did more to spread the Wobbly

gospel than Phillips, whose countless concerts were, in effect,

organizing meetings for the cause of labor, unions, anarchism,

pacifism, and the Wobblies. He was a tremendous interpreter

of classic Wobbly tunes including “Hallelujah, I’m a Bum,” “The

Preacher and the Slave,” and “Bread and Roses.”

An avid trainhopper, Phillips recorded several albums of music

related to the railroads, especially the era of steam locomotives.

His 1973 album, ‘Good Though!’, is an example, and contains

such songs as “Daddy, What’s a Train?” and “Queen of the

Rails” as well as what may be his most famous composition,

“Moose Turd Pie” wherein he tells a tall tale of his work as a

gandy dancer repairing track in the Southwestern United States

desert.

In 1991 Phillips recorded, in one take, an album of song, poetry

and short stories entitled ‘I’ve Got To Know’, inspired by his

anger at the first Gulf War. The album includes “Enola Gay,” his

first composition written about the United States’ atomic attack

on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Phillips was a mentor to folk singer Kate Wolf. In 1998, he

was the first recipient of the Kate Wolf Memorial Award from

the World Folk Music Association. He recorded songs and

stories with Rosalie Sorrels on a CD called ‘The Long Memory’

(1996), originally a college project “Worker’s Doxology” for

1992 ‘cold-drill Magazine’ Boise State University. His admirer,

Ani DiFranco, recorded two CDs, The Past Didn’t Go

Anywhere (1996) and Fellow Workers (1999), with him. He was

nominated for a Grammy Award for his work with DiFranco.

His “Green Rolling Hills” was made into a country hit by

Emmylou Harris, and “The Goodnight-Loving Trail” became

a classic as well, being recorded by Ian Tyson, Tom Waits, and

others.

Though known primarily for his work as a concert performer

and labor organizer, Phillips also worked as an archivist,

dishwasher, and warehouse-man.

Phillips was a member of various socio-political organizations

and groups throughout his life. A strong supporter of labor

struggles, he was a member of the Industrial Workers of the

World (IWW), the International Union of Mine, Mill, and

Smelter Workers (Mine Mill), and the Travelling Musician’s

Union AFM Local 1000. In solidarity with the poor, he was


also an honorary member of ‘Dignity Village’, a homeless

community. A pacifist, he was a member of Veterans for Peace

and the Peace Center of Nevada County.

In his personal life, Phillips enjoyed varied hobbies and

interests. These included Egyptology; amateur chemistry;

linguistics; history (Asian, African, Mormon and world);

futhark; debate; and poetry. He also enjoyed culinary hobbies,

such as pickling, cooking and gardening.

He married Joanna Robinson on July 31, 1989, in Nevada City.

Phillips became an elder statesman for the folk music

community, and a keeper of stories and songs that might

otherwise have passed into obscurity. He was also a member

of the great ‘Traveling Nation’, the community of hobos and

railroad bums that populates the Midwest United States along

the rail lines, and was an important keeper of their history and

culture. He also became an honorary member of numerous folk

societies in the US and Canada.

When Kate Wolf grew ill and was forced to cancel concerts,

she asked Phillips to fill in. Suffering from an ailment which

makes it more difficult to play guitar, Phillips hesitated, citing

his declining guitar ability. “Nobody ever came just to hear you

play,” she said. Phillips told this story as a way of explaining

how his style over the years became increasingly based on

storytelling instead of just songs. He was a gifted storyteller

and monologist, and his concerts generally had an even mix

of spoken word and sung content. He attributed much of

his success to his personality. “It is better to be likeable than

talented,” he often said, self-deprecatingly.

From 1997 to 2001, Phillips hosted his own weekly radio show,

‘Loafer’s Glory: The Hobo Jungle of the Mind’, originating on

KVMR and nationally syndicated. The show was suspended

after 100 episodes due to lack of funding.

Phillips lived in Nevada City, California, for 21 years where he

worked on the start-up of the Hospitality House, a homeless

shelter, and the Peace and Justice Center. “It’s my town. Nevada

City is a primary seed-bed for community organizing.”

In August 2007, Phillips announced that he would undergo

catheter ablation to address his heart problems. Later that

autumn, Phillips announced that due to health problems he

could no longer tour. By January 2008, he decided against a

heart transplant.

Phillips died May 23, 2008, in Nevada City, California, from

complications of heart disease, eight days after his 73rd

birthday, and is buried in Forest View Cemetery in Nevada City.

Archival materials related to Phillips’ personal and professional

life are open for research at the Walter P. Reuther Library

in Detroit, Michigan. The papers include correspondence,

interviews, writings, notes, contracts, flyers, publications,

articles, clippings, photographs, audiovisual recordings, and

other materials.

05 |

SFM

MAGAZINE

utah phillips

1961 NOBODY KNOWS ME - (Prestige)

Discogs link

1973 GOOD THOUGH! - (Philo)

Discogs link

1975 EL CAPITAN - (Philo)

Discogs link

1980 ALL USED UP: - A Scrapbook (Philo)

Discogs link

SOLO ALBUMS

1983 WE HAVE FED YOU ALL A THOUSAND YEARS - (Philo)

Discogs link

1989 THE OLD GUY - (Makin’ Jam, Etc.)

Discogs link

1992 I’VE GOT TO KNOW - (Alcazar) (reissued 2003 by AK Press)

Discogs link

1996 THE PAST DIDN’T GO ANYWHERE – with Ani Difranco - (Righteous Babe Records)

Discogs link

1999 FELLOW WORKERS – with Ani Difranco - (Righteous Babe)

Discogs link

1997 LOAFER’S GLORY – with Mark Ross - (Red House Records)

Discogs link

1997 THE TELLING TAKES ME HOME - (includes tracks from El Capitan and All Used Up) (Philo/

Rounder) - Discogs link

1999 THE MOSCOW HOLD - (Red House)

Discogs link

2000 MAKING SPEECH FREE - (Free Dirt Records)

Discogs link

2005 STARLIGHT ON THE RAILS: A SONGBOOK - (4-cd Compilation) (AK Press/Daemon/Free

Dirt) - Discogs link


Utah Phillips

discography

OTHER ALBUMS

1985 DON’T MOURN – Organize!: Songs of Labor Songwriter Joe Hill – Various Artists (Smithsonian

Folkways) - Discogs link

1992 REBEL VOICES: SONGS OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD – Various Artists

(Flying Fish) - Discogs link

1996 THE LONG MEMORY – Utah Phillips and Rosalie Sorrels (Red House)

Discogs link

1997 HEART SONGS: THE OLD TIME COUNTRY SONGS OF UTAH PHILLIPS – Jody Stecher and

Kate Brislin (Rounder) - Discogs link

1997 LEGENDS OF FOLK – Utah Phillips, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot and Spider John Koerner (Red House)

Discogs link

2001 THE ROSE TATTOO LIVE – Trains, Tramps And Traditions The Rose Tattoo (Cookie Man Music)

Discog link

2008 MAY DAY AT THE PABST – Utah Philips, Larry Penn, recorded live in Milwaukee in 2006 (Cookie

Man Music) - Discogs links

2008 STRANGERS IN ANOTHER COUNTRY: The Songs of Bruce “Utah” Phillips – Rosalie Sorrels (Red

House) - Discogs link

2009 SINGING THROUGH THE HARD TIMES: A TRIBUTE TO UTAH PHILLIPS – Various Artists

(Righteous Babe) - Discogs link

2011 LONG GONE: UTAH REMEMBERS BRUCE “UTAH” PHILLIPS – Various Artists from the Region

of Utah, USA. (Waterbug Records) - Discogs Link


07 |

SFM

MAGAZINE

DAVE

GUARD

Donald David Guard (October 19, 1934 – March

22, 1991) was an American folk singer, songwriter,

arranger and recording artist. Along with Nick

Reynolds and Bob Shane, he was one of the founding

members of the ‘Kingston Trio’.

Guard was born in San Francisco and went to Punahou School

in Honolulu in what was then the pre-statehood U.S. Territory

of Hawaii. Upon completion of his final year of high school in

1952 at Menlo School, a private prep school in Menlo Park,

California, he matriculated at nearby Stanford University,

graduating in 1957 with a degree in economics.

While an undergraduate at Stanford, Guard started a pickup

group with Reynolds and Shane. Guard called his group ‘Dave

Guard and the Calypsonians’, with a Weavers-style signature

sound that was principally two guitars, a banjo, and rollicking

vocals. Guard kept the group together after Reynolds and

Shane left, changing the name of the Calypsonians to the

‘Kingston Quartet’. Then in 1957, when Reynolds and Shane

agreed to team up with Guard again, the group changed

its name to the Kingston Trio. Under contract with Capitol

Records, the Trio became a huge commercial and influential

success.

Guard spent his early years first in San Francisco, and then

his junior high school and high school years in Honolulu,

Territory of Hawaii. Guard grew up hearing the soft vocal

melodies and strummed guitars of Hawaiian music. He

was particularly attracted to the unique rhythmic sounds of

finger-picked slack-key ukulele and guitar music masterfully

performed by the many of his neighbors and ‘beach boys’.

Guard attended Punahou School, a private school established

in 1849 by Hawaii’s New England missionary families during

junior high school and high school. Hawaiian culture and

music played an important part in his school’s educational

program. Along with all his other classmates, Guard early

on learned to play Hawaii’s ubiquitous ukulele in a 7th grade

junior high school music class required of all students. It was

in that class that Punahou’s young 7th graders like Guard

and his future ‘Kingston Trio’ partner-to-be Shane learned

the basics of playing the ukulele. The “ukulele” class made an

impact on Shane, who during the next four years progressed


Dave Guard

steadily from the 4-string ukulele to the less toy-like and more

professional-appearing baritone uke, on to the tenor guitar, and

finally to the 6-string acoustic guitar. According to Guard, his

own first serious exposure to stringed instruments came from

Shane, who taught him the rudiments of playing the six-string

guitar.

Guard participated in sports, and was a member of Punahou’s

ROTC battalion. In his junior year he participated in musical

skits along with a number of other classmates who, like himself,

had by that time also had become accomplished musicians.

Guard left Punahou at the end of his junior year, completing

his final year of high school at the Menlo School, a private

prep school that helped him prepare for acceptance and

matriculation at nearby Stanford University. At Stanford, Guard

was a member of the Beta Chi chapter of Sigma Nu fraternity.

He graduated from Stanford with a degree in economics in

1956.

When Shane left the Calypsonians and returned to Hawaii

to work in his family’s business, Guard added two members,

bassist Joe Gannon and vocalist Barbara Bogue, making the

Calypsonians a quartet. Later, when Reynolds also left the

Calypsonians, Guard replaced him with Don MacArthur to

keep the quartet format intact, but by that time the national

interest in calypso rhythms was waning, while Guard’s musical

growth was reaching out from calypso as well. Still appreciating

Caribbean rhythms and vocals, but given his more eclectic

folk music interests, Guard changed the name of the four

Calypsonians to the Kingston Quartet.

In 1956, publicist Frank Werber offered his services to Guard

and his bandmates, including Reynolds at the time. Werber’s

offer was contingent upon replacing Gannon and Bogue, and

shortly thereafter both left the group. Guard and Reynolds

contacted former Calypsonian member Shane (who was

performing part-time in Honolulu) asking him to join the

reconstituted group. In 1957, back again as a trio as in their

previous college days, they changed its name to the Kingston

Trio.

With material gathered from a variety of sources, under Guard’s

musical arrangements and direction, the Kingston Trio quickly

became a success. Guard, Shane, and Reynolds worked well

together. In addition to developing the characteristic “Kingston

Trio sound” of the group’s two guitars and a banjo, success

came to the group from Guard’s musical arrangements and

renditions of folk and Irish ballads, Shane’s talent for style and

performance along with an innate knowledge of what pleased

audiences, and Reynolds’s management of the group’s logistics.

The Kingston Trio with Guard recorded for Capitol Records;

subsequent iterations of the group managed first by Werber

and Shane and later by Shane alone recorded for Decca

Records, Folk Era, Silverwolf, Pair, Collector’s Choice Music,

CEMA, and MCA, and had many hit songs in its initial tenyear

run. The trio’s many songs include “Tom Dooley”, “A

Worried Man”, “Hard Travelin’”, “Thh e Tijuana Jail”, “Greenback

Dollar”, “Reverend Mr. Black”, “Sloop John B”, “Scotch and

Soda”, “Merry Minuet”, “Hard, Ain’t It Hard”, “Zombie

Jamboree”, “M.T.A.”, “Three Jolly Coachmen”, and “Raspberries,

Strawberries”.


Guard was aware that among the Kingston Trio, he was the only

one who could read music and who had some understanding

of music theory; his partners basically played by rote, and the

three of them sang in simple three-part harmony. With help

from the Trio’s bassist and musicologist David “Buck” Wheat,

Guard embarked on a self-education program of learning more

about harmony, becoming more and more disenchanted with

what appeared to him to be a lack of willingness or effort to

“improve” on the part of his partners.

By late 1960 Guard’s frustration and discontent with his

partners, combined with an alleged embezzlement of the

group’s finances, had reached a point where he no longer

wanted to work with Reynolds and Shane. Giving his partners

notice that he intended to leave the Trio, and unwilling to cause

the group he had founded to disband, Guard agreed to stay on

with the Trio until his personal commitments were completed

and until Shane and Reynolds were able to find a suitable

replacement for him. By early 1961 Shane and Reynolds had

found a replacement. After a reportedly acrimonious meeting

with Shane, Reynolds, and the Trio’s business manager over the

future of the Trio, Guard quit the group. The group continued

to perform for six years as the Kingston Trio before disbanding

in 1967, with John Stewart taking Guard’s place.

In 1961, shortly after leaving the Trio, Guard formed a new

group, ‘The Whiskeyhill Singers’, with Judy Henske, Cyrus

Faryar, and Kingston Trio bassist David “Buck” Wheat. They

toured and released an album and were asked to perform

several folk songs on the Academy Award-winning soundtrack

of ‘How the West Was Won’.

Their voices can be heard on “The Erie Canal,” “900 miles,” “The

Ox Driver,” and “Raise A Ruckus Tonight”. Cyrus Faryar can

be heard performing solo on the track “Wanderin’” and Dave

Guard on “Poor Wayfarin’ Stranger”. Judy Henske featured solo

on “Careless Love”. Judy Henske was eventually replaced by Liz

Seneff, but the Whiskeyhill Singers were disbanded in late 1962

after Guard left for Australia.

Dave Guard and The Whiskeyhill Singers recorded their first

album at Henry Jacobs’ studio at Sausalito, and it was released

on the Capitol record label. A second album was recorded at the

same private studio, but it was never released. The soundtrack

to How the West Was Won was the group’s final recorded

appearance to be released commercially.’

In late 1962 Guard moved with his family to Sydney, Australia,

where he purchased a home overlooking the South Pacific

Ocean at Whale Beach. He performed both under his own

name, anonymously and under an alias as a supporting

musician and vocalist on Australian recording sessions with,

among others, Lionel Long, The Twiliters, The Green Hill

Singers, Tina Date, and The Tolmen. He anonymously

recorded many sound clips for radio and TV commercials. In

1964, Guard became the folk music consultant on the ABC-TV

program Jazz Meets Folk.

He hosted his own ABC-TV national variety show, ‘Dave’s

Place’, on Sunday nights for 13 weeks in late 1965. Four episodes

of Dave’s Place featured Judy Henske as a guest performer.

Until his return to the United States in 1968, Guard gave guitar

09 |

SFM

MAGAZINE

lessons and, with the help of his wife, Gretchen, wrote a book,

‘Colour Guitar’, describing a unique guitar teaching method

relating music theory to a 12-valued chain of chords with color.

Pasadena. His backing group on this album was The Modern

Folk Quartet, which included former Whiskeyhill Singer

Cyrus Faryar. The album was turned down by Capitol and was

never released.

During the 1980s, Guard continued to perform as a soloist and

teach music. He did four tracks on a 12-track cassette recorded

to accompany the “All Along the Merrimac” tour of New

Hampshire and a final solo album, “Up & In” (1988), which

received mixed reviews. The album included the Kingston Trio

standard “Scotch and Soda”, which he had arranged in 1956 but

which for thirty years had been performed in The Trio only by

Bob Shane.

Guard’s relationship with the Trio remained strained while

he was in Australia. According to Guard, while he was in

Australia, he was never in contact with Reynolds and Shane,

and he never heard any of their albums.

Following his return from Australia in 1968 and his wife’s 1970

graduation from Stanford with a degree in art, Guard and

his wife collaborated in researching, writing, and publishing

a book on the ancient Irish folk tale, Deirdre of the Sorrows,

followed by a second book about a 400-year-old Hawaiian folk

tale.

Over the years following his return to the US, Guard worked

with a number of people, including Alex Hassilev, Mike Settle,

Judy Henske, Cyrus Faryar, Tim Buckley, Tommy Makem

and David White.

Guard was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in

1988, while he was living in an apartment on the property of

Rick and Ingrid Shaw in Rollinsford. Treatment resulted in

remission, but the cancer returned in 1990. Rick and Ingrid

took care of Guard during his final months.

Guard died on March 22, 1991 at the age of 56. His memorial

service in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was attended by

Bob Shane, Glen Yarbrough, the Limeliters and many

other figures from the folk world. He was survived by his

mother Marjorie, ex-wife Gretchen and three children Sally,

Catherine, and Tom.

After the breakup of the Singers in 1961, Guard had returned

to Hawaii. Always a folk music eclectic, Guard attempted to

publicize the slack-key sounds of Hawaiian folk guitar. Guard

worked closely in Honolulu with slack-key guitar icon Gabby

Pahinui to record and produce ‘Pure Gabby’, an album of

classic Hawaiian melodies played with slack key tunings. Guard

tried to introduce major record companies to ‘Pure Gabby’, but

met with little interest, and he shelved the project. In 1978, ten

years after his return from Australia, at the urging of Singer

colleague, Cyrus Faryar, who had heard Guard’s Pure Gabby

tapes, Guard contacted Hula Records of Honolulu about ‘Pure

Gabby’, which agreed to take the recordings and distribute the

album.

In 1981, Guard reunited with Shane and Reynolds for a PBS

fundraising concert and program entitled “The Kingston

Trio and Friends Reunion”. He also made occasional concert

appearances with John Stewart, his replacement in the Trio

who was by then a respected and successful solo performer.

He produced the video ‘Workout for Equestrians’ with Ingrid

Gsottschneider for Golden Arrow Enterprises.

In the 1970s, Guard recorded a live album at The Ice House in


dave guard discography

Dave Guard

DAVE GUARD & THE CALYPSONIANS

RUN JOE 1957 (Capitol) - Discogs link

FAST FREIGHT 1957 (Capitol) - Discogs link

KINGSTON TRIO

THE KINGSTON TRIO 1958 (Capitol)

Discogs link

...FROM THE HUNGRY I 1959 (Capitol)

Discogs link

STEREO CONCERT 1959 (Capitol)

Discogs link

AT LARGE 1959 (Capitol)

Discogs link

HERE WE GO AGAIN! 1959 (Capitol)

Discogs link

SOLD OUT 1960 (Capitol)

Discogs link

STRING ALONG 1960 (Capitol)

Discogs link

THE LAST MONTH OF THE YEAR 1960 (Capitol)

Discogs link

THE KINGSTON TRIO SINGS FOR 7-UP 1960 (TV

commercial) Youtube link

MAKE WAY 1961 (Capitol)

Discogs link

GOIN’ PLACES 1961 (Capitol)

Discogs link

LIVE AT NEWPORT 1994 (Capitol)

Discogs link

THE KINGSTON TRIO AND FRIENDS REUNION

1994 (DVD) Discogs link

THE CAPITOL YEARS 1995 (Capitol)

Discogs link


THE CAPITOL COLLECTOR SERIES 1998

(Capitol) Discogs link

THE BEST OF KINGSTON TRIO VOL 1-3 (Capitol)

Discogs link

THE KINGSTON TRIO: THE GUARD YEARS 1997

(Bear Family) Discogs link

TOP 40 HIT SINGLES

TOM DOOLEY 1958 (Capitol) #1 Gold hit record

THE TIJUANA JAIL 1959 (Capitol) #12

M.T.A. 1959 (Capitol) #15

A WORRIED MAN 1959 (Capitol) #20

EL MATADOR 1960 (Capitol) #32

BAD MAN BLUNDER 1960 (Capitol) #37

WHISKEYHILL SINGERS

Dave Guard & The Whiskeyhill Singers 1962

(Capitol)

Whiskeyhill Singers 2nd Album (unreleased) (1962)

How The West Was Won: Original Motion Picture

Soundtrack 1963 (MGM)

The Kingston Trio Capitol Years 1995 (Capitol)

DAVE’S PLACE GROUP

Dave’s Place 1965 (ABC-TV Australia). Apart

from the archived records of the ABC-TV show,

no recordings were ever made by this group that

consisted of:

DAVE GUARD (guitar & vocal),

CHRIS BONETT (bass & vocal),

LEN YOUNG (drums)

FRANCES STONE (vocal).

Early in the series, Stone was replaced by Kerrilee

Male, who in turn was replaced by Norma Shirlee

Stoneman towards the middle of the season.

11 |

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MAGAZINE

MIKE

SEEGER

Mike Seeger (August 15, 1933 – August 7,

2009) was an American folk musician

and folklorist. He was a distinctive singer

and an accomplished musician who mainly played

autoharp, banjo, fiddle, dulcimer, guitar, harmonica,

mandolin, dobro, jaw harp, and pan pipes. Seeger,

a half-brother of Pete Seeger, produced more than

30 documentary recordings, and performed in

more than 40 other recordings. He desired to make

known the caretakers of culture that inspired and

taught him. He was posthumously inducted into the

International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2018.

Seeger was born in New York and grew up in

Maryland and Washington D.C. His father, Charles

Louis Seeger Jr., was a composer and pioneering

ethnomusicologist, investigating both American folk

and non-Western music. His mother, Ruth Crawford

Seeger, was a composer. His eldest half-brother,

Charles Seeger III, was a radio astronomer, and his

next older half-brother, John Seeger, taught for years

at the Dalton School in Manhattan. His next older

half brother was Pete Seeger. His uncle, Alan Seeger,

the poet who wrote “I have a rendezvous with Death”,

was killed during the First World War. Seeger was

a self-taught musician who began playing stringed

instruments at the age of 18. He also sang ‘Sacred

Harp’ with British folk singer Ewan MacColl and his

son, Calum. Seeger’s sister Peggy Seeger, also a wellknown

folk performer, married MacColl, and his

sister Penny wed John Cohen, a member of Mike’s

musical group, ‘New Lost City Ramblers’.

The family moved to Washington D.C. in 1936 after

his father’s appointment to the music division of the

Resettlement Administration. While in Washington

D.C., Ruth Seeger worked closely with John and

Alan Lomax at the Archive of American Folk Song


Mike Seeger

at the Library of Congress to preserve and teach

American folk music. Ruth Seeger’s arrangements

and interpretations of American Traditional folk

songs in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s are well

regarded.

At about the age of 20, Mike Seeger began collecting

songs by traditional musicians on a tape recorder.

Folk musicians such as Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie,

John Jacob Niles, and others were frequent guests in

the Seeger home.

In 1958 he co-founded the ‘New Lost City Ramblers’,

an old-time string band in New York City, during

the Folk Revival. The other founding members

included John Cohen and Tom Paley. Paley later

left the group in 1962 and was replaced by Tracy

Schwarz. “The New Lost City Ramblers” directly

influenced countless musicians in subsequent years.

The Ramblers distinguished themselves by focusing

on the traditional playing styles they heard on old

78rpm records of musicians recorded during the

1920s and 1930s.

“Seeger sings with spunk and authenticity, plays eight

acoustic instruments, and taps his foot pretty good,

and even if you and I can’t dance to it, I guarantee you

somebody can.”— Christgau’s Record Guide: Rock

Albums of the Seventies (1981)

Seeger received six Grammy nominations and

was the recipient of four grants from the National

Endowment for the Arts, including a 2009 National

Heritage Fellowship, which is the United States

government’s highest honor in the folk and

traditional arts. His influence on the folk scene

was described by Bob Dylan in his autobiography,

Chronicles: Volume One. He was a popular presenter

and performer at traditional music gatherings such

as Breakin’ Up Winter.

Eight days before his 76th birthday, Mike Seeger

died at his home in Lexington, Virginia, on August 7,

2009, after stopping cancer treatment.

The Mike Seeger Collection, which includes original

sound and video recordings by Mike Seeger, is

located in the Southern Folklife Collection of the

Wilson Library of the University of North Carolina at

Chapel Hill.


13 |

SFM

MAGAZINE

OLD TIME COUNTRY MUSIC (Smithsonian

Folkways) (1962) - Discogs link

MIKE SEEGER (Vanguard) (1964)

Discogs link

TIPPLE, LOOM & RAIL (Smithsonian


MIKE AND PEGGY SEEGER (Argo) (1966)

Discogs link

STRANGE CREEK SINGERS (Arhoolie)

(1970) – as “Strange Creek Singers”, with

Alice Gerrard, Tracy Schwarz, Lamar Grier -

Discogs link

MIKE AND ALICE SEEGER IN CONCERT

(King (JP)) (1971) - Discogs link

MUSIC FROM TRUE VINE (Mercury)

(1972)

Discogs link

BERKELEY FARMS (Folkways) (1972)

Discogs link

THE SECOND ANNUAL FAREWELL

REUNION (Mercury) (1973) - Discogs link

AMERICAN FOLK SONGS FOR

CHILDREN (Rounder) (1977) - Discogs link

FRESH OLDTIME STRING BAND MUSIC

(Rounder) (1988) - Discogs link

AMERICAN FOLK SONGS FOR

CHRISTMAS (Rounder) (1989) -

Discogs link

SOLO: OLDTIME COUNTRY MUSIC


mike seeger d

ANIMAL FOLK SONGS FOR CHILDREN


THIRD ANNUAL FAREWELL REUNION


WAY DOWN IN NORTH CAROLINA (w/

Paul Brown) (Rounder) (1996) - Discogs link

SOUTHERN BANJO SOUNDS (Smithsonian


RETROGRASS (w/ John Hartford and David

Grisman) (Acoustic Disc) (1999) -

Discogs link

TRUE VINE (Smithsonian Folkways) (2003)

Discogs link

EARLY SOUTHERN GUITAR SOUNDS

(Smithsonian Folkways) (2007) - Discogs link

ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS –

RAISING SAND (Rounder) (2007) -

Discogs link

RY COODER – MY NAME IS BUDDY

(Nonesuch) (2007) - Discogs link

TALKING FEET (Book) Compiled with

dancer Ruth Pershing (Consignment) (2007)

Amazon link

TALKING FEET (DVD) (Smithsonian

Folkways) (2007) - Amazon link

BOWLING GREEN (w/ Alice Gerrard)

(5-String Productions) (2008) (Re-release of

Greenhays released in 1980) - Discogs link

Fly Down Little Bird (Appalseed) (2011)

Discogs link


iscography

RECORDINGS WITH THE NEW

LOST CITY RAMBLERS

New Lost City Ramblers (Smithsonian

Folkways) (1958) Discogs link

Old Timey Songs for Children (Smithsonian


Songs for the Depression (Smithsonian


New Lost City Ramblers – Vol. 2 (Smithsonian


Newport Folk Festival, 1960, Vol. 1 (Vanguard

- VRS 9083) (1960) Discogs link



New Lost City Ramblers (Smithsonian




American Moonshine and Prohibition Songs

(Smithsonian Folkways) (1962) Discogs link



Gone to the Country (Smithsonian

Folkways) (1963) String Band Instrumentals


Rural Delivery No. 1 (Smithsonian Folkways)

(1964) Discogs link

Mike Seeger

New Lost City Ramblers with Cousin Emmy


Remembrance of Things to Come


On the Great Divide (Smithsonian Folkways)

(1975) Discogs link

Earth is Earth (Smithsonian Folkways) (1978)

Discogs link

Tom Paley, John Cohen, Mike Seeger Sing

Songs of the New Lost City Ramblers

(Smithsonian Folkways) (1978)

Discogs link

20th Anniversary Concert, with Elizabeth

Cotten, Highwoods String Band, Pete Seeger

& the Green Grass Cloggers (FLYING FISH

(Rounder)) (1978)

Discogs link

The Early Years, 1958–1962 (Smithsonian


Out Standing in their Field: The New Lost City

Ramblers, Vol 2, 1963–1973 (Smithsonian


There Ain’t No Way Out (Smithsonian

Folkways) (1997)Discogs link

40 Years of Concert Recordings (Rounder)

(2001) Discog link

50 Years: Where Do You Come From? Where

Do You Go? (Smithsonian Folkways) (2008)

Discog link

Modern Times (Smithsonian Folkways) (1968)

Discogs link


15 |

SFM

MAGAZINE

JIM

CROCE

James Joseph Croce [January 10, 1943 – September

20, 1973) was an American folk and rock singersongwriter.

Between 1966 and 1973, he released

five studio albums and numerous singles. During this

period, Croce took a series of odd jobs to pay bills while

he continued to write, record and perform concerts.

After Croce formed a partnership with the songwriter

and guitarist Maury Muehleisen in the early 1970s, his

fortunes turned. Croce’s breakthrough came in 1972,

when his third album, ‘You Don’t Mess Around with

Jim’, produced three charting singles, including “Time

in a Bottle”, which reached No. 1 after Croce died. The

follow-up album ‘Life and Times’ included the song

“Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”, Croce’s only No. 1 hit during

his lifetime.

On September 20, 1973, at the height of his popularity

and the day before the lead single to his fifth album, ‘I

Got a Name’, was released, Croce, Muehleisen, and four

others died in a plane crash. His music continued to

chart throughout the 1970s following his death. Croce’s

widow and early songwriting partner, Ingrid, continued

to write and record after his death. Their son, A. J.

Croce, became a singer-songwriter in the 1990s.

Croce was born on January 10, 1943 (although some

sources say 1942), in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,

to James Albert Croce and Flora Mary (Babusci)

Croce, Italian Americans whose parents had emigrated

from Trasacco and Balsorano in Abruzzo and Palermo

in Sicily.

Croce grew up in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania,

seven miles west of Philadelphia, and attended Upper

Darby High School, where he graduated in 1960. He

then attended Malvern Preparatory School for a year

prior to enrolling at Villanova University, where he

majored in psychology and minored in German. He was

a member of the campus singing groups the ‘Villanova

Singers’ and the ‘Villanova Spires.’ When the Spires


Jim Croce

performed off campus or made recordings, they were

known as ‘The Coventry Lads’. Croce was also a student

disc jockey at WKVU, which has since become WXVU.

In 1965, he graduated from Villanova with a Bachelor of

Science in Social Studies degree.

Croce did not take music seriously until he studied at

Villanova, where he became a leader of the Villanova

Singers, formed bands, and performed at fraternity

parties, coffeehouses, and universities around

Philadelphia. He played “anything that the people

wanted to hear: blues, rock, a cappella, railroad music

... anything.” Croce’s band was chosen for a foreign

exchange tour of Africa, the Middle East and Yugoslavia.

He later said, “We just ate what the people ate, lived in the

woods, and played our songs. Of course they didn’t speak

English over there but if you mean what you’re singing,

people understand.” On November 29, 1963, Croce met

his future wife, Ingrid Jacobson, at the Philadelphia

Convention Hall during a hootenanny, where he was

judging a contest.

Croce released his first album, Facets, in 1966, with 500

copies pressed. The album had been financed with a

$500 ($4,846 in 2024 dollars) wedding gift from Croce’s

parents, who set a condition that the money must be

spent to make an album. They hoped that Croce would

abandon music after the album failed and use his college

education to pursue a more traditional profession.

However, the album proved to be a success, with every

copy sold.

Croce married Jacobson in 1966 and converted from

Catholicism to Judaism, as his wife was Jewish. They were

married in a traditional Jewish ceremony. Croce enlisted

in the Army National Guard in New Jersey that same

year to avoid being drafted and deployed to Vietnam, and

served on active duty for four months, leaving for duty

one week after his honeymoon. Croce, who tended to

resist authority, endured basic training twice. He said that

he would be prepared if “there’s ever a war where we have

to defend ourselves with mops.”

From the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, Croce and his

wife performed as a duo. Initially, their performances

included songs by artists such as

Ian & Sylvia, Gordon Lightfoot, Joan Baez, and Arlo

Guthrie, but they eventually began writing their own

music. During this time, Croce secured his first longterm

gig, at a suburban bar and steakhouse in Lima,

Pennsylvania called the ‘Riddle Paddock’. Croce’s set list

covered several genres, including blues, country, rock and

roll, and folk.

In 1968, the Croces were encouraged by the record

producer Tommy West, a fellow Villanova alumnus, to

move to New York City. The couple spent time in the

Kingsbridge section of the Bronx and recorded their first

album with Capitol Records. According to Ingrid, over

the next two years, they drove more than 300,000 miles

(480,000 kilometres), playing small clubs and concerts on

the college concert circuit to promote their album ‘Jim &

Ingrid Croce’.

Becoming disillusioned by the music business and New

York, they sold all but one guitar to pay the rent and

returned to the Pennsylvania countryside, settling in

an old farm in Lyndell, where he played for $25 a night

($202 in 2024 dollars). To earn additional money, Croce

took odd jobs such as driving trucks, construction work,

and teaching guitar while continuing to write songs, often

about the characters whom he would meet at local bars

and truck stops and his experiences at work. These songs

included “Big Wheel” and “Workin’ at the Car Wash

Blues.”

The Croces eventually returned to Philadelphia and

Croce decided to be “serious” about becoming a

productive member of society. He said:

“I’d worked construction crews, and I’d been a welder while

I was in college. But I’d rather do other things than get

burned.”

His determination led to a job at Philadelphia R&B

AM radio station WHAT, where Croce translated

commercials into “soul”.

“I’d sell airtime to Bronco’s Poolroom and then write the

spot: ‘You wanna be cool, and you wanna shoot pool ... dig

it.’”

In 1970, Croce met classically trained pianist-guitarist

and singer-songwriter Maury Muehleisen through

producer Joe Salviuolo, a friend of Croce’s since college.

Salviuolo had met Muehleisen when he was teaching

at Glassboro State College in New Jersey and brought

Croce and Muehleisen together at the production office

of Tommy West and Terry Cashman in New York

City. Initially, Croce backed Muehleisen on guitar, but

gradually their roles reversed, with Muehleisen adding a

lead guitar to Croce’s music.

When his wife became pregnant, Croce became more

determined to make music his profession. He sent a

cassette of his new songs to a friend and producer in

New York City in the hope that he could secure a record

deal. After their son, Adrian James (A.J.), was born in

September 1971, Ingrid stayed at home while Croce

toured to promote his music.

In 1972, Croce signed a three-record contract with ABC


17 |

SFM

MAGAZINE

Records, releasing two albums, ‘You Don’t Mess Around

with Jim’ and ‘Life and Times’. The singles “You Don’t

Mess Around with Jim”, “Operator (That’s Not the Way It

Feels)”, and “Time in a Bottle” all received airplay. That

same year, the Croce family moved to San Diego. Croce

began appearing on television, including on American

Bandstand on August 12, his national debut, ‘The Tonight

Show’ on August 14, and ‘The Dick Cavett Show’ on

September 20 and 21.

Croce began touring the United States with Muehleisen,

performing in large coffeehouses, on college campuses,

and at folk festivals. However, his financial situation

remained precarious. The record company had fronted

him the money to record, and much of his earnings

went to repay the advance. In February 1973, Croce

and Muehleisen traveled to Europe, performing in

London, Paris, Amsterdam, Monte Carlo, Zurich, and

Dublin and receiving encouraging reviews. Croce made

television appearances on ‘The Midnight Special’, which

he cohosted on June 15, and ‘The Helen Reddy Show’

on July 19. His biggest single, “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”,

reached No. 1 on the American charts in July.

From July 16 through August 4, Croce and Muehleisen

returned to London and performed on ‘The Old Grey

Whistle Test’, on which they sang “Lover’s Cross” and

“Workin’ at the Car Wash Blues” from their upcoming

album ‘I Got a Name’. Croce finished recording the album

just a week before his death. While on tour, Croce grew

increasingly homesick and decided to take a break from

music and settle with Ingrid and A.J. when his ‘Life and

Times’ tour ended. In a letter to Ingrid that arrived after

his death, Croce told her that he had decided to quit

music and wanted to write short stories and movie scripts

as a career and withdraw from public life.

On the night of Thursday, September 20, 1973, during

Croce’s ‘Life and Times’ tour, which had been scheduled

for 45 dates, and the day before his ABC single “I Got a

Name” was released, Croce and five others were killed

when their chartered Beechcraft E18S crashed shortly

after takeoff from the Natchitoches Regional Airport in

Natchitoches, Louisiana. Croce was 30 years old. Others

killed in the crash were the pilot, Robert N. Elliott;

Croce’s bandmate Maury Muehleisen; the manager and

booking agent Kenneth D. Cortese; the road manager

Dennis Rast; and George Stevens, a comedian. The

crash occurred an hour after Croce had finished a concert

at Northwestern State University’s Prather Coliseum in

Natchitoches. They were headed for Sherman, Texas, for

a concert at Austin College.

An investigation by the National Transportation Safety

Board (NTSB) identified the probable cause as the

pilot’s failure to see obstructions because of physical

impairment and fog that had reduced his vision. The

57-year-old pilot suffered from severe coronary artery

disease and had run three miles to the airport from a

motel. He had an ATP certificate, 14,290 hours’ total

flight time, and 2,190 hours in the Beech 18 type airplane.

Croce was buried at Haym Salomon Memorial Park in

Frazer, Pennsylvania.

The album ‘I Got a Name’ was released on December

1, 1973. The posthumous release included three hits:

“Workin’ at the Car Wash Blues”, “I’ll Have to Say I Love

You in a Song” and the title song, which had been used as

the theme to the film The Last American Hero, released

two months prior to his death. “I’ll Have to Say I Love

You in a Song” reached No. 9 on the singles chart.

While ABC had not originally released the song “Time in

a Bottle” as a single, Croce’s untimely death lent its lyrics,

dealing with mortality and the wish to have more time,

an additional resonance. The song subsequently received

a large amount of airplay as an album track, and demand

for a single release built. When it was eventually issued

as one, it became Croce’s second and final No. 1 hit. After

the single had finished its two-week run at the top in

early January 1974, the album ‘You Don’t Mess Around

with Jim’ became No. 1 for five weeks. After seven weeks

of its release, ‘I Got a Name’ reached No. 2 behind You

Don’t Mess Around with Jim.

A greatest hits album titled Photographs & Memories

was released in 1974. Later posthumous releases have

included Home Recordings: Americana, The Faces I’ve

Been, Jim Croce: Classic Hits, Down the Highway, Have

You Heard: Jim Croce Live and DVD and CD releases of

his television performances. In 1990, Croce was inducted

into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Queen’s 1974 album Sheer Heart Attack included the

song “Bring Back That Leroy Brown”; its title and lyrics

reference Croce’s “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”.

In 2012, Ingrid Croce published a memoir about Croce

entitled I Got a Name: The Jim Croce Story.

In 1985, Ingrid Croce opened Croce’s Restaurant & Jazz

Bar, a project she had jokingly discussed with Croce, in

the historic Gaslamp Quarter in downtown San Diego.

She owned and managed it until its closure on December

31, 2013. In December 2013, Ingrid Croce opened

another restaurant, Croce’s Park West, on 5th Avenue in

the Bankers Hill neighborhood near Balboa Park. She

closed it in January 2016.

In 2022, a Pennsylvania Historical Marker honoring

Croce was installed outside his farmhouse in Lyndell.


jim croce discography

Jim Croce


TRACK LIST

1 Steel Rail Blues

2 Coal Tattoo

3 Texas Rodeo

4 Charley Green

5 Gunga Din

6 Hard Hearted Hanah

7 Sun Come Up

TRACK LIST

1 Age

2 Spin, Spin, Spin

3 I Am Who I Am

4 What Do People Do

5 Another DAy Another

Town

6 Vespers

TRACK LIST

1 You Don’t Mess Around

With Jim

2 Tomorrows Gonna Be A

Brighter Day

3 New York’s Not My Home

4 Hard Time Losin’ Man

5 Photographs & Memories

TRACK LIST

1 One Less Set Of Footsteps

2 Roller Derby Queen

3 Dreamin’ Again

4 Careful Man

5 Alabama Rain

6 A Good Time Man Like Me

7 Next time, This Time

TRACK LIST

1 I Got A Name

2 Lover’s Cross

3 Five Short Minutes

4 Age

5 Workin’ At The Car Wash

6 I’ll Have To Say I Love You

In A Song

8 The Blizzard

9 Running Maggie

10 Until It’s Time For Me To

Go

11 Big Fat Woman

FACETS

Discogs Link

7 Big Wheel

8 Just Another Day

9 The Next Man That I Marry

10 What The Hell

11 The Man That Is Me

JIM AND INGRID CROCE

Discogs link

6 Walkin’ Back To Georgia

7 Operator

8 Time In A Bottle

9 Rapid Boy

10 Box

11 A Long Time Ago

12 Hey Tomorrow

DON’T MESS AROUND

WITH JIM Discogs link

8 Bad, Bad Leroy Brown

9 These Dreams

10 Speedball Tucker

11 It Doesn’t Have To Be That

Way

LIFE AND TIMES

Discogs Link

7 Salon And Saloon

8 Thursday

9 Top Hat Bar And Grille

10 Recently

11 The Hard Way Every Time

I GOT A NAME

Discogs link

18 |

SFM

MAGAZINE

NICK

DRAKE

Nicholas Rodney Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November

1974) was an English musician. An accomplished

acoustic guitarist, Drake signed to Island Records

at the age of twenty while still a student at the University of

Cambridge. His debut album, Five Leaves Left, was released

in 1969, and was followed by two more albums, Bryter Layter

(1971) and Pink Moon (1972). While Drake did not reach

a wide audience during his brief lifetime, his music found

critical acclaim and he gradually received wider recognition

following his death.

Drake suffered from depression and was reluctant to perform

in front of live audiences. Upon completion of Pink Moon, he

withdrew from both performance and recording, retreating

to his parents’ home in rural Warwickshire. On 25 November

1974, Drake was found dead at the age of 26 due to an

overdose of antidepressants.

Drake’s music remained available through the mid-1970s,

but the 1979 release of the retrospective album Fruit Tree

allowed his back catalogue to be reassessed. Drake has come

to be credited as an influence on numerous artists, including

Robert Smith of the Cure, Peter Buck of R.E.M., Kate Bush,

Paul Weller, Aimee Mann, Beck, Robyn Hitchcock and the

Black Crowes. The first Drake biography in English appeared

in 1997; it was followed in 1999 by the documentary film “A

Stranger Among Us”

Drake was born in Burma on 19 June 1948, a few months after

the independence from the British Empire. Drake’s father,

Rodney Shuttleworth Drake (1908–1988), had moved to

Rangoon in the early 1930s as an engineer with the Bombay

Burmah Trading Corporation. In 1934, Rodney Drake met

Molly Lloyd (1915–1993), the daughter of a senior member

of the Indian Civil Service. He proposed marriage in 1936,

but the couple had to wait a year until she turned 21 before

her family allowed them to marry. In 1951, the Drake family

returned to England to live in Warwickshire, at their home,

Far Leys, in Tanworth-in-Arden. Rodney Drake worked from

1952 as the chairman and managing director of Wolseley

Engineering.

His older sister, Gabrielle Drake, became a successful screen

actress. Both of Drake’s parents wrote music. Recordings

of Molly’s songs, which have come to light since her death,

are similar in tone and outlook to the later work of her son;

they shared a similar fragile vocal delivery, and Gabrielle


Nick Drake

and biographer Trevor Dann noted a parallel foreboding and

fatalism in their music. Encouraged by his mother, Drake

learned to play piano at an early age and began to compose

songs which he recorded on a reel-to-reel tape recorder that

she kept in the family drawing-room. In 1957, Drake was sent

to Eagle House School, a preparatory boarding school near

Sandhurst, Berkshire. Five years later, he went to Marlborough

College, a public school in Wiltshire which had also been

attended by his father and grandfather. He developed an interest

in sport, becoming an accomplished 100- and 200-yard sprinter,

representing the school’s Open Team in 1966. He played rugby

for the C1 House team and was appointed a House Captain in

his last two terms. School friends recall Drake as having been

confident, often aloof, and “quietly authoritative”. His father

remembered:

“In one of his reports the headmaster said that none of us seemed

to know him very well. All the way through with Nick, people

didn’t know him very much.”

Drake played piano and learned clarinet and saxophone.

He formed a band, the “Perfumed Gardeners”, with four

schoolmates in 1964 or 1965. With Drake on piano and

occasional alto sax and vocals, the group performed Pye

International R&B covers and jazz standards, as well as

Yardbirds and Manfred Mann songs. Chris de Burgh asked

to join the band, but was rejected as his taste was “too poppy”.

His attention to his studies deteriorated and, although he had

accelerated a year in Eagle House, at Marlborough he neglected

his studies in favour of music. In 1963 he attained seven GCE

O-Levels, fewer than his teachers had been expecting, failing

“Physics with Chemistry”. In 1965, Drake paid £13 (equivalent

to £318 in 2023) for his first acoustic guitar, a Levin, and was

soon experimenting with open tuning and finger-picking

techniques.

In 1966, Drake enrolled at a tutorial college in Five Ways,

Birmingham, where he won a scholarship to study at

Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. As his place at Cambridge

was offered for September 1967, he had 10 months to fill, so he

decided to spend six months at the University of Aix-Marseille,

France, beginning in February 1967. There, he began to practise

guitar in earnest. To earn money, he would busk with friends

in the town centre. Drake began to smoke cannabis, and he

travelled with friends to Morocco; according to travelling

companion Richard Charkin, “that was where you got the best

pot”. There is some evidence that he began using LSD while in

Aix, although this is debated.

who went on to write many of the string and woodwind

arrangements for Drake’s first two albums. By this time, Drake

had discovered the British and American folk music scenes, and

was influenced by performers such as Bob Dylan, Donovan,

Van Morrison, Josh White and Phil Ochs (he later cited

Randy Newman and the Beach Boys as influences). He began

performing in local clubs and coffee houses around London,

and in December 1967, while playing at a five-day event at the

Roundhouse in Camden Town, made an impression on Ashley

Hutchings, bass player with Fairport Convention.Hutchings

recalls being impressed by Drake’s guitar skill, but even more so

by his image: “He looked like a star. He looked wonderful, he

seemed to be 7 ft tall.”

Hutchings introduced Drake to the 25-year-old American

producer Joe Boyd, owner of the production and management

company Witchseason Productions, which at the time was

licensed to Island Records. Boyd, who had discovered Fairport

Convention and introduced John Martyn and the Incredible

String Band to a mainstream audience, was a respected figure

in the UK folk scene. He and Drake formed an immediate

bond, and Boyd acted as a mentor to Drake throughout his

career. Impressed by a four-track demo recorded in Drake’s

college room in early 1968, Boyd offered Drake a management,

publishing, and production contract. Boyd recalled listening to

a reel-to-reel home recording Drake had made:

“Halfway through the first song, I felt this was pretty special. And

I called him up, and he came back in, and we talked, and I just

said, ‘I’d like to make a record.’ He stammered, ‘Oh, well, yeah.

Okay.’ Nick was a man of few words.”

According to Drake’s friend Paul Wheeler, Drake had already

decided not to complete his third year at Cambridge and was

excited about the contract.

Drake recorded his debut album ‘Five Leaves Left’ later in 1968,

with Boyd as producer. He had to skip lectures to travel by train

to the sessions in Sound Techniques studio, London. Inspired

by John Simon’s production of Leonard Cohen’s 1967 album

“Songs of Leonard Cohen”, Boyd was keen to record Drake’s

voice in a similar close and intimate style, “with no shiny pop

reverb”. He sought to include a string arrangement similar to

Simon’s, “without overwhelming ... or sounding cheesy”. To

provide backing, Boyd enlisted contacts from the London folk

rock scene, including Fairport Convention guitarist Richard

Thompson and Pentangle bassist Danny Thompson

Drake returned to England in 1967 and moved into his sister’s

flat in Hampstead, London. That October, he enrolled at

Cambridge to begin his studies in English literature. His tutors

found him bright but unenthusiastic and unwilling to apply

himself. One of his biographers, Trevor Dann, notes that he

had difficulty connecting with staff and fellow students, and

that matriculation photographs from this time portray a sullen

young man. Cambridge placed emphasis on its rugby and

cricket teams, but Drake had lost interest in sport, preferring to

stay in his college room smoking cannabis and playing music.

According to fellow student Brian Wells, “They were the rugger

buggers and we were the cool people smoking dope.”

In January 1968, Drake met Robert Kirby, a music student


21 |

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MAGAZINE

Initial recordings did not go well: the sessions were

irregular and rushed, taking place during studio downtime

borrowed from Fairport Convention’s production of their

“Unhalfbricking” album. Tension arose as to the direction of the

album: Boyd was an advocate of George Martin’s approach of

using the studio as an instrument, while Drake preferred a more

organic sound. Dann observed that Drake appears “tight and

anxious” on bootleg recordings from the sessions, and notes

a number of Boyd’s unsuccessful attempts at instrumentation.

Both were unhappy with arranger Richard Anthony Hewson’s

contribution, which they felt was too mainstream for Drake’s

songs. Drake suggested his college friend Robert Kirby as a

replacement. Though Boyd was sceptical about taking on an

inexperienced amateur music student, he was impressed by

Drake’s uncharacteristic assertiveness and agreed to a trial.

Kirby had previously presented Drake with some arrangements

for his songs. While Kirby provided most arrangements for the

album, its centrepiece, “River Man”, which echoed the tone of

Frederick Delius, was orchestrated by the veteran composer

Harry Robertson.

Post-production difficulties delayed the release by several

months, and the album was poorly marketed and supported. In

July, Melody Maker described “Five Leaves Left” as “poetic” and

“interesting”, though NME wrote in October that there was “not

nearly enough variety to make it entertaining”. It received little

radio play outside shows by more progressive BBC DJs such as

John Peel and Bob Harris. Drake was unhappy with the inlay

sleeve, which printed songs in the wrong running order and

reproduced verses omitted from the recorded versions. In an

interview, his sister Gabrielle said:

“He was very secretive. I knew he was making an album but I

didn’t know what stage of completion it was at until he walked

into my room and said, ‘There you are.’ He threw it onto the bed

and walked out!”

Drake ended his studies at Cambridge nine months before

graduation and in late 1969 moved to London. His father

remembered “writing him long letters, pointing out the

disadvantages of going away from Cambridge ... a degree was

a safety net, if you manage to get a degree, at least you have

something to fall back on; his reply to that was that a safety net

was the one thing he did not want.” Drake spent his first few

months in London drifting from place to place, occasionally

staying at his sister’s Kensington flat but usually sleeping on

friends’ sofas and floors. Eventually, in an attempt to bring some

stability and a telephone into Drake’s life, Boyd organised and

paid for a ground floor bedsit in Belsize Park, Camden.

On 5 August 1969, Drake pre-recorded four songs for the

BBC’s Night Ride show presented by John Peel (“Cello Song”,

“Three Hours”, “River Man” and “Time of No Reply” ), which

were broadcast after midnight on 6 August. Nick subsequently

recorded “Bryter Layter” for another BBC radio broadcast, in

April 1970. A month after the initial BBC recordings, on 24

September, he opened for Fairport Convention at the Royal

Festival Hall in London, followed by appearances at folk clubs

in Birmingham and Hull. According to the folk singer Michael

Chapman, the audiences did not appreciate Drake and wanted

“songs with choruses”. Chapman said:

“They completely missed the point. He didn’t say a word the entire

evening. It was actually quite painful to watch. I don’t know

what the audience expected, I mean, they must have known they

weren’t going to get sea-shanties and sing-alongs at a Nick Drake

gig!”

The experience reinforced Drake’s decision to retreat from

live appearances; the few concerts he did play were usually

brief, awkward, and poorly attended. Drake seemed reluctant

to perform and rarely addressed his audience. As many of his

songs were played in different tunings, he frequently paused to

retune between numbers. Although “Five Leaves Left” attracted

little publicity, Boyd was keen to build on what momentum

there was. Drake’s second album, “Bryter Layter” (1971), again

produced by Boyd and engineered by John Wood, introduced

a more upbeat, jazzier sound. Disappointed by his debut’s poor

sales, Drake sought to move away from his pastoral sound and

agreed to Boyd’s suggestions to include bass and drum tracks.

“It was more of a pop sound, I suppose,” Boyd later said. “I

imagined it as more commercial.” Like its predecessor, the

album featured musicians from Fairport Convention, as well

as contributions from John Cale on two songs: “Northern Sky”

and “Fly”. Trevor Dann noted that while sections of “Northern

Sky” sound more characteristic of Cale, the song was the closest

Drake came to a release with chart potential.

“Bryter Layter” was a commercial failure, and reviews were

again mixed; Record Mirror praised Drake as a “beautiful

guitarist—clean and with perfect timing, and accompanied

by soft, beautiful arrangements”, but Melody Maker described

the album as “an awkward mix of folk and cocktail jazz”. Soon

after its release, Boyd sold Witchseason to Island Records

and moved to Los Angeles to work with Warner Brothers to

develop film soundtracks. The loss of his mentor, coupled with

the album’s poor sales, led Drake into further depression. His

attitude to London had changed: he was unhappy living alone,

and visibly nervous and uncomfortable performing at a series of

concerts in early 1970. In June, Drake gave one of his final live

appearances at Ewell Technical College, Surrey. Ralph McTell,

who also performed that night, remembered:

“Nick was monosyllabic. At that particular gig he was very shy.

He did the first set and something awful must have happened. He

was doing his song ‘Fruit Tree’ and walked off halfway through it.”

Island Records urged Drake to promote “Bryter Layter” through

interviews, radio sessions, and live appearances. Drake refused.

Disappointed by the reaction to “Bryter Layter,” he turned

inwards and withdrew from family and friends.

Although Island had not expected a third album, Drake

approached Wood in October 1971 to begin work on what

would be his final release. Sessions took place over two nights,


Nick Drake

with only Drake and Wood in the studio. The bleak songs of

“Pink Moon” are short, and the eleven-track album lasts only 28

minutes, a length described by Wood as “just about right. You

really wouldn’t want it to be any longer.” Drake had expressed

dissatisfaction with the sound of “Bryter Layter”, and believed

that the string, brass, and saxophone arrangements resulted in a

sound that was “too full, too elaborate”. Drake appears on “Pink

Moon” accompanied only by his own carefully recorded guitar

save for a piano overdub on the title track. Wood later said: “He

was very determined to make this very stark, bare record. He

definitely wanted it to be him more than anything. And I think,

in some ways, “Pink Moon” is probably more like Nick is than

the other two records.”

Drake delivered the tapes of “Pink Moon” to Chris Blackwell at

Island Records, contrary to a popular legend which claims that

he dropped them off at the receptionist’s desk without saying

a word. An advertisement for the album in Melody Maker in

February opened with

“Pink Moon—Nick Drake’s latest album: the first we heard of it

was when it was finished.”

“Pink Moon” sold fewer copies than its predecessors, although

it received some favourable reviews. In Zigzag, Connor

McKnight wrote:

“Nick Drake is an artist who never fakes. The album makes no

concession to the theory that music should be escapist. It’s simply

one musician’s view of life at the time, and you can’t ask for more

than that.”

Blackwell felt Pink Moon had the potential to bring Drake to

a mainstream audience; however, his staff were disappointed

by Drake’s unwillingness to promote it. A&R manager Muff

Winwood recalled “tearing his hair out” in frustration and said

that without Blackwell’s enthusiastic support “the rest of us

would have given him the boot”.[58] At Boyd’s insistence, Drake

agreed to an interview with Jerry Gilbert of Sounds Magazine.

[59] The “shy and introverted” Drake spoke of his dislike of live

appearances and little else.[60] “There wasn’t any connection

whatsoever,” Gilbert said. “I don’t think he made eye contact

with me once.”[60] Disheartened and convinced he would be

unable to write again, Drake retired from music. He toyed with

the idea of a different career and considered the army. His three

albums had together sold fewer than 4,000 copies.

In February 1973, Drake contacted John Wood, saying he was

ready to begin work on a fourth album. Boyd was in England

at the time and agreed to attend the recordings. The initial

session was followed by recordings in July 1974. In his 2006

autobiography, Boyd recalled being taken aback at Drake’s anger


and bitterness:

“He said that I had told him he was a genius, and others had

concurred. Why wasn’t he famous and rich? This rage must have

festered beneath that inexpressive exterior for years.”

Boyd and Wood noticed a deterioration in Drake’s

performance, requiring him to overdub his voice separately

over the guitar. However, the return to the Sound Techniques

studio raised Drake’s spirits; his mother recalled,

“We were so absolutely thrilled to think that Nick was happy

because there hadn’t been any happiness in Nick’s life for years.”

In 1971 Drake’s family persuaded him to visit a psychiatrist

at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. He was prescribed

antidepressants, but felt uncomfortable and embarrassed about

taking them, and tried to hide the fact from his friends. He

worried about their side effects and was concerned that they

would react with his regular cannabis use. By this time, Drake

was smoking what Kirby described as “unbelievable amounts”

of cannabis and exhibiting “the first signs of psychosis”. He

rarely left his flat, and then only to play an occasional concert or

to buy drugs. According to photographer Keith Morris, by 1971

Drake was a

“hunched, dishevelled figure, staring vacantly...ignoring the

overtures of a friendly labrador or gazing blankly over Hampstead

Heath.”

His sister recalled: “This was a very bad time. He once said to

me that everything started to go wrong from [this] time on, and I

think that was when things started to go wrong.”

In the months following “Pink Moon’s” release, Drake became

increasingly asocial and distant. He returned to live at his

parents’ home in Tanworth-in-Arden, and while he resented

the regression, he accepted that it was necessary. “I don’t like it

at home,” he told his mother, “but I can’t bear it anywhere else.”

His return was often difficult for his family, as Gabrielle said:

“Good days in my parents’ home were good days for Nick, and

bad days were bad days for Nick. And that was what their life

revolved around, really.”

Drake lived a frugal existence; his only income was a

£20-a-week retainer from Island Records (equivalent to £306

in 2023). At one point he could not afford a new pair of shoes.

He would disappear for days, sometimes arriving unannounced

at friends’ houses, uncommunicative and withdrawn. Robert

Kirby described a typical visit:

“He would arrive and not talk, sit down, listen to music, have a

smoke, have a drink, sleep there the night, and two or three days

later he wasn’t there, he’d be gone. And three months later he’d be

back.”

Nick’s supervision partner at Cambridge, John Venning,

saw him on an underground train in London and felt he was

seriously depressed:

“There was something about him which suggested that he would

have looked straight through me and not registered me at all. So I

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turned around.”

Drake was a close personal friend of fellow folk musicians John

and Beverley Martyn, and visited them regularly when they

lived in London and subsequently Hastings. Martyn later wrote

the title song of his 1973 album “Solid Air” about Drake and

described him, in this period, as the most withdrawn person

he had ever met. Drake would borrow his mother’s car and

drive for hours without purpose, until he ran out of petrol and

had to ring his parents to ask to be collected. Friends recalled

the extent to which his appearance had changed. During

particularly bleak periods, he refused to wash his hair or cut

his nails. Early in 1972, Drake had a nervous breakdown, and

was hospitalised for five weeks. He was initially believed to have

major depression, although his former therapist suggested he

had schizophrenia.

By late 1974, Drake’s weekly retainer from Island had ceased,

and his depression meant that he remained in contact with

only a few close friends. He had tried to stay in touch with

Sophia Ryde, whom he had met in London in 1968. Ryde has

been described by Drake’s biographers as “the nearest thing”

to a girlfriend in his life, but she used the description “best girl

friend”. In a 2005 interview, Ryde said that a week before he

died, she had sought to end the relationship:

“I couldn’t cope with it. I asked him for some time. And I never

saw him again.”

As with the relationship he had shared with fellow folk

musician Linda Thompson, it appears that Drake’s relationship

with Ryde was not consummated. John Martyn claimed to have

had a heated argument with Drake around a month before the

latter’s death which was never reconciled. Phill Brown later said

that this “destroyed” Martyn.

Drake’s perceived inability to connect has led to speculation

about his sexuality. Boyd detected a virginal quality in Drake’s

lyrics and music and notes that he never knew of him behaving

in a sexual way with anyone, male or female. Ian MacDonald,

who was distantly acquainted with Drake at Cambridge, wrote

that he

“was probably fonder of sex than has been suggested so far, but

otherwise he held aloof from worldly attachment”.

The claim that Drake died a virgin has been falsely attributed to

his sister Gabrielle, who responded that “I never said any such

thing because I don’t know! I have no idea. And I don’t mind what

he was.”

During the early hours of 25 November 1974, Drake died in his

bedroom at Far Leys. He had gone to bed early after spending

the afternoon visiting a friend. His mother said that around

dawn he left his room for the kitchen. His family had heard him

do this many times before, and presumed he was eating cereal.

He returned to his room a short while later, where it is believed

that he took an overdose of amitriptyline, an antidepressant.

Drake had been accustomed to keeping his own hours; he

frequently had difficulty sleeping and often stayed up through

the night playing and listening to music, then slept late into the

following morning. His mother later said:

“I never used to disturb him at all. But it was about 12 o’clock,

and I went in, because really it seemed it was time he got up. And

he was lying across the bed. The first thing I saw was his long, long

legs.”

According to Rodney Drake’s personal diary, Nick’s body was

first discovered by their housemaid who looked in on Drake

around 11:45 and called out to Molly who went in to discover

he was dead.There was no suicide note, although a letter

addressed to Ryde was found close to his bed. At the inquest

on 18 December, the coroner stated that the cause of death

was “Acute amitriptyline poisoning—self-administered when

suffering from a depressive illness” and concluded a verdict of

suicide The inquest revealed “a minimum of 35 [amitriptyline]

pills’ worth from stomach samples and up to a further 50 from

blood samples”.

On 2 December 1974, after a service in the Church of St

Mary Magdalene, Tanworth-in-Arden, Drake’s remains were

cremated at Solihull Crematorium and his ashes interred

under an oak tree in the church’s graveyard. The funeral was

attended by around fifty mourners, including friends from

Marlborough, Aix, Cambridge, London, Witchseason, and

Tanworth. Referring to Drake’s tendency to compartmentalise

relationships, Brian Wells observed that many met each other

for the first time that morning. His mother recalled “a lot of his

young friends came up here. We’d never met many of them.”

Boyd wrote that “the roots of Nick’s harmonies” were in his

mother’s piano playing, which drew from West End acts such as

Noël Coward, Sandy Wilson, and Julian Slade. As a teenager,

Drake learned songs by Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and Peter,

Paul and Mary on guitar, having been particularly affected by

Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall”. Boyd additionally listed

Django Reinhardt, Miles Davis, Bert Jansch, and Donovan as

influences and speculated that he was familiar with bossa nova,

specifically with the Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto. Drake

asked Robertson to write an arrangement for “River Man” in the

vein of Frederick Delius. According to Kirby, the instrumental

tracks on “Bryter Layter” were inspired by the Beach Boys’

“Pet Sounds” and the 5th Dimension’s “The Magic Garden.”

Similarities have been noted between Drake’s compositions and

the work of Johann Sebastian Bach; Drake was listening to

Bach’s “Brandenburg Concertos” on the night he died.

Drake was obsessive about practising his guitar technique and

would stay up through the night writing and experimenting

with alternative tunings. His mother remembered hearing

him “bumping around at all hours. I think he wrote his nicest

melodies in the early morning hours.” Self-taught, he achieved

his guitar style through the use of alternative tunings to create

cluster chords, which are difficult to achieve on a guitar using

standard tuning. Similarly, many of his vocal melodies rest on

the extensions of chords, not just on notes of the triad. He sang

in the baritone range, often quietly and with little projection.

Drake was drawn to the works of William Blake, William

Butler Yeats, and Henry Vaughan, whose influences are

reflected in his lyrics. He also employed a series of elemental

symbols and codes, largely drawn from nature. The moon, stars,

sea, rain, trees, sky, mist, and seasons are all commonly used,

influenced in part by his rural upbringing. Images related to

summer figure centrally in his early work; from “Bryter Layter”

on, his language is more autumnal, evoking a season commonly

used to convey senses of loss and sorrow. Throughout, Drake


Nick Drake

writes with detachment, more as an observer than a participant,

a point of view Rolling Stone’s Anthony DeCurtis described “as

if he were viewing his life from a great, unbridgeable distance”.

Kirby described Drake’s lyrics as a “series of extremely vivid,

complete observations, almost like a series of epigrammatic

proverbs”, though he doubts that Drake saw himself as “any

sort of poet”. Instead, Kirby believes that Drake’s lyrics were

crafted to “complement and compound a mood that the melody

dictates in the first place”.

There were no documentaries or compilation albums in

the wake of Drake’s death. His public profile remained low

throughout the 1970s, although his name appeared occasionally

in the music press. By this time, his parents were receiving

an increasing number of fans at the family home. Following a

1975 NME article by Nick Kent, Island Records said they had

no plans to reissue Drake’s albums, but in 1979 Rob Partridge

joined Island Records as press officer and commissioned the

release of the “Fruit Tree” box set. The release compiled Drake’s

three studio albums, the four tracks he recorded with Wood

in 1974 and an extensive biography written by the American

journalist Arthur Lubow. Although sales were poor, Island

Records did not delete the albums from its catalogue.

By the mid-1980s, Drake was being cited as an influence by

musicians such as Kate Bush, Paul Weller, the Black Crowes,

Peter Buck of R.E.M. and Robert Smith of ‘the Cure’. Drake

gained further exposure in 1985 when the Dream Academy

included a dedication to Drake on the sleeve of its hit single

“Life in a Northern Town”. In 1986 a biography of Drake,

by Gorm Henrik Rasmussen, was published in Danish; an

updated version with new interviews was published in English

in 2012. By the end of the 1980s his name was appearing

regularly in newspapers and music magazines in the UK, where

he frequently was cast in the role of the “doomed romantic

hero”. The earliest Drake profile in a U.S. magazine was the

article “Hanging On A Star” by the AllMusic critic Peter Kurtz,

which appeared in the 3 September 1993 issue of Goldmine.

The first biography of Drake in English was published in

November 1997 by Patrick Humphries. On 20 June 1998,

BBC Radio 2 broadcast a documentary, “Fruit Tree: The Nick

Drake Story”, featuring interviews with Boyd, Wood, Gabrielle

and Molly Drake, Paul Wheeler, Robert Kirby, and Ashley

Hutchings, and narrated by Danny Thompson. In early 1999,

BBC Two broadcast a 40-minute documentary, “A Stranger

Among Us—In Search of Nick Drake”. The following year,

Dutch director Jeroen Berkvens released the documentary “A

Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake”, featuring interviews

with Boyd, Gabrielle Drake, Wood and Kirby. Later that year,

The Guardian named “Bryter Layter” the best alternative album

of all time.

In 1999, “Pink Moon” was used in a Volkswagen commercial,

boosting Drake’s US album sales from about 6,000 copies in

1999 to 74,000 in 2000. The Los Angeles Times saw this as

an example of how, following the consolidation of US radio

stations, previously unknown music was finding audiences

through advertising. Fans used the filesharing software Napster

to circulate digital copies of Drake’s music. According to The

Atlantic, “The chronic shyness and mental illness that made

it hard for Drake to compete with 1970s showmen like Elton

John and David Bowie didn’t matter when his songs were


being pulled one by one out of the ether and played late at night

in a dorm room.”

Over the following years, Drake’s songs appeared in

soundtracks of “quirky, youthful” films such as ‘The Royal

Tenenbaums,’ ‘Serendipity’ and ‘Garden State’. “Made to Love

Magic”, an album of outtakes and remixes released by Island

Records in 2004, far exceeded Drake’s lifetime sales. The

American musician Duncan Sheik released an album of songs

inspired by Drake, “Phantom Moon”, in 2001. In 2017, Kele

Okereke cited “Pink Moon” as an influence on his third solo

album, “Fatherland”. In November 2014, Gabrielle Drake

published a companion to her brother’s music. An authorised

biography by Richard Morton Jack was published in June 2023,

with a foreword by Gabrielle Drake. Other contemporary

artists influenced by Drake include José González, Bon Iver,

Iron & Wine, Alexi Murdoch, Steven Wilson and Philip

Selway of “Radiohead”.

In 2023, Chrysalis Records released “The Endless Coloured

Ways – The Songs of Nick Drake”, a tribute album featuring

artists including Selway, Liz Phair and Feist. In 1994, the

Rolling Stone journalist Paul Evans said Drake’s music “throbs

with an aching beauty” similar to the 1968 Van Morrison

album “Astral Weeks”. According to the AllMusic critic Richie

Unterberger, Drake was a

“singular talent” who “produced several albums of chilling,

somber beauty”, now “recognized as peak achievements of both

the British folk-rock scene and the entire rock singer/songwriter

genre”.

Unterberger felt that Drake’s following spanned generations

“in the manner of the young Romantic poets of the 19th century

who died before their time ... Baby boomers who missed him

the first time around found much to revisit once they discovered

him, and his pensive loneliness speaks directly to contemporary

alternative rockers who share his sense of morose alienation.”

The American critic Robert Christgau wrote in Christgau’s

Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981):

“Drake’s jazzy folk-pop is admired by a lot of people who have no

use for Kenny Rankin, and I prefer to leave open the possibility

that he’s yet another English mystic romantic I’m too set in my

ways to hear.”

In 2000, the British critic Ian MacDonald wrote that

“the mantle of romance shrouding Nick Drake’s story in

retrospect is undeniably alluring. But its attraction wouldn’t

survive scrutiny if the work didn’t hold up: if fellow songwriters

weren’t so intrigued by the forms and changes, if admiring fellow

guitarists didn’t puzzle at the strange tunings and extraordinary

finger-picking techniques, if singers weren’t drawn to the sighing

melodies and cryptic lyrics.”

Drake’s music featured in a BBC Prom concert titled “Nick

Drake: an Orchestral Celebration”, at the Royal Albert Hall,

on 24 July 2024 when some of his songs were performed by a

selection of artists.

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MAGAZINE

lead

belly

Huddie William Ledbetter January 1888 or 1889 –

December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name

Lead Belly, was an American folk and blues singer

notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string

guitar, and the folk standards he introduced, including his

renditions of “In the Pines” (also known as “Where Did You

Sleep Last Night?”), “Pick a Bale of Cotton”, “Goodnight, Irene”,

“Midnight Special”, “Cotton Fields”, and “Boll Weevil”.

Lead Belly usually played a twelve-string guitar, but he

also played the piano, mandolin, harmonica, violin, and

windjammer. In some of his recordings, he sang while clapping

his hands or stomping his foot.

Lead Belly’s songs covered a wide range of genres, including

gospel music, blues, and folk music, as well as a number of

topics, including women, liquor, prison life, racism, cowboys,

work, sailors, cattle herding, and dancing. He also wrote songs

about people in the news, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt,

Adolf Hitler, Jean Harlow, Jack Johnson, the Scottsboro Boys

and Howard Hughes. Lead Belly was posthumously inducted

into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Louisiana

Music Hall of Fame in 2008.

Though many releases credit him as “Leadbelly”, he wrote his

name as “Lead Belly”. This is the spelling on his tombstone and

is used by the Lead Belly Foundation.

The younger of two children, Lead Belly was born Huddie

William Ledbetter to Sallie Brown and Wesley Ledbetter

on a plantation near Mooringsport, Louisiana. On his World

War II draft registration card in 1942, he gave his birthplace as

Freeport, Louisiana (“Shreveport”). There is uncertainty over

his precise date and year of birth. The Lead Belly Foundation

gives his birth date as January 20, 1889, his grave marker

gives the year 1889, and his 1942 draft registration card states

January 23, 1889.

These records were made by census takers, and ages and dates

were defined in terms of the census date. The 1900 United

States census lists “Hudy Ledbetter” as 12 years old, born

January 1888, and the 1910 and 1930 censuses also give his

age as corresponding to a birth in 1888. The 1940 census lists

his age as 51, with information supplied by wife Martha. The


Lead Belly

books Blues: A Regional Experience by Eagle and LeBlanc and

Encyclopedia of Louisiana Musicians by Tomko give January

23, 1888, while the Encyclopedia of the Blues gives January 20,

1888.

His parents had cohabited for several years. They married on

February 26, 1888, perhaps after his birth that year. When

Huddie was five years old, the family settled in Bowie County,

Texas.

By the 1910 census of Harrison County, Texas, “Hudy

Ledbetter” was living next door to his parents in a separate

household with his first wife, Aletha “Lethe” Henderson.

Aletha is recorded as age 19 and married one year. Others say

she was 15 when they married in 1908.

Ledbetter received his first instrument in Texas, an accordion,

from his uncle Terrell. By his early twenties, having fathered at

least two children, Ledbetter left home to make his living as a

guitarist and occasional laborer.

By 1903, Huddie was already a “musicianer”, a singer and

guitarist of some note. He performed to Shreveport audiences

in St. Paul’s Bottoms, a notorious red-light district. He began

to develop his own style of music after exposure to the various

musical influences on Shreveport’s Fannin Street, a row of

saloons, brothels, and dance halls in the Bottoms. This area is

now referred to as Ledbetter Heights.

Between 1915 and 1939, Ledbetter served several prison

and jail terms in Louisiana for a variety of criminal charges.

Notably, in 1918 under the name of Walter Boyd, he was

convicted of murder in Texas and sentenced to 30 years in

prison. After writing a song pleading for clemency Ledbetter

was pardoned by Governor Pat Morris Neff in 1925. Thirty

years after starting his music career, he was “discovered” in

Angola Penitentiary during a 1933 visit by folklorists John

Lomax and his son Alan Lomax. They were recording varieties

of local music in the South as a project to preserve traditional

music for the Library of Congress. This was one of numerous

cultural projects during the Great Depression.

Deeply impressed by Ledbetter’s vibrant tenor and extensive

repertoire, the Lomaxes recorded him in 1933 on portable

aluminum disc recording equipment for the Library of

Congress project. They returned with new and better

equipment in July 1934, recording hundreds of his songs.

While in prison, Lead Belly may have first heard the traditional

prison song “Midnight Special”; his versions became famous.

On August 1, Ledbetter was released after having served nearly

all of his minimum sentence. The Lomaxes had taken a record

and a petition seeking his release to Louisiana Governor Oscar

K. Allen at his urgent request. It included his signature song,

“Goodnight Irene”.

A prison official later wrote to John Lomax denying that

Ledbetter’s singing had anything to do with his release from

prison. (State prison records confirm he was eligible for this

due to good behavior.) But, both Ledbetter and the Lomaxes

believed that the record they had taken to the governor had

helped gain his release from prison.

Ledbetter returned to a state in the midst of the Great


Depression, and jobs were scarce. In September, needing

regular work to satisfy parole, he asked John Lomax to take

him on as a paid driver. For three months, he assisted the

67-year-old in his folk song collecting around the South. Son

Alan Lomax was ill and did not accompany his father on this

trip.

In December 1934, Lead Belly participated in a “smoker”

(group sing) at a Modern Language Association meeting at

Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, where the senior Lomax

had a prior lecture engagement. He was written up in the press

as a convict who had sung his way out of prison. On New Year’s

Day, 1935, the pair arrived in New York City, where Lomax was

scheduled to meet with his publisher, Macmillan, about a new

collection of folk songs. The newspapers were eager to write

about the “singing convict”. Time magazine made one of its

first ‘March of Time’ newsreels about him. Lead Belly attained

fame—although not fortune.

On January 23–25, 1935, Lead Belly had the first of several

recording sessions with American Record Corporation (ARC).

These sessions, combined with two others on February 5 and

March 25, yielded 53 takes. Of those recordings, only six

were ever released during Lead Belly’s lifetime. ARC decided

to simultaneously release these songs on six different labels

they owned: Banner, Melotone, Oriole, Perfect, Romeo, and

Paramount. These recordings achieved little commercial

success. Part of the reason for the poor sales may have been

that ARC released only his blues songs rather than the folk

songs for which he would later become better known. Lead

Belly continued to struggle financially. Like many performers,

what income he made during his career came from touring, not

from record sales. In February 1935, he married his girlfriend,

Martha Promise, who came North from Louisiana to join him

ho had a management contract with Lead Belly, was not able to

arrange concert dates. In March 1935, Lead Belly accompanied

John Lomax on a previously scheduled two-week lecture tour

of colleges and universities in the Northeast, culminating at

Harvard.

At the end of the month, John Lomax decided he could no

longer work with Lead Belly. He gave him and Martha enough

money to return by bus to Louisiana. He also gave Martha

the money her husband had earned during three months

of performing, but in installments, on the pretext that Lead

Belly would spend it all on drinking if he was given a lump

sum. From Louisiana, Lead Belly successfully sued Lomax

for both the full amount of his earnings and release from his

management contract. The quarrel was bitter, with hard feelings

on both sides. In the midst of the legal wrangling, Lead Belly

wrote to Lomax proposing they team up again, but this did not

happen. The book that the Lomaxes published about Lead Belly

in the fall of 1936 proved a commercial failure.

In January 1936, Lead Belly returned to New York on his own,

without John Lomax, in an attempted comeback. He performed

twice a day at Harlem’s Apollo Theater during the Easter

season. He developed a live dramatic recreation of the ‘March

of Time’ newsreel (itself a recreation), which was about his

prison encounter with John Lomax, when he was still wearing

uniform stripes. By this time he was no longer associated with

Lomax.

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MAGAZINE

Life magazine ran a three-page article titled “Lead Belly: Bad

Nigger Makes Good Minstrel” in its issue of April 19, 1937.

It included a full-page, color (rare in those days) picture of

him sitting on grain sacks playing his guitar and singing. Also

included was a striking photograph of his wife Martha Promise

(identified in the article as his manager). Other photos showed

Lead Belly’s hands playing the guitar (with the caption “these

hands once killed a man”), Texas Governor Pat M. Neff, and

the “ramshackle” Texas State Penitentiary. The article attributes

both of his pardons to his singing his petitions to the governors,

who were so moved that they pardoned him. The article closed

by saying that Lead Belly “may well be on the brink of a new

and prosperous period.”

Lead Belly failed to stir the enthusiasm of Harlem audiences.

Instead, he attained success playing at concerts and benefits for

an audience of folk music aficionados. He developed his own

style of singing and explaining his repertoire in the context of

Southern black culture, having learned from his participation

in Lomax’s college lectures. He was especially successful with

his repertoire of children’s game songs (as a younger man in

Louisiana he had sung regularly at children’s birthday parties

in the black community). Black novelist Richard Wright wrote

about him as a heroic figure in the Daily Worker, of which

Wright was the Harlem editor. The two men became personal

friends. In contrast to Wright, who was then a communist,

commentators described Lead Belly as apolitical. He was known

to support Wendell Willkie, the centrist Republican candidate

for president, for whom he wrote a campaign song. Lead Belly

also wrote the song “The Bourgeois Blues”, which has classconscious

and anti-racist lyrics.

In 1939, Lead Belly was convicted and sentenced again to

prison. Alan Lomax, then 24, took him under his wing

and helped raise money for his legal expenses, dropping

out of graduate school to do so. After gaining release, Lead

Belly appeared as a regular on Lomax and Nicholas Ray’s

groundbreaking CBS radio show “Back Where I Come From”,

broadcast nationwide.

He also performed in nightclubs with Josh White, becoming

a fixture in New York City’s surging folk music scene and

befriending the likes of Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Woody

Guthrie, and Pete Seeger, all fellow performers on “Back

Where I Come From”.

In 1940, Lead Belly recorded for RCA Victor, one of the biggest

record companies at the time. These sessions in California

were held on June 15 and 17, with the Golden Gate Quartet

accompanying some songs. The recordings resulted in the

album, “The Midnight Special” and Other Southern Prison

Songs, being issued by Victor Records. The album included

sheets with extensive notes and song texts prepared by Alan

Lomax. According to Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell,

“it was one of the finest public presentations of Leadbelly’s music:

well recorded, well advertised, well documented. And the album

justified its reputation as a landmark in African American folk

music.”

Several of the recordings from these sessions were also issued as

singles by Bluebird Records.

In 1941, Lead Belly was introduced to Moses “Moe” Asch

by mutual friends. Asch owned a recording studio and small

record label, which mainly released folk records for the local

New York City market. He later founded ‘Folkways Records’.

Between 1941 and 1944, Lead Belly released three albums under

the Asch Recordings label. During the first half of the 1940s,

Lead Belly also recorded for the Library of Congress. Lead Belly

frequently performed Southern Blues at concerts by Si-lan

Chen.

In 1944 he went to California, where he recorded strong

sessions for Capitol Records. He lodged with a studio guitar

player on Merrywood Drive in Laurel Canyon. Later he

returned to New York City. In 1949, Lead Belly had a regular

radio show, “Folk Songs of America”, broadcast on station

WNYC in New York, on Henrietta Yurchenco’s show on

Sunday nights. Later in the year he began his first European

tour with a trip to France, but fell ill before its completion and

was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or

Lou Gehrig’s disease (a motor neuron disease). Lead Belly was

the first American country blues musician to achieve success

in Europe. His final concert was at the University of Texas at

Austin in a tribute to his former mentor, John Lomax, who had

died the previous year. Martha also performed at that concert,

singing spirituals with Lead Belly.

Ledbetter died later that year in New York City. He was buried

in the Shiloh Baptist Church cemetery, in Mooringsport,

Louisiana, 8 miles (13 km) west of Blanchard, in Caddo Parish.

He is honored with a statue across from the Caddo Parish

Courthouse, in Shreveport. Ledbetter’s niece, activist Greshun

De Bouse, founded ‘National Huddie Ledbetter Day’ (August

1 annually), and received proclamations from the mayors of

Oil City, LA (where Lead Belly worked) and Shreveport, LA in

2023.

Lead Belly was imprisoned multiple times beginning in 1915,

when he was convicted of carrying a pistol, and sentenced to

time on the Harrison County chain gang. He later escaped and

found work in nearby Bowie County under the assumed name

of Walter Boyd.

In January 1918, he was imprisoned at the Imperial Farm (now

Central Unit) in Sugar Land, Texas, after being convicted of

killing a relative, Will Stafford, in a fight over a woman. During

his second prison term, Lead Belly was stabbed in the neck by

another inmate. (The wound resulted in a fearsome scar the

musician covered with a bandana). Lead Belly nearly killed his

attacker at the time with his own knife.

In 1925, he was pardoned and released after writing a song to

Texas Governor Pat Morris Neff seeking his freedom, having

served the minimum seven years of a 7-to-35-year sentence. He

was credited with good behavior, which included entertaining

the guards and fellow prisoners. He also appealed for mercy

to Neff ’s known religious beliefs. It was a testament to his

persuasive powers, as Neff had run for governor on a pledge

not to issue pardons (most Southern judicial systems had no

provision for approving parole from prison). After meeting

Lead Belly in 1924, Neff returned to the prison several times

after he was incarcerated again. He brought guests to the prison

on Sunday picnics to hear Ledbetter perform.


Lead Belly

In 1930, Ledbetter was sentenced to Louisiana State

Penitentiary (nicknamed “Angola”) after a summary trial for

attempted homicide for stabbing a man in a fight. In 1939, Lead

Belly served his final jail term for assault after stabbing a man in

a fight in Manhattan.

There are several conflicting stories about how Ledbetter

acquired the nickname “Lead Belly”, it probably happened

while he was in prison. Some claim his fellow inmates called

him “Lead Belly” as a play on his family name and his physical

toughness. Others say he earned the name after being wounded

in the stomach with buckshot. Another theory is that the name

refers to his ability to drink moonshine, the homemade liquor

that Southern farmers, black and white, made to supplement

their incomes.

Blues singer Big Bill Broonzy thought it came from a supposed

tendency to lie about as if “with a stomach weighted down by

lead” in the shade when the chain gang was supposed to be

working.

However, his strong local accent is most likely to have led to

the nickname. Huddie William Ledbetter from Shreveport,

became Huddie Weem Leadbelly from Freeport.

Lead Belly styled himself “King of the Twelve-String Guitar”,

and despite his use of other instruments, such as the accordion,

the most enduring image of Lead Belly as a performer is

wielding his unusually large Stella twelve-string. This guitar had

a slightly longer scale length than a standard guitar, increasing

the tension on the instrument, which, given the added tension

of the six extra strings, meant that a trapeze-style tailpiece was

needed to help resist bridge lifting. It had slotted tuners and

ladder bracing.

Lead Belly played with finger picks much of the time, using a

thumb pick to provide walking bass lines described as “tricky”

and “inventive”, and occasionally to strum. This technique,

combined with low tunings and heavy strings, gives many of

his recordings a piano-like sound. Scholars have suggested

much of his guitar playing was inspired equally by barrelhouse

piano and the Mexican Bajo Sexto, a type of guitar that he

encountered in Texas and Louisiana.

Lead Belly’s tunings are debated by both modern and

contemporary musicians and blues enthusiasts alike, but it

seems to be a down-tuned variant of standard tuning. Footage

of his chording is scarce, so trying to decode his chords is

difficult. It is likely that he tuned his guitar strings relative

to one another, so that the actual notes shifted as the strings

wore. Such down-tuning was a common technique before the

development of truss rods, and was intended to prevent the

instrument’s neck from warping.

Lead Belly’s playing style was popularized by Pete Seeger, who

adopted the twelve-string guitar in the 1950s and released an

instructional LP and book using Lead Belly as an exemplar

of technique. In an April 1963 interview on ‘Folk Music

Worldwide’, Seeger characterized Lead Belly as his silent

mentor:

“Yeah, and when I stop to think of it, he was my main music

teacher although he didn’t know it. I’d follow him around and


watch his hands closely. I admired him so.”

In some of the recordings in which Lead Belly accompanied

himself, he made an unusual type of grunt between his verses,

sometimes described as “haah!” Songs such as “Looky Looky

Yonder”, “Take This Hammer”, “Linin’ Track”, and “Julie Ann

Johnson” feature this unusual vocalization. In “Take This

Hammer”, Lead Belly explained: “Every time the men say,

‘Haah,’ the hammer falls. The hammer rings, and we swing, and

we sing.” The “haah” sound can also be heard in work chants

sung by Southern railroad section workers, “gandy dancers”,

in which it was used to coordinate work crews as they laid and

maintained tracks.

In 1976, a biopic titled Leadbelly was released, directed by

Gordon Parks and featuring Roger E. Mosley as Lead Belly.

In 1950, The Weavers’ recording of their arrangement of Lead

Belly’s “Irene”, released as “Good Night, Irene”, was the first folk

song to reach #1 on the U.S. charts, selling some two million

copies.

Kurt Cobain promoted the legacy of Lead Belly, and some

modern rock audiences owe their familiarity with Lead Belly to

Nirvana’s performance of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night”

(which Lead Belly called “In the Pines”) on a televised concert

later released as MTV Unplugged in New York. Cobain refers

to his attempt to convince David Geffen to purchase Lead

Belly’s guitar for him in an interval before the song is played.

In his notebooks, Cobain listed “Lead Belly’s Last Session Vol.

1” as one of the 50 albums most influential in the formation of

Nirvana’s sound. It was included in NME’s “The 100 Greatest

Albums You’ve Never Heard list”.

Ram Jam, an American rock band, had a hit with the song

“Black Betty”, which they adapted into a rock song in 1977.

“Black Betty” was recorded by Lead Belly in 1939.

Bob Dylan credits Lead Belly for getting him into folk music. In

his Nobel Prize lecture, Dylan said

“somebody – somebody I’d never seen before – handed me a Lead

Belly record with the song ‘Cotton Fields’ on it. And that record

changed my life right then and there. Transported me into a

world I’d never known. It was like an explosion went off. Like I’d

been walking in darkness and all of the sudden the darkness was

illuminated. It was like somebody laid hands on me. I must have

played that record a hundred times.”

Dylan also pays homage to him in “Song to Woody” on his selftitled

debut album.

Lead Belly recordings were instrumental in starting the British

skiffle revival, which in turn produced several musicians

prominent during the British Invasion. Lonnie Donegan’s

recording of “Rock Island Line”, released as a single in late 1955,

signaled the start of the skiffle craze. George Harrison of The

Beatles was quoted as saying,

“if there was no Lead Belly, there would have been no Lonnie

Donegan; no Lonnie Donegan, no Beatles. Therefore no Lead

Belly, no Beatles.”

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MAGAZINE

1935 A SIDE -ALL OUT AND DOWN

B SIDE - PACKING TRUNK

DISCOGS LINK

lead belly d

1945 A SIDE - ROCK ISLAND LINE

B SIDE - EAGLE ROCK RAG

DISCOGS LINK

1935 A SIDE - FOUR DAY WORRY BLUES

B SIDE - NEW BLACK SNAKE MOAN

DISCOGS LINK

1936 A SIDE - BECKY DEEM SHE WAS A GAMB-

LIN’ GIRL

B SIDE - PIG MEAT PAPA

DISCOGS LINK

1946 A SIDE - YELLOW GAL

B SIDE - WHEN THE BOYS WERE ON THE

WEST PLAIN

DISCOGS LINK

1946 A SIDE - ROBERTA

B SIDE - JOHN HARDY

DISCOGS LINK

1940 A SIDE - SAIL ON, LITTLE GIRL, SAIL ON

B SIDE - DON’T YOU LOVE YOUR DADDY

NO

MORE

DISCOGS LINK

1946 SIDE A - WHERE DID YOU SLEEP LAST

NIGHT

SIDE B - IN NEW ORLEANS

DISCOGS LINK

1940 A SIDE - ALBERTA

B SIDE - T.B. BLUES

DISCOGS LINK

1940 A SIDE - EASY RIDER

B SIDE - WORRIED BLUES

DISCOGS LINK

1941 A SIDE - ROBERTA

B SIDE - THE RED CROSS STORE BLUES

DISCOGS LINK

1941 A SIDE - NEW YORK CITY

B SIDE - YOU CAN’T LOSE-A ME CHOLLY

DISCOGS LINK

1941 A SIDE - GOOD MORNING BLUES

B SIDE - LEAVING BLUES

DISCOGS LINK

1946 SIDE A - BILL BRADY

SIDE B - PRETTY FLOWERS IN YOUR

BACK YARD

DISCOGS LINK

1946 SIDE A - EASY RIDER

SIDE B - PIGMEAT

DISCOGS LINK

1947 SIDE A - SWEET MARY BLUES

SIDE B - GRASSHOPPERS IN MY PILLOW

DISCOGS LINK

1948 SIDE A - IRENE

SIDE B - BACKWATER BLUES

DISCOGS LINK

1948 SIDE A - DIGGING MY POTATOES

SIDE B - DEFENSE BLUES

DISCOGS LINK

1942 A SIDE - I’M ON MY LAST GO ROUND

B SIDE THIRSTY MAMA BLUES

DISCOGS LINK


Lead Belly

iscography

1939

NEGRO

SINFUL

SONGS

DISCOGS

LINK

1044

SONGS BY

LEAD BELLY

DISCOGS

LINK

1940

THE MIDNIGHT

SPECIAL &

OTHER

SOUTHERN

PRISON SONGS

DISCOGS

LINK

1946

NEGRO

FOLK

SONGS

DISCOGS

LINK

1941

PLAY PARTIES

IN SONG AND

DANCE

DISCOGS

LINK

1947

MIDNIGHT

SPECIAL

DISCOGS

LINK

1942

WORK SONGS

OF THE

USA

DISCOGS

LINK


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MAGAZINE

JOHN

HARTFORD

John Cowan Hartford (December 30, 1937 – June 4, 2001)

was an American folk, country, and bluegrass composer

and musician known for his mastery of the fiddle and

banjo, as well as for his witty lyrics, unique vocal style, and

extensive knowledge of Mississippi River lore. His most

successful song is “Gentle on My Mind”, which won three

Grammy Awards and was listed in “BMI’s Top 100 Songs of

the Century”. Hartford performed with a variety of ensembles

throughout his career, and is perhaps best known for his solo

performances where he would interchange the guitar, banjo,

and fiddle from song to song. He also invented his own shuffle

tap dance move, and clogged on an amplified piece of plywood

while he played and sang.

He was posthumously inducted into the International

Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2010.

Harford (he changed his name to Hartford later in life on the

advice of Chet Atkins) was born on December 30, 1937, in

New York City to parents Carl and Mary Harford. He spent

his childhood in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was exposed to

the influence that shaped much of his career and music: the

Mississippi River. From the time he got his first job on the river,

at age 16, Hartford was on, around, or singing about the river.

His early musical influences came from the broadcasts of

the Grand Ole Opry and included Earl Scruggs, nominal

inventor of the three-finger bluegrass style of banjo playing.

Hartford said often that the first time he heard Earl Scruggs

pick the banjo, it changed his life. By age 13, Hartford was

an accomplished old-time fiddler and banjo player, and he

soon learned to play guitar and mandolin as well. Hartford

performed with his first bluegrass band while attending John

Burroughs School, a local private high school.

After high school, he enrolled at Washington University in

St. Louis, completed four years of a commercial arts program

and dropped out to focus on music; however, he did receive a

degree in 1960. He immersed himself in the local music scene,

working as a DJ, playing in bands, and occasionally recording

singles for local labels.

In 1965, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, the center of the

country music industry. In 1966, he signed with RCA Victor


John Hartford

and produced his first album, “Looks at Life”, in the same year.

In 1967, Hartford’s second album “Earthwords & Music”

spawned his first major songwriting hit, “Gentle on My Mind”.

His recording of the song was only a modest success, but it

caught the notice of Glen Campbell, who recorded his own

version, which gave the song much wider publication. At the

1968 Grammys, the song netted four awards, two of which

went to Hartford. It became one of the most widely recorded

country songs of all time, and the royalties it brought in allowed

Hartford great financial independence; Hartford later said that

the song bought his freedom.

As his popularity grew, he moved to the West Coast, where

he became a regular on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy

Hour”; other television appearances followed, as did recording

appearances with several major country artists. Hartford played

banjo and sang the vocal harmonies on the Guthrie Thomas

song “I’ll be Lucky”. He also played with The Byrds on their

album “Sweetheart of the Rodeo”.

His success on the “Smothers Brothers” series was enough that

Hartford was offered the lead role in a TV detective series, but

he turned it down to move back to Nashville and concentrate on

music. He also was a regular on “The Glen Campbell Goodtime

Hour” (as the banjo picker who would stand up from his seat in

the audience to begin the theme music) and “The Johnny Cash

Show.”

In live performances, John Hartford was a true one-man band;

he used several stringed instruments and a variety of props such

as plywood squares and boards with sand and gravel for flatfoot

dancing.

Hartford recorded four more albums for RCA from 1968 to

1970: “The Love Album”, “Housing Project”, “John Hartford,”

and “Iron Mountain Depot”. In 1971, he moved to Warner

Bros. Records, where he was given more freedom to record in

his nontraditional style, fronting a band that included Vassar

Clements, Tut Taylor, and Norman Blake. He recorded several

albums that set the tone of his later career, including “Aereo-

Plain” and “Morning Bugle”. Sam Bush said,

“Without Aereo-Plain (and the Aereo-Plain band), there would

be no newgrass music.”

He switched to the Flying Fish label several years later and

continued to experiment with nontraditional country and

bluegrass styles. Among his recordings were two albums in 1977

and 1980 with Doug and Rodney Dillard from The Dillards,

with Sam Bush as a backing musician and featuring a diversity

of songs that included “Boogie On Reggae Woman” and “Yakety

Yak”. Hartford’s Grammy-winning “Mark Twang” features

Hartford playing solo, reminiscent of his live solo performances

playing the fiddle, guitar, banjo, and amplified plywood for

tapping his feet. At the same time, he developed a stage show,

which toured in various forms from the mid 1970s until shortly

before his death.

Hartford changed recording labels several more times during

his career; in 1991, he inaugurated his own ‘Small Dog a’Barkin’’

label. Later in the 1990s, he switched again to ‘Rounder

Records’. He recorded a number of idiosyncratic records on


Rounder, many of which recalled earlier forms of folk and

country music. Among them was the 1999 album “Retrograss”

recorded with Mike Seeger and David Grisman, with bluegrass

versions of “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay”, “Maybellene”,

“When I’m Sixty-Four”, and “Maggie’s Farm”.

He recorded several songs for the soundtrack to the movie “O

Brother, Where Art Thou?”, winning another Grammy for his

performance. He made his final tour in 2000 with the “Down

from the Mountain” tour that grew out of that movie and its

accompanying album. While performing in Texas in April, he

found that he could no longer control his hands due to non-

Hodgkin lymphoma, which ended his life two months later.

Hartford is considered a co-founder of the newgrass movement,

although he remained deeply attached to traditional music as

well. His last band and last few albums reflect his love for prebluegrass

old-time music.

The culture of the Mississippi River and its steamboats

captivated Hartford from an early age. He said that it would

have been his life’s work “but music got in the way”, so he

intertwined them whenever possible. In the ‘70s, Hartford

earned his steamboat pilot’s license, which he used to keep

close to the river he loved; for many years, he worked as a pilot

on the steamboat Julia Belle Swain during the summers. He

also worked as a towboat pilot on the Mississippi, Illinois, and

Tennessee Rivers.

During his later years, he came back to the river every summer.

“Working as a pilot is a labor of love”, he said. “After a while, it

becomes a metaphor for a whole lot of things, and I find for some

mysterious reason that if I stay in touch with it, things seem to

work out all right”.

His home in Madison, Tennessee, was situated on a bend of

the Cumberland River and built to simulate the view from

a steamboat deck. He used to talk to the boat captains by

radio as their barges crawled along the river. That bend of

the Cumberland River, known as “Hartford’s Bend” or “John

Hartford Point”, is denoted on official navigational charts with

the “John Hartford Light”.

An accomplished fiddler and banjo player, Hartford was

simultaneously an innovative voice on the country scene and a

reminder of a vanished era. Along with his own compositions,

such as “Long Hot Summer Days” and “Kentucky Pool”,

Hartford was a repository of old river songs, calls, and stories.

His song “Let Him Go on Mama” from “Mark Twang” was

inspired by retired Streckfus Steamers musician (and later chief

engineer of the Delta Queen) Mike O’Leary. Hartford was

also the author of “Steamboat in a Cornfield”, a children’s book

that recounts the true story of the Ohio River steamboat The

Virginia and its beaching in a cornfield.

Between 1995 and 2001, Brandon Ray Kirk and he co-authored

a biography of blind fiddler Ed Haley. Hartford’s album “The

Speed of the Old Longbow” is a collection of Haley’s tunes.

Writer and arts administrator Art Menius profiled Hartford in

the Academia journal article, “John Hartford as I Knew Him”,

saying

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MAGAZINE

“John connected not just words to music, but the old days of

Nashville to its present, tradition to innovation, new grass to

bluegrass to old-time, television to radio, river to shore, aging

musicians to hippies. Goethe may have been the last person to

know everything worth knowing, but John Hartford tried.”

Hartford also provided voice acting for the Ken Burns’

documentary series “Baseball and The Civil War”.

From the 1980s onwards, Hartford had non-Hodgkin

lymphoma. He died of the disease at Centennial Medical Center

in Nashville, on June 4, 2001, at age 63. He is interred at Spring

Hill Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee. Hartford was given a

star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame in honor of his work. He also

was given a posthumous president’s award by the Americana

Music Association in September 2005. The annual ‘John

Hartford Memorial Festival’ was held in southern Indiana from

2011 to 2019 and in 2022.

Hartford acknowledged that the royalties he earned from

“Gentle” allowed him to live the life he wanted as a musician,

author, folklorist and steamboat pilot. The Financial Times

commented that “his song about freedom ensured his own

freedom.”

Hartford recorded more than 30 albums, ranging across a broad

spectrum of styles, from the traditional country of his early

RCA recordings, to the new and experimental sound of his

early newgrass recordings, to the traditional folk style to which

he often returned later in his life. Hartford’s albums also vary

widely in formality, from the stately and orderly Annual Waltz

to the rougher and less cut recordings that typified many of his

later albums.

“Aereo-Plain” and “Morning Bugle” are often considered to be

Hartford’s most influential works, coming as they did at the

beginning of a period in which artists such as Hartford and the

New Grass Revival, led by Sam Bush, would create a new form

of country music, blending their country backgrounds with

influences from a number of other sources. His later years had

a number of live albums, as well as recordings that explored

the repertoire of old-time folk music. He sketched the cover art

for some of his midcareer albums, drawing with both hands

simultaneously.

Hartford is also a published author, including 1971’s collection

of poetry “Word Movies” and 1986’s “Steamboat in a Cornfield”,

a poetic retelling of a steamboat running aground along the

Ohio River.

His song “This Eve of Parting”, from the 1968 album “The Love

Album”, was featured in the 2017 movie “Lady Bird”, portions

being heard at two different points in the film.

Cartoonist Jim Scancarelli was a fan, and mentioned Hartford

several times in his strip ‘Gasoline Alley’. In 1991, a flood

washes up a steamboat carrying Hartford; in 1998, he played

at Rufus and Melba’s wedding reception; and in 2002, when

Skeezix and Slim are lost in a cemetery, Hartford’s gravestone

is seen.

The third track on the album “A Tear in the Eye Is a Wound in

the Heart” by the band Black Prairie, of Portland, Oregon, is

entitled “For the Love of John Hartford”, an instrumental.

john hartford discography

1967 LOOKS AT LIFE

RCA

Discogs link

1971 AERO-PLAIN

Warner Brothers

Discogs link

1967 EARTHWORDS AND MUSIC

RCA

Discogs link

1968 THE LOVE ALBUM

RCA

Discogs link

1968 HOUSING PROJECT

RCA

Discogs link

1968 GENTLE ON MY MIND

RCA

Discogs link

1969 JOHN HARTFORD

RCA

Discogs link

1970 IRON MOUNTAIN DEPOT

RCA

Discogs link

1972 MORNING BUGLE

Warner Brothers

Discogs link

1976 NOBODY KNOWS WHAT YOU DO

Flying Fish

Discogs link

1976 MARK TWANG

Flying Fish

Discogs link

1977 ALL IN THE NAME OF LOVE

Flying Fish

Discogs link

1978 HEADING DOWN INTO THE MYSTERY BELOW

Flying Fish

Discogs link

1979 SLUMBERING ON THE CUMBERLAND

Fling Fish

Discogs link


John Hartford

1981 YOU AND ME AT HOME

Flying Fish

Discogs link

1981 CATALOGUE

Flying Fish

Discogs link

1984 GUM TREE CANOE

Flying Fish

Discogs link

1986 ANNUAL WALTZ

Rounder

Discogs link

1989 DOWN ON THE RIVER

Flying Fish

Discogs link

1991 CADILLAC RAG

Small Dog A-Barkin’

Discogs link

1992 GOIN’ BACK TO DIXIE


Discogs link

1994 THE WALLS WE BOUNCE OFF


Discogs link

1996 NO END OF LOVE


Discogs link

1996 WILD HOG IN THE RED BRUSH

Rounder

Discogs link

1998 THE SPEED OF THE OLD LONGBOW

Rounder

Discogs link

2002 STEAM POWERED AERO-TAKES

Rounder

Discogs link


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MAGAZINE

JUDITH

DURHAM

Judith Mavis Durham AO (née Cock; 3 July 1943 – 5

August 2022) was an Australian singer, songwriter, and

musician who became the lead singer of the Australian

folk music group the Seekers in 1962.

The group became the first Australian pop music group

to achieve major chart and sales success in the United

Kingdom and the United States and have sold over 50

million records worldwide. Durham left the group in mid-

1968 to pursue her solo career. In 1993, she began to make

sporadic recordings and performances with the Seekers,

though she remained primarily a solo performer. On 1

July 2015, during the annual Victoria Day celebrations, she

was named Victorian of the Year for her services to music

and a range of charities.

Durham was born on 3 July 1943 in Essendon, Victoria,

to William Alexander Cock, a navigator and World War

II pathfinder, and his wife, Hazel (née Durham). From

her birth until 1949, she lived on Mount Alexander Road,

Essendon. She spent summer holidays at her family’s

weatherboard house (which since has been demolished)

on the west side of Durham Place in Rosebud.

Her father accepted work in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1949.

From early 1950, the family lived in Taroona, a suburb of

Hobart, where Durham attended the Fahan School before

moving back to Melbourne, residing in Georgian Court,

Balwyn, in 1956. She was educated at Ruyton Girls’ School

Kew and then enrolled at RMIT.

Durham at first planned to be a pianist and gained the

qualification of Associate in Music, Australia (AMusA),

in classical piano at the University of Melbourne

Conservatorium. She had some professional engagements

playing piano, had classical vocal training as a soprano,

and performed blues, gospel, and jazz pieces. Her singing

career began one night at the age of 18 when she asked

Nicholas Ribush, leader of the Melbourne University Jazz

Band, at the Memphis Jazz Club in Malvern, whether she

could sing with the band. In 1963, she began performing

at the same club with Frank Traynor’s Jazz Preachers,


Judith Durham

using her mother’s maiden name of Durham. In that year

she also recorded her first EP, “Judy Durham”, with Frank

Traynor’s Jazz Preachers for W&G Records.

The Seekers consisted of Durham, Athol Guy, Bruce

Woodley, and Keith Potger, an ABC (Australian

Broadcasting Corp.) radio producer. Through Potger’s

position the three were able to make a demo tape in their

spare time. This was given to W&G Records, which wanted

another sample of Durham’s voice before agreeing to

record a “Jazz Preachers’” album. W&G instead signed the

Seekers for an album, “Introducing the Seekers,” in 1963.

Durham, however, recorded two other songs with the Jazz

Preachers, “Muddy Water” (which appeared on their album

Jazz from the Pulpit) and “Trombone Frankie” (an adapted

version of Bessie Smith’s “Trombone Cholly”).

In early 1964, the Seekers sailed to the United Kingdom

on ‘SS Fairsky’ on which the group provided the musical

entertainment. Originally, they had planned to return after

ten weeks, but they received a steady stream of bookings

through the Grade Agency because they had sent the

agency a copy of their first album. On 4 November 1964

at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios, the Seekers recorded “I’ll

Never Find Another You”, written and produced by Tom

Springfield. In February 1965, the song reached number

one in the UK and Australia. The group had further Top 10

hits with “A World of Our Own,” “Morningtown Ride,” and

“Someday, One Day.” “Georgy Girl” reached number two

(Billboard chart) and number one (Cashbox chart) in the

United States. “The Carnival Is Over” is still one of the top

50 best-selling singles in the UK.

On 12 March 1967, the Seekers set an official all-time

Australian record when more than 200,000 people (nearly

one tenth of the city’s entire population at that time)

flocked to their performance at the Sidney Myer Music

Bowl in Melbourne, Australia. Their TV special “The

Seekers Down Under” scored the biggest TV audience ever

(with a 67 rating), and early in 1968 they were all awarded

the nation’s top honour as “Australians of the Year 1967.”

On a tour of New Zealand in February 1968, Durham

advised the group that she was leaving the Seekers, to

pursue a solo career. Their last concert before Durham left

the band was on a live BBC production on 7 July, where

they performed many of their all-time hits.

Durham returned to Australia in August 1968, and her first

solo television special, “An Evening with Judith Durham”,

screened on the Nine Network in September. During her

solo career, she released albums titled “For Christmas with

Love”, “Gift of Song” and “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”. In 1970,

she made the television special “Meet Judith Durham in

London”, ending with her rendition of “When You Come to

the End of a Perfect Day” by Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1862–

1946).

In 1975, Durham starred in an acting and singing role as


Sarah Simmonds, a burlesque type performer in “The

Golden Girl”, an episode of the Australian television series

“Cash and Co”. Set in the 1800s Australian goldfields, the

episode also featured Durham’s husband, Ron Edgeworth,

on piano. She performed six songs; “Oh Susanna”, “When

Starlight Fades”, “Maggie Mae”, “Rock of Ages”, “There’s No

Place Like Home” and “The Lord Is My Shepherd”.

Durham staged a series of concerts at The Troubadour,

Melbourne in 1987 with Edgeworth, performing originals

the two had written. They returned again the following

year.

In January 1992, Durham released “Australia Land of

Today” which peaked at number 124 on the ARIA charts.

In 2003, Durham toured the UK in “The Diamond Tour”

celebrating her 60th birthday. The tour included the Royal

Festival Hall[ and a CD and DVD of the concert was

issued.

In 2006, Durham started modernising the music and

phrases of “Advance Australia Fair”. the Australian National

Anthem; the Aboriginal singer/songwriter Kutcha

Edwards also contributed lyrics, Durham first performed

it in May 2009 at Federation Hall, St Kilda Road. It was

released as a CD single.

Durham recorded The Australian Cities Suite album with

all proceeds to go to the charitable sector. The album

was released in October 2008. This project was to benefit

charities working with the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Fund,

including Orchestra Victoria and the Motor Neurone

Disease Association of Australia (Durham was national

patron).

On 13 February 2009, Durham made a surprise return

to the Myer Music Bowl when she performed the closing

number at the RocKwiz Salutes the Bowl – Sidney Myer

Music Bowl 50th Anniversary with “The Carnival Is Over”.

On 23 May 2009, she performed a one-hour ‘a cappella’

concert in Melbourne as a launch for her album “Up Close

and Personal”.

In October 2011, Durham signed an exclusive international

deal with Decca Records. George Ash, president of

Universal Music Australasia, said that

“It is an honour to have Judith Durham join Decca’s

wonderful roster of artists. When you think of the legends

that have graced the Decca Records catalogue it is the perfect

home to welcome Judith to, and we couldn’t be more excited

to work with Judith on not only her new recordings but her

incredible catalogue as well.”

In June 2018, to celebrate Durham’s 75th birthday, a

collection of 14 previously unreleased songs was released

on the album “So Much More”.

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On 21 November 1969, Durham married her musical

director, British pianist Ron Edgeworth, at Scots’ Church

in Melbourne. Edgeworth had been with a group, the

Trebletones, on the same tour. They chose not to have

children. Durham and her husband were vegetarian; she

became a vegan after 2015. She also avoided alcohol and

caffeine.

They lived in the UK and Switzerland until the mid-1980s

when they bought property in Nambour, Queensland. In

1990, Durham, Edgeworth and their tour manager, Peter

Summers, were involved in a car accident on the Calder

Freeway. The driver of the other car died at the scene and

Durham sustained a fractured wrist and leg. The response

from her fans led to Durham’s considering getting back

together with the other members of the Seekers for a

silver jubilee show. During this reunion Edgeworth was

diagnosed with motor neurone disease also known as

ALS. He died from the disease on 10 December 1994 with

Durham by his side.

In the late 1990s, Durham was stalked by a former

president of a Judith Durham fan club, a woman who sent

her over 40 doormats, as an admonishment for perceived

ingratitude, and numerous abusive faxes, one promising

another doormat delivery worth over $45,000. The woman

was subsequently prosecuted, and later imprisoned for

other serial crimes.

In 2000, Durham broke her hip and was unable to sing

“The Carnival Is Over” at the closing ceremony of the 2000

Olympic Games in Sydney with the Seekers. However, she

sang it from a wheelchair at the 2000 Paralympics shortly

thereafter.

In May 2013, during the Seekers’ golden jubilee tour,

Durham suffered a stroke that diminished her ability to

read and write both visual language and musical scores.

During her convalescence, she made progress to rebuild

those skills. Her singing ability was not affected by the

stroke.

Durham was a devout Christian who was hesitant about

secular music. Durham frequently sang Gospel and Jazz,

which reflected this trait. One of Durham’s songs, “My

Faith”, described her own faith. About how her faith had

lit her life, had made her see “the beauty in everything

around her, and had filled her heart with beauty and grace”.

Another fierce and passionate declaration of faith was the

powerful song, “Mourn you Mourners” She also followed

other teachings that provided more moral and ethical

framework for the way she lived. In the Salvation Army

War Cry magazine of November 12, 2016, she revealed

more information on her beliefs and spirituality, and added

that her:

and Jesus Christ, and feels that many of the songs of her long

career reflect that reality.”

The spirituality of the lyrics crosses over from being not

just love songs, but love songs for the Lord-songs like

“I’ll Never find Another You”, “Walk with Me” and many

others, Judith tells “Warcry.” Other songs on her list also

include “Colours of My Life”, “ Nobody But You”, “Calling

Me Home”, and “There He Is.”

On December 22, 2016, Durham posted a message on her

Official Facebook page. It gave a full explanation of her

concept of God, explained to her followers.

Part of it includes:

“When I was just a child, growing up with dear Mum and

Dad and sister Beverley, we were wisely taught to say our

prayers each night, feeling protected and loved: “...God Bless

Mummy and Daddy and Judy and Beverley And Grandma

and Grandpa and Grandma Cock I never questioned any of

it. For me, to this day, God and the Lord are real and I feel

safe and nurtured by that ever-present reality…..”

She also posted:

“A couple of years later, after we moved to Hobart, we started

going to “Sunday School” and I learned to sing. “Jesus loves

me this I know for the Bible tells me so”. Through the years

I have a deeper spiritual understanding. There is a multi

cultural, global truth for so many billions of loving souls. We

all love the Lord God and God Incarnate according to many

different pathways all over the world, and that the spirit

of Christmas celebrations always bring that same joyous

message. We were taught from our early age to honour our

father and mother, and to live in love. peace and humility

in the spirit of giving. Let us all be thankful for the food we

eat this Christmas and all the blessings showered upon us

everyday.”

Durham felt that the values that were instilled into her

since her youth were still imprinted in her to the present.

Durham also stated that she had a very wide perception,

and that she had begun feeling interested in esoteric things.

Durham was born with asthma and at age four caught

measles, which left her with a life-long chronic lung

disease, bronchiectasis. Durham died from the disease at

the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne on 5 August 2022, at age

79. She was given a state memorial service by the state of

Victoria on 6 September 2022 at Hamer Hall. Durham is

interred with her husband, Ron Edgeworth, at Springvale

Botanical Cemetery, Springvale.

“love songs were for the Lord.” “Judith describes herself as a

deeply spiritual person with a proud belief in the love of God


judith durham discography

Judith Durham

1968 FOR CHRISTMAS WITH LOVE

Goodyear Columbia

Discogs link

1970 GIFT OF SONG

A&M Records

Discogs link

1971 CLIMB EV’RY MOUNTAIN

A&M Records

Discogs link

1974 JUDITH DURHAM & THE HOTTEST

BAND IN TOWN Pye Records

Discogs link

1974 JUDITH DURHAM & THE HOTTEST

BAND IN TOWN VOL 2 Pye Records

Discogs link

1994 LET ME FIND LOVE

EMI

Discogs link

1996 MONA LISAS

EMI

Discogs link

1997 FUTURE ROAD (With Seekers)

EMI

Discogs link

1997 ALWAYS THERE (re-release of Mona Lisa)

EMI

Discogs link

2000 HOLD ON TO YOUR DREAM (re-release of

let me find love) EMI

Discogs link

2008 THE AUSTRALIAN CITIES SUITE

Musicoat

Discogs link

2011 EPIPHANY

Decca UMA

Discogs link

2013 IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME

Decca UMA

Discogs link

2016 AN ACAPPELLA EXPERIENCE (re-release

of up close and personal) Musicoat

Discogs link

LIVE ALBUMS

1979 THE HOT JAZZ DUO

A&M Records

Discogs link

1972 HERE AM I

A&M Records

Discogs link

1993 THE SILVER JUBILEE ALBUM

EMI Records

Discogs link

1994 A CARNIVALOF HITS

EMI Records

Discogs link

2011 COLOURS OF MY LIFE

Decca UMA

Discogs link

2013 THE PLATINUM ALBUM

Decca UMA

Discogs link

2018 SO MUCH MORE

Decca UMA

Discogs link

2009 UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Musicoat

Discogs link


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JOHN

PRINE

John Edward Prine (October 10, 1946 – April 7, 2020) was

an American singer-songwriter of country-folk music.

Widely cited as one of the most influential songwriters

of his generation, Prine was known for his signature blend

of humorous lyrics about love, life, and current events, often

with elements of social commentary and satire, as well as

sweet songs and melancholy ballads. He was active as a

composer, recording artist, live performer, and occasional

actor from the early 1970s until his death.

Born and raised in Maywood, Illinois, Prine learned to play

the guitar at age 14. He attended classes at Chicago’s Old

Town School of Folk Music. After serving in West Germany

with the U.S. Army, he returned to Chicago in the late 1960s,

where he worked as a mailman, writing and singing songs

first as a hobby. Continuing studies at the Old Town School,

he performed at a student hang-out, the nearby Fifth Peg.

A laudatory review by Roger Ebert put Prine on the map.

Singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson heard Prine at Steve

Goodman’s insistence, and Kristofferson invited Prine to be

his opening act. Prine released his eponymous debut album

in 1971. Featuring such songs as “Paradise”, “Sam Stone” and

“Angel from Montgomery”, it has been hailed as one of the

greatest albums of all time.

The acclaim Prine earned from his debut led to three more

albums for Atlantic Records. “Common Sense” (1975) was

his first to chart on the Billboard U.S. Top 100. He then

recorded three albums with Asylum Records. In 1981, he

co-founded ‘Oh Boy Records’, an independent label which

released all of his music up until his death. His final album,

2018’s “The Tree of Forgiveness”, debuted at #5 on the

Billboard 200, his highest ranking on the charts.

Prine struggled with health issues throughout his life,

surviving cancer twice. He died in 2020 from complications

caused by COVID-19. Earlier the same year, he received the

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Prine was the son of William Mason Prine, a tool-and-die

maker, and Verna Valentine (Hamm), a homemaker, both

originally from Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. He was born

and raised in the Chicago suburb of Maywood. In summers,

they would go back to visit family near Paradise, Kentucky.


John Prine

Prine started playing guitar at age 14, taught by his brother,

David. He attended classes at Chicago’s Old Town School of

Folk Music, and graduated from Proviso East High School

in Maywood, Illinois. He was a U.S. Postal Service mailman

for five years and was drafted into the United States Army

during the Vietnam War, serving as a vehicle mechanic

in West Germany before beginning his musical career in

Chicago.

In the late 1960s, while Prine was delivering mail, he began

to sing his songs (often first written in his head on the mail

route) at open mic nights at the Fifth Peg on Armitage

Avenue in Chicago. The bar was a gathering spot for nearby

Old Town School of Folk Music teachers and students. Prine

was initially a spectator, reluctant to perform, but eventually

did so in response to a “You think you can do better?”

comment made to him by another performer. After his first

open mic, he was offered paying gigs. In 1970, Chicago

Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert heard Prine by chance

at the Fifth Peg and wrote his first printed review, “Singing

Mailman Who Delivers A Powerful Message In A Few

Words”:

“He appears on stage with such modesty he almost seems to

be backing into the spotlight. He sings rather quietly, and his

guitar work is good, but he doesn’t show off. He starts slow. But

after a song or two, even the drunks in the room begin to listen

to his lyrics. And then he has you....Prine’s lyrics work with

poetic economy to sketch a character in just a few words.”

After the review was published, Prine’s popularity grew. He

became a central figure in the Chicago folk revival, which

also included such singer-songwriters as Steve Goodman,

Michael Peter Smith, Bonnie Koloc, Jim Post, Tom

Dundee, Anne Hills, and Fred Holstein. Joined by such

established musicians as Jethro Burns and Bob Gibson,

Prine performed frequently at a variety of Chicago clubs. He

was offered a one-album deal of covers and with a few of his

original songs, by Bob Koester from Delmark Records, but

decided the project was not right for him.

In 1971, Prine was playing regularly at the Earl of Old

Town. Steve Goodman, who was performing with

Kris Kristofferson at another Chicago club, persuaded

Kristofferson to go see Prine late one night. Kristofferson

later recalled,

“By the end of the first line we knew we were hearing

something else. It must’ve been like stumbling onto Dylan when

he first busted onto the Village scene.”

Prine’s eponymous debut album was released in 1971.

Kristofferson (who once remarked that Prine wrote songs so

good that “we’ll have to break his thumbs” invited Prine and

Goodman to open for him at’ The Bitter End’ in New York

City. In the audience was Jerry Wexler, who signed Prine to

Atlantic Records the next day. The album included Prine’s

signature songs “Illegal Smile” and “Sam Stone”. “Sam Stone”

is about the trauma of a Vietnam veteran. He explained in

2011:

“I knew there were a lot of GIs out there, who came out of the

war and they weren’t quite right. … I knew there were homes

where nobody was talking to each other, which became “Angel

from Montgomery”. … I knew there were kids who didn’t have

fathers, and nobody ever acknowledged it, which became “6

O’Clock News.”… I saw all that. I knew, and I couldn’t figure

out why no one would say anything.”

“Paradise” is about the effects of surface mining on his

parents’ hometown of Paradise, Kentucky. The album also

featured “Hello in There”, a song about aging that was later

covered by numerous artists, and “Far From Me”, a lonely

waltz about lost love for a waitress, which Prine later said

was his favorite of all his songs. The album received many

positive reviews, and some hailed Prine as “the next Dylan”.

Bob Dylan himself appeared unannounced at one of Prine’s

first New York City club appearances, anonymously backing

him on harmonica.

Prine’s second album, “Diamonds in the Rough” (1972),

was a surprise for many after the critical success of his first

LP; it was an uncommercial, stripped-down affair that

reflected Prine’s fondness for bluegrass music and features

songs reminiscent of Hank Williams. Highlights of the

compilation include the allegorical “The Great Compromise”,

which includes a recitation and addresses the Vietnam War,

and the ballad “Souvenirs”, which Prine later recorded with

Goodman.

His subsequent albums from the 1970s include “Sweet

Revenge” (1973), containing such fan favorites as “Dear

Abby”, “Grandpa Was a Carpenter”, and “Christmas in

Prison”, and “Common Sense” (1975), with “Come Back

to Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard”. The latter

album was Prine’s first to chart on the U.S. Top 100 by

Billboard and reflected his growing commercial success. It

was produced by Steve Cropper. “Bruised Orange” (1978) is

a Steve Goodman–produced album that gave listeners songs

such as “That’s The Way That The World Goes ‘Round”, “Sabu

Visits the Twin Cities Alone”, “Fish and Whistle”, and the title

track.

In 1974, singer David Allan Coe achieved considerable

success on the country charts with “You Never Even Called

Me by My Name”, co-written by Prine and Goodman. The

song good-naturedly spoofs stereotypical country music

lyrics to create what it calls “the perfect country and western

song”. Prine refused to take a songwriter’s credit (stating

he was too drunk when the song was written to remember

what he had contributed) and Goodman received sole

credit. Goodman bought Prine a jukebox as a gift from his

publishing royalties.

In 1975, Prine toured the U.S. and Canada with a full band

featuring guitarist Arlen Roth.

“Pink Cadillac” (1979) features two songs produced by Sun

Records founder Sam Phillips, who by this time rarely

did any studio work. The song “Saigon” is about a Vietnam

veteran traumatized by the war (“The static in my attic’s


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MAGAZINE

gettin’ ready to blow”). During the recording, one of the

guitar amplifiers blew up (which is evident on the album).

The other song Phillips produced is “How Lucky”, about

Prine’s hometown.

In 1981, rejecting the established model of the recording

industry, which Prine felt exploited singers and songwriters,

he co-founded the independent record label “Oh Boy

Records” in Nashville, Tennessee. His fans, supporting

the project, sent him enough money to cover the costs, in

advance, of his next album. Prine continued writing and

recording albums throughout the 1980s. His songs continued

to be covered by other artists; the country supergroup The

Highwaymen recorded “The 20th Century Is Almost Over”,

written by Prine and Goodman. Steve Goodman died of

leukemia in 1984 and Prine contributed four tracks to “A

Tribute to Steve Goodman”, including a cover version of

Goodman’s “My Old Man”.

In 1991, Prine released the Grammy-winning “The Missing

Years”, his first collaboration with producer and Heartbreakers

bassist Howie Epstein. The title song records Prine’s

humorous take on what Jesus did in the unrecorded years

between his childhood and ministry. In 1995, “Lost Dogs

and Mixed Blessings” was released, another collaboration

with Epstein.On this album is the long track “Lake Marie”,

a partly spoken word song interweaving tales over decades

centered on themes of “goodbye”. Bob Dylan later cited it as

perhaps his favorite Prine song. Prine followed it up in 1999

with “In Spite of Ourselves”, which was unusual for him in

that it contained only one original song (the title track); the

rest were covers of classic country songs. All of the tracks are

duets with well-known female country vocalists, including

Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless,

Dolores Keane, Trisha Yearwood, and Iris DeMent.

Prine appeared in a supporting role in the Billy Bob

Thornton movie “Daddy & Them” (2001). “In Spite of

Ourselves” is played during the end credits.

Prine recorded a version of Stephen Foster’s “My Old

Kentucky Home” in 2004 for the compilation album

“Beautiful Dreamer”, which won the Grammy for Best

Traditional Folk Album.

In 2005, Prine released his first all-new offering since “Lost

Dogs and Mixed Blessings”, the album “Fair & Square”, which

tended toward a more laid-back, acoustic approach. The

album contains songs such as “Safety Joe”, about a man who

has never taken any risks in his life, and also “Some Humans

Ain’t Human”, Prine’s protest piece on the album, which talks

about the ugly side of human nature and includes a quick shot

at President George W. Bush. “Fair & Square” won the 2005

Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. The

album contains original songs plus two covers: A.P. Carter’s

“Bear Creek Blues” and Blaze Foley’s “Clay Pigeons”.

On June 22, 2010, ‘Oh Boy Records’ released a tribute album

titled “Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine”.

The album features members of the modern folk revival,

including My Morning Jacket, The Avett Brothers, Conor

Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Old Crow Medicine

Show, Lambchop, Josh Ritter, Drive-By Truckers, Nickel

Creek’s Sara Watkins, Deer Tick featuring Liz Isenberg,

Justin Townes Earle, Those Darlins, and Bon Iver’s Justin

Vernon.

n 2016, Prine was named winner of the PEN/Song Lyrics

Award, given to two songwriters every other year by the

PEN New England chapter. The 2016 award was shared

with Tom Waits and his songwriting collaborator wife

Kathleen Brennan. Judges for the award included Peter

Wolf, Rosanne Cash, Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, and

Bono, as well as literary judges Salman Rushdie, Natasha

Tretheway, and Paul Muldoon. In 2016, Prine released “For

Better, or Worse”, a follow-up to “In Spite of Ourselves”. The

album features country music covers spotlighting some of

the most prominent female voices in the genre, including;

Alison Krauss, Kacey Musgraves, and Lee Ann Womack, as

well as Iris DeMent, the only guest artist to appear on both

compilation albums.

On March 15, 2017, the American Currents exhibit opened at

the Country Music Hall of Fame. The exhibit featured a pair

of cowboy boots and jacket that Prine often wore on stage,

his personal guitar, and the original handwritten lyric to his

hit, “Angel From Montgomery”. The American Currents Class

of 2016 showcased artists who made a significant impact

on country music in 2016, including, Prine. Prine won his

second Artist of the Year award at the 2017 Americana Music

Honors & Awards after previously winning in 2005.

On February 8, 2018, Prine announced his first new album of

original material in 13 years, titled “The Tree of Forgiveness”,

would be released on April 13. Produced by Dave Cobb,

the album was released on Prine’s own ‘Oh Boy Records’

and features guest artists Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires, Dan

Auerbach, and Brandi Carlile. Alongside the announcement,

Prine released the track “Summer’s End”. The album became

Prine’s highest-charting album on the Billboard 200.

In 2019, he recorded several tracks including “Please Let Me

Go ‘Round Again”—a song which warmly confronts the end

of life—with longtime friend and compatriot Swamp Dogg in

his final recording session.

The last song Prine recorded before he died was “I Remember

Everything”, released on June 12, 2020, alongside a music

video. It was released following the two-hour special tribute

show, “A Tribute Celebrating John Prine” aired on June 11,

2020, which featured Sturgill Simpson, Vince Gill, Jason

Isbell, Kacey Musgraves, Bonnie Raitt, Rita Wilson, Eric

Church, Brandi Carlile and many other country artists and

friends. On the first night of the 2020 Democratic National

Convention, Prine singing “I Remember Everything” was the

soundtrack to the COVID-19 memorial video.

Prine was married three times. His first marriage was to highschool

sweetheart Ann Carole in 1966. The marriage lasted

until the late 1970s. Prine was married to bassist Rachel


John Prine

Peer from 1984 to 1988. Prine met Fiona Whelan, who later

became his manager, in 1988. She moved from Ireland to

Nashville in 1993, and they were married in 1996. Prine and

Whelan had two sons together, Jack and Tommy, and Prine

adopted Whelan’s son, Jody, from a previous relationship.

Prine had a home in Kinvara, Galway, Ireland, and spent part

of the year there.

In early 1998, Prine was diagnosed with squamous-cell cancer

on the right side of his neck. He had major surgery to remove

a substantial amount of diseased tissue, followed by six weeks

of radiation therapy. The surgery removed a piece of his neck

and severed a few nerves in his tongue, while the radiation

damaged some salivary glands. A year of recuperation and

speech therapy were necessary before he could perform again.

The operation altered his vocals and added a gravelly tone to

his voice.

In 2013, Prine underwent surgery to remove cancer in his left

lung. After the surgery, a physical therapist put him through

an unusual workout to build stamina: Prine was required to

run up and down his house stairs, grab his guitar while still

out of breath, and sing two songs. Six months later, he was

touring again.

On March 19, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the

United States, Prine’s wife Fiona revealed that she had tested

positive for SARS-CoV-2 and had been quarantined in their

home apart from him. He was hospitalized on March 26 after

experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. On March 30, Fiona

tweeted that she had recovered and that John was in stable

condition but not improving. Prine died on April 7, 2020, of

complications caused by COVID-19 at the age of 73.

In accordance with Prine’s lyrical wishes, expressed in his

song “Paradise”, some of his ashes were spread in Kentucky’s

Green River. Additional ashes were buried next to his parents

in Chicago.

Prine is widely regarded as one of the most influential

songwriters of his generation. He has been referred to as “the

Mark Twain of songwriting”.

Bob Dylan named Prine one of his favorite songwriters in

2009. He remarked,

“Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern

mindtrips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs.

All that stuff about ‘Sam Stone’, the soldier junkie daddy, and

‘Donald and Lydia’, where people make love from ten miles

away. Nobody but Prine could write like that.”

Johnny Cash, in his autobiography Cash, wrote,

“I don’t listen to music much at the farm, unless I’m going

into songwriting mode and looking for inspiration. Then I’ll

put on something by the writers I’ve admired and used for

years—Rodney Crowell, John Prine, Guy Clark, and the late

Steve Goodman are my Big Four ...”

Roger Waters, when asked by ‘Word Magazine’ in 2008 if he

heard Pink Floyd’s influence in newer British bands such as

Radiohead, replied,

“I don’t really listen to Radiohead. I listened to the albums and

they just didn’t move me in the way, say, John Prine does. His is

just extraordinarily eloquent music—and he lives on that plane

with Neil Young and John Lennon.”

He later named Prine as among the five most important

songwriters.

Prine’s influence is seen in the work of younger artists, whom

he often mentored, including Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires,

Brandi Carlile, Sturgill Simpson, Kacey Musgraves, Margo

Price, Tyler Childers, and Robin Pecknold.

Prine won four Grammy Awards out of 13 nominations, as

well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

1972 he was nominated as Best New Artist

1986 nominated Best Contemporary Folk Recording

1988 nominated Best Contemporary Folk Recording

1991 WON Best Contemporary Folk Album

1995 nominated Best Contemporary Folk Album



2005 WON Best Contemporary Folk Album

2018 nominated Best Americana Album

2018 nominated Best American Roots Song

2018 nominated Best American Roots Song

2020 WON Lifetime Achievement Award

2021 WON Best American Roots Performance

2021 WON Best American Roots Song

In 2005, at the request of U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser, John

Prine became the first singer-songwriter to read and perform

at the Library of Congress.

In 2016, Prine received the PEN New England Song Lyrics of

Literary Excellence Award.

In 2019, Prine was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of

Fame with a speech by Bonnie Raitt.

Over his career, Prine received six awards from the

Americana Music Honors & Awards:

the Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting (2003),

Artist of the Year (2005, 2017, 2018),

Song of the Year for “Summer’s End” (2019),

and Album of the Year for “The Tree of Forgiveness” (2019).

On June 30, 2020, Illinois’s Governor J. B. Pritzker

posthumously named Prine the honorary Poet Laureate of

Illinois.

The John Prine Songwriter Fellowship was created in Prine’s

honor. In 2022, Leith Ross became the first recipient.


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john prine st

1971 JOHN PRINE

Atlantic

Discogs link

1972 DIANONDS IN THE ROUGH

Atlantic

Discogs link

1973 SWEET REVENGE

Atlantic

Discogs link

1975 COMMON SENSE

Atlantic

Discogs link

1978 BRUISED ORANGE

Asylum

Discogs link

1979 PINK CADILLAC

Asylum

Discogs link

1980 STORM WINDOWS

Asylum

Discogs link

1984 AIMLESS LOVE

Oh Boy

Discogs link

1986 GERMAN AFTERNOONS

Oh Boy

Discog link

1991 THE MISSING YEARS

Oh Boy

Discogs link

1993 A JOHN PRINE CHRISTMAS

Oh Boy

Discogs link

1995 LOST DOGS & MIXED BLESSINGS

Oh Boy

Discogs link

1999 IN SPITE OF OURSELVES

Oh Boy

Discogs link

2000 SOUVENIRS

Oh Boy

Discogs link

2005 FAIR & SQUARE

Oh Boy

Discogs link

2007 STANDARD SONGS FOR AVERAGE

PEOPLE

Oh Boy

Discogs link

2016 FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE

Oh Boy

Discogs link

2018 THE TREE OF FORGIVENESS

Oh Boy

Discogs link

JOHN PRINE LIVE ALBUMS

1988 JOHN PRINE LIVE

Oh Boy

Discogs link

1997 LIVE ON TOUR

Oh Boy

Discogs link

2010 IN PERSON & ON STAGE

Oh Boy

Discogs link

2011 SINGING MAILMAN DELIVERS

Oh Boy

Discogs link

2015 SEPTEMBER ‘78

Oh Boy

Discogs link


udio albums

2021 LIVE AT THE OTHER END DEC 1975

Oh Boy

Discogs link

JOHN PRINE MUSIC VIDEOS

1992 PICTURE SHOW

Directed by Jim Shea

Youtube link

1992 SWEET SUZANNE

Directed by Marty Callner

Youtube link

1993 SPEED OF THE SOUND OF LONELINESS

Directed by Rocky Schenck

Youtube link

1995 AIN’T HURTIN’ NOBODY

Directed by Jim Shea

Youtube link

2016 FISH & WHISTLE (Lyric Video)

Directed by Northman Creative

Youtube link

2016 I’M TELLING YOU

Directed by J Britt & N Hubbard

Youtube link

2016 COLOR OF THE BLUES

Directed by J Britt & N Hubbard

Youtube link

2017 SWEET REVENGE

Directed by Oh Boy Records

Youtube link

2017 IN SPITE OF OURSELVES


Youtube link

John Prine

2018 KNOCKIN’ ON YOUR SCREEN DOOR

Directed by David McClister

Youtube link

2018 KNOCKIN’ ON YOUR SCREEN DOOR

(lyric video)

Directed by David McClister

Youtube link

2018 GOD ONLY KNOWS (lyric video)


Youtube link

2018 SUMMERS END

Directed by K Sheldon & EM Sheldon

Youtube link

2018 SUMMERS END (lyric video)


Youtube link

2018 WHEN I GET TO HEAVEN (Lyric Video)


Youtube link

2018 EGG & DAUGHTER NITE, LINCOLN

NEBRASCA 1967


Youtube link

2019 MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME,

GOODNIGHT


Youtube link

2020 I REMEMBER EVERYTHING


Youtube link

2018 THE ROAD TO THE TREE OF

FORGIVENESS


Youtube link


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MAGAZINE

ODETTA

HOLMES

Odetta Holmes (December 31, 1930 – December 2,

2008), known as Odetta, was an American singer, often

referred to as “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement”.

Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk

music, blues, jazz, and spirituals. An important figure in the

American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, she

influenced many of the key figures of the folk-revival of that

time, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mavis Staples, and

Janis Joplin. In 2011 Time magazine included her recording

of “Take This Hammer” on its list of the 100 Greatest Popular

Songs, stating that “Rosa Parks was her No. 1 fan, and Martin

Luther King Jr. called her the queen of American folk music.”

as a domestic worker. Flora had hoped to see her daughter

follow in the footsteps of Marian Anderson, but Odetta

doubted a large black girl like herself would ever perform at the

Metropolitan Opera. In 1944 she made her professional debut

in musical theater as an ensemble member for four years with

the Hollywood Turnabout Puppet Theatre, working alongside

Elsa Lanchester. In 1949, she joined the national touring

company of the musical Finian’s Rainbow.

While on tour with Finian’s Rainbow, Odetta “fell in with an

enthusiastic group of young balladeers in San Francisco”, and

after 1950 she concentrated on folk singing.

Odetta was born Odetta Holmes in Birmingham, Alabama. Her

father, Reuben Holmes, had died when she was young, and in

1937 she and her mother, Flora Sanders, moved to Los Angeles.

When Flora remarried a man called Zadock Felious, Odetta

took her stepfather’s last name. In 1940 Odetta’s teacher noticed

her vocal talents, “A teacher told my mother that I had a voice,

that maybe I should study,” she recalled. “But I myself didn’t

have anything to measure it by.” She began operatic training at

the age of thirteen. After attending Belmont High School, she

studied music at Los Angeles City College supporting herself

She made her name playing at the Blue Angel nightclub in New

York City, and the hungry i in San Francisco. At Tin Angel also

in San Francisco in 1953 and 1954, Odetta recorded the album

“Odetta and Larry” with Larry Mohr for Fantasy Records.

A solo career followed, with “Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues”

(1956) and “At the Gate of Horn” (1957). “Odetta Sings Folk

Songs” was one of the best-selling folk albums of 1963.

In 1959 she appeared on ‘Tonight with Belafonte’, a nationally


Odetta Holmes

televised special. She sang “Water Boy” and a duet with

Belafonte, “There’s a Hole in My Bucket”.

In 1961, Martin Luther King Jr. called her “The Queen of

American Folk Music”. Also in 1961, the duo Harry Belafonte

and Odetta made number 32 in the UK Singles Chart with the

song “There’s a Hole in the Bucket”. She is remembered for her

performance at ‘March on Washington’, the 1963 civil rights

demonstration, at which she sang “O Freedom”. She described

her role in the civil rights movement as “one of the privates in a

very big army”.

Broadening her musical scope, Odetta used band arrangements

on several albums rather than playing alone. She released music

of a more “jazz” style on albums like “Odetta and the Blues”

(1962) and “Odetta” (1967). She gave a remarkable performance

in 1968 at the Woody Guthrie memorial concert.

Odetta acted in several films during this period, including

‘Cinerama Holiday’ (1955); a cinematic production of William

Faulkner’s’ ‘Sanctuary’ (1961); and ‘The Autobiography of Miss

Jane Pittman’ (1974). In 1961 she appeared in an episode of the

TV series ‘Have Gun, Will Travel’, playing the wife of a man

sentenced to hang (“The Hanging of Aaron Gibbs”).

She was married twice, first to Dan Gordon and then, after

their divorce, to blues singer-guitarist Iverson Minter, known

as ‘Louisiana Red’. Her second marriage also ended in divorce.

She was also engaged (but not married) to Garry Shead.

In May 1975 she appeared on public television’s ‘Say Brother’

program, performing “Give Me Your Hand” in the studio. She

spoke about her spirituality, the music tradition from which she

drew, and her involvement in civil rights struggles.

In 1976, Odetta performed in the U.S. Bicentennial opera

‘Be Glad Then, America’ by John La Montaine, as the ‘Muse

for America’; with Donald Gramm, Richard Lewis and the

Penn State University Choir and the Pittsburgh Symphony.

The production was directed by Sarah Caldwell who was the

director of the Opera Company of Boston at the time.

In 1982, Odetta was an artist-in-residence at the Evergreen State

College in Olympia, Washington.

Odetta released two albums in the 20-year period from 1977 to

1997: “Movin’ It On”, in 1987 and a new version of “Christmas

Spirituals”, produced by Rachel Faro, in 1988.

Beginning in 1998, she returned to recording and touring. The

new CD To Ella (recorded live and dedicated to her friend Ella

Fitzgerald upon hearing of her death before walking on stage),

was released in 1998 on Silverwolf Records, followed by three

releases on M.C. Records in partnership with pianist/arranger/

producer Seth Farber and record producer Mark Carpentieri.

These included “Blues Everywhere I Go”, a 2000 Grammynominated

blues/jazz band tribute album to the great lady blues

singers of the 1920s and 1930s; “Looking for a Home”, a 2002

W.C. Handy Award-nominated band tribute to Lead Belly;

and the 2007 Grammy-nominated “Gonna Let It Shine”, a live

album of gospel and spiritual songs supported by Seth Farber

and The Holmes Brothers. These recordings and active touring

led to guest appearance on fourteen new albums by other artists


between 1999 and 2006 and the re-release of 45 old Odetta

albums and compilation appearances.

On September 29, 1999, President Bill Clinton presented

Odetta with the National Endowment for the Arts’ National

Medal of Arts. In 2004, Odetta was honored at the Kennedy

Center with the “Visionary Award” along with a tribute

performance by Tracy Chapman. In 2005, the Library of

Congress honored her with its “Living Legend Award”.

In mid-September 2001, Odetta performed with the Boys’ Choir

of Harlem on the ‘Late Show with David Letterman’, appearing

on the first show after Letterman resumed broadcasting,

having been off the air for several nights following the events of

September 11; they performed “This Little Light of Mine”.

The 2005 documentary film ‘No Direction Home’, directed

by Martin Scorsese, highlights her musical influence on Bob

Dylan, the subject of the documentary. The film contains an

archive clip of Odetta performing “Waterboy” on TV in 1959, as

well as her “Mule Skinner Blues” and “No More Auction Block

for Me”.

In 2006, Odetta opened shows for jazz vocalist Madeleine

Peyroux, and in 2006 she toured the U.S., Canada, and Europe

accompanied by her pianist, which included being presented

by the U.S. Embassy in Latvia as the keynote speaker at a

human rights conference, and also in a concert in Riga’s historic

1,000-year-old Maza Guild Hall. In December 2006, the

Winnipeg Folk Festival honored Odetta with their “Lifetime

Achievement Award”. In February 2007, the International Folk

Alliance awarded Odetta as “Traditional Folk Artist of the Year”.

On March 24, 2007, a tribute concert to Odetta was presented

at the Rachel Schlesinger Theatre by the World Folk Music

Association with live performance and video tributes by Pete

Seeger, Madeleine Peyroux, Harry Belafonte, Janis Ian, Sweet

Honey in the Rock, Josh White Jr., Peter, Paul and Mary,

Oscar Brand, Tom Rush, Jesse Winchester, Eric Andersen,

Wavy Gravy, David Amram, Roger McGuinn, Robert Sims,

Carolyn Hester, Donal Leace, Marie Knight, Side by Side, and

Laura McGhee.

In 2007, Odetta’s album “Gonna Let It Shine” was nominated

for a Grammy, and she completed a major Fall Concert Tour in

the “Songs of Spirit” show, which included artists from all over

the world. She toured around North America in late 2006 and

early 2007 to support this CD.

On January 21, 2008, Odetta was the keynote speaker at San

Diego’s Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration, followed

by concert performances in San Diego, Santa Barbara, Santa

Monica, and Mill Valley, in addition to being the sole guest for

the evening on PBS-TV’s ‘The Tavis Smiley Show’.

Odetta was honored on May 8, 2008, at a historic tribute night,

hosted by Wavy Gravy, held at Banjo Jim’s in the East Village.

Included in the billing that night were David Amram, Vincent

Cross, Guy Davis, Timothy Hill, Jack Landron, Christine

Lavin, Madeleine Peyroux and Chaney Sims.]

In summer 2008, at the age of 77, she launched a North

American tour, where she sang from a wheelchair. Her set in

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later years included “This Little Light of Mine (I’m Gonna Let It

Shine)”, Lead Belly’s “The Bourgeois Blues”, “Something Inside

So Strong”, “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” and

“House of the Rising Sun”.

She made an appearance on June 30, 2008, at The Bitter End

on Bleecker Street, in New York City for a concert in tribute to

Liam Clancy. Her last big concert, before thousands of people,

was in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on October 4, 2008, for

the ‘Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival’. Her last performance was

at Hugh’s Room in Toronto on October 25.

In November 2008, Odetta’s health began to decline and she

began receiving treatment at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.

She had hoped to perform at Barack Obama’s inauguration on

January 20, 2009, but she died of heart disease in New York City

on December 2, 2008, at the age of 77.

At a memorial service for her in February 2009 at Riverside

Church in New York City, participants included Maya Angelou,

Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte, Geoffrey Holder, Steve Earle,

Sweet Honey in the Rock, Peter Yarrow, Maria Muldaur, Tom

Chapin, Josh White Jr. (son of Josh White), Emory Joseph,

Rattlesnake Annie, the Brooklyn Technical High School

Chamber Chorus, and videotaped tributes from Tavis Smiley

and Joan Baez.

Odetta influenced Harry Belafonte, who “cited her as a key

influence” on his musical career; Bob Dylan, who said,

“The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta.

I heard a record of hers “Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues” in a

record store, back when you could listen to records right there in

the store. Right then and there, I went out and traded my electric

guitar and amplifier for an acoustical guitar, a flat-top Gibson....

That album was just something vital and personal. I learned all

the songs on that record”;

Joan Baez, who said, “Odetta was a goddess. Her passion moved

me. I learned everything she sang”

Janis Joplin, who “spent much of her adolescence listening to

Odetta, who was also the first person Janis imitated when she

started singing” the poet

Maya Angelou, who once said, “If only one could be sure that

every 50 years a voice and a soul like Odetta’s would come along,

the centuries would pass so quickly and painlessly we would

hardly recognize time”

John Waters, whose original screenplay for ‘Hairspray’

mentions her as an influence on beatniks and Carly Simon,

who cited Odetta as a major influence and told of “going weak

in the knees” when she had the opportunity to meet her in

Greenwich Village.

In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Odetta at number 171 on its list

of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. She became a 2024

inductee to the Blues Hall of Fame.

odetta studio album discography

1954 THE TIN ANGEL

Discogs link

1964 ODETTA SINGS OF MANY THINGS

Discogs link

1956 ODETTA SINGS BALLADS & BLUES

Discogs link

1957 AT THE GATE OF HORN

Discogs link

1959 MY EYES HAVE SEEN

Discogs link

1960 BALLADS FOR AMERICANS & OTHER

AMERICAN BALLADS Discogs link

1960 CHRISTMAS SPIRITUALS

Discogs link

1962 ODETTA & THE BLUES

Discogs link

1963 ONE GRAIN OF SAND

Discogs link

1963 ODETTA SINGS FOLK SONGS

Discogs link

1965 ODETTA SINGS DYLAN

Discogs link

1967 ODETTA

Discogs link

1970 ODETTA SINGS POLYDOR

Discogs link

1988 CHRISTMAS SPIRITUALS (new recording)

Discogs link

1999 BLUES EVERYWHERE I GO

Discogs link

2001 LOOKING FOR A HOME

Youtube link

LIVE ALBUMS

1960 ODETTA AT CARNEGIE HALL

Discogs link

1964 IT’S A MIGHTY WORLD

Discogs link

1962 AT TOWN HALL

Discogs link


Odetta Holmes

1966 ODETTA IN JAPAN

Discogs link

1976 ODETTA AT THE BEST OF HARLEM

Discogs link

1987 MOVIN’ IT ON

Discogs link

1988 TO ELLA (Also known as ODETTA &

AMERICAN FOLK PIONEER Discogs link

2002 WOMEN IN (E)MOTION FESTIVAL

Discogs link

2005 GONNA LET IT SHINE

Discogs link

COMPILATION ALBUMS

1963 ODETTA

Discogs link

1967 THE BEST OF ODETTA

Discogs link

1968 ODETTA SINGS THE BLUES RIVERSIDE

Discogs link

1973 THE ESSENTIAL ODETTA (live)

Discogs link

1994 THE BEST OF ODETTA: BALLADS & BLUES

Discogs link

1999 THE BEST OF THE VANGUARD YEARS

Discogs link

2000 LIVIN’ WITH THE BLUES

Discogs link

2000 ABSOLUTELY THE BEST

Discogs link

2002 THE TRADITION MASTERS

Discog link

2003 AMERICAN FOLK PIONEER (re-issue to ELLA)

Discogs link

2006 BEST OF THE MC RECORD YEARS 99-05

Youtube link

2007 VANGUARD VISIONARIES

Discogs link


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SLIM

WHITMAN

Ottis Dewey “Slim” Whitman Jr. (January 20, 1923 – June

19, 2013) was an American country music singer and

guitarist known for his yodeling abilities and his use of

falsetto. Recorded figures show 70 million sales, during a career

that spanned more than seven decades. His prolific output

included more than 100 albums and around 500 recorded

songs; these consisted of country music, contemporary gospel,

Broadway show tunes, love songs, and standards. Soon after

being signed, in the 1950s Whitman toured with Elvis Presley.

Ottis Dewey Whitman Jr. was born in the Oak Park

neighborhood of Tampa, Florida on January 20, 1923. He was

one of six children born to Ottis Dewey Whitman (1896–1961)

and Lucy Whitman (née Mahon; 1903–1987).

Growing up, he liked the country music of Jimmie Rodgers and

the songs of Gene Autry. He often sang along with records, but

Whitman’s early ambitions were to become either a boxer or a

professional baseball player.

He served during World War II in the South Pacific with the

United States Navy. While aboard ship, he sang and entertained

members on board. Liking his contributions, the captain

blocked his transfer to another ship. Whitman’s life was saved,

as the other ship later sank with all hands lost.

Whitman was a self-taught left-handed guitarist, although he

was right-handed. He had lost almost all of the second finger

on his left hand in an accident while working at a meat packing

plant.

He had returned to Tampa after the war, where he worked odd

jobs at a shipyard while developing a musical career. Eventually

he performed with bands such as the Variety Rhythm Boys

and the Light Crust Doughboys. He was briefly nicknamed

The Smiling Starduster after a stint with a group called The

Stardusters.

Whitman’s first big break came when talent manager “Colonel”

Tom Parker heard him singing on the radio and offered to

represent him. After signing with RCA Records, he was billed

as “the cowboy singer Slim Whitman”, after Canadian singer

Wilf Carter, who was known in the United States as Montana

Slim. Whitman released his first single in 1948, “I’m Casting My

Lasso Towards the Sky”, complete with yodel. He toured and

sang in a variety of venues, including the radio show Louisiana


Slim Whitman

Hayride.

Initially unable to make a living from music, he kept a parttime

job at a post office. That changed in the early 1950s after

he recorded a version of the Bob Nolan hit “Love Song of the

Waterfall”, which made it into the country music top 10. His

next single, “Indian Love Call”, taken from the light operetta

Rose-Marie, was even more successful, reaching number two

in the country music charts and appearing in the US pop music

chart’s top ten. It sold over one million copies.

A yodeller, Whitman avoided country music’s “down on yer

luck, buried in booze” songs, preferring instead to sing laidback

romantic melodies about simple life and love. Critics

dubbed his style “countrypolitan”, owing to its fusion of

country music and a more sophisticated crooning vocal style.

[10] Although he recorded many country and western tunes,

including hits “Tumbling Tumbleweeds”, “Singing Hills”, and

“The Cattle Call”, love and romance songs like “Serenade”,

“Something Beautiful (to Remember)”, and “Keep It a Secret”

figured prominently in his repertoire.

In 1955, he had a No. 1 hit on the pop music charts in the

United Kingdom with the theme song to the operetta Rose-

Marie. With nineteen weeks in the charts and eleven weeks at

the top of the UK Singles Chart, the song set a record that lasted

for 36 years.

In 1956 he became the first-ever country music singer to

perform at the London Palladium. Soon after, Whitman was

invited to join the Grand Ole Opry, and in 1957, along with

other musical stars, he appeared in the film musical Jamboree.

Despite this exposure, he never achieved the level of stardom in

the United States that he did in Britain, where he had a number

of other hits during the 1950s.

Throughout the early 1970s, he continued to record and was

a guest on Wolfman Jack’s television show ‘The Midnight

Special’. At the time, Whitman’s recording efforts were yielding

only minor hits in the US.

But the mid-1970s were a successful time for Whitman in the

UK Albums Chart. In 1976, the compilation album “The Very

Best of Slim Whitman” was number one for six weeks, staying

17 weeks on the chart. Another number one album followed in

1977 with “Red River Valley”: four weeks at number one and

14 weeks on the chart. Later the same year, his album “Home

on the Range” made number 2 on the chart and accumulated

a chart stay of 13 weeks. He released “Ghost Riders in the Sky”

album in 1978.

In 1979, Whitman produced a TV commercial to support

Suffolk Marketing’s release of a greatest hits compilation titled

“All My Best. Just for You”, also under the Suffolk umbrella,

followed in 1980, with a commercial that said Whitman “was

number one in England longer than Elvis and The Beatles.”

“The Best” followed in 1982, with Whitman concluding his TV

marketing with “Best Loved Favorites” in 1989 and “20 Precious

Memories” in 1991. “Twilight on the Trail”, his final release,

appeared in 2010, 55 years after his first.

In 1982, Whitman’s “20 Golden Greats” was certified platinum

in Australia.


The TV albums briefly made Whitman a household name in

the United States for the first time in his career, resulting in

everything from a first-time appearance on “The Tonight Show”

starring Johnny Carson to Whitman being parodied in a comic

skit on “Second City Television” (SCTV); he was played by

Joe Flaherty, as supposedly starring in the Che Guevara-like

male lead in a Broadway musical on the life of Indira Gandhi.

More importantly, the TV albums gave Whitman a brief

resurgence in mainstream country music; he gained new album

releases on major labels and a few new singles on the country

charts. During this time, he toured Europe and Australia with

moderate success.

Although once known as “America’s Favorite Folk Singer”,

Whitman was consistently more popular throughout Europe,

and in particular the United Kingdom, especially with his

covers of pop standards, film songs, love songs, folk tunes, and

gospel hymns.

His 1955 hit single “Rose Marie” spent 11 weeks at number 1

on the UK Singles Chart and held the record for the longest

consecutive number of weeks at number one on the chart

for 36 years. (Bryan Adams broke the record in 1991 with

“(Everything I Do I Do It for You”.) In the U.S., his “Indian

Love Call” and a reworking of the Doris Day hit, “Secret Love”

(1953), both reached No. 2 on the Billboard country chart.

From the mid-1960s and into the 1970s, Whitman had a string

of top 10 hits. Together with television marketing in the 1980s,

he became known to new generations of fans. Throughout

the 1990s and into the 21st century, he continued to tour

extensively around the world. After several years without

recording in a studio, he produced the album “Twilight on the

Trail” 2010, which was his final one.

Angeline, Whitman’s last album under contract, was released in

1984, after which he continued to tour.

In 1988 or 1990, EMI Australia released his joint album with

his son Byron Whitman, titled “Magic Moments”. In 1998, he

released another album with Byron, “Traditional Country: The

Legendary Slim Whitman with Son Byron Whitman”.

In November 1991, after Bryan Adams’ single “(Everything

I Do I Do It for You” broke the 36-year UK sales record held

by Whitman’s version of “Rose Marie”, Whitman joined

Adams on stage at Wembley Arena and sang “Rose Marie”

before presenting Adams with a plaque commemorating the

achievement.

Whitman’s last performance in the UK was at Norwich in

October 2002, and in the U.S. in September or October 2003,

as he effectively retired from the music business to care for his

ailing wife Jerry, returning to the stage only occasionally with

one-week series of concerts in Las Vegas. Whitman’s beloved

wife Jerry died in 2009.

In 2010, after eight years in production, Whitman released the

album “Twilight on the Trail”. He was 87 years old. The album

featured western standards such as Gene Autry’s hit “Back in

the Saddle Again” and the television theme song for The Roy

Rogers and Dale Evans Show. “Twilight on the Trail” was

produced by his son Byron Whitman and featured many well-

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known session musicians, including long-time band member

Harold Bradley.

was celebrated by a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at

1709 Vine Street.

Whitman was married to Alma Geraldine “Jerry” Crist

(August 9th 1924 - February 16 2009) on June 28th 1941, until

her death in 2009. Jerry was born in Kansas, the daughter of

church minister, A.D. Crist, and his wife. The couple had two

children, a daughter (Sharron, born 1942, who later married

Roy Beagle), and a son (Byron Keith Whitman, born 1957).

Byron followed his father into music as a performer and

producer. He released a number of recordings with his father,

and also toured with him on numerous occasions.

From 1957 until his death, Whitman lived with his family at his

estate, Woodpecker Paradise, in Middleburg, Florida.

He was a longtime active member and deacon at Jacksonville

Church of the Brethren. A biography, “Mr. Songman: The

Slim Whitman Story”, was written by Kenneth L. Gibble and

published in 1982 by Brethren Press.

For his contribution to the recording industry, Slim Whitman

George Harrison of the Beatles cited Whitman as an early

influence: “The first person I ever saw playing a guitar was

Slim Whitman, either a photo of him in a magazine or live on

television. Guitars were definitely coming in.” When a young

Paul McCartney purchased his first guitar, the left-handed

musician was unsure how to play an instrument that was

manufactured and strung for a right-handed player. It was not

until McCartney saw a picture of Whitman playing left-handed

that he re-strung his guitar so that he too could play lefthanded.

American pop singer Michael Jackson cited Whitman

as one of his ten favorite vocalists.

The 1996 film “Mars Attacks!” features Whitman’s rendition

of “Indian Love Call” as a weapon against Martian invaders

(the song causes the Martians’ heads to explode). In 2003, Rob

Zombie used Whitman’s version of “I Remember You” in his

directorial debut in the film “House of 1000 Corpses”.

Daniel Johnston mentioned Whitman in his song “Wild West

Virginia” on his 1981 album Songs of Pain.

slim whitman discography

1954 Slim Whitman Sings & Yodels

America’s Favorite Folk Artist

Slim Whitman & His Singing Guitar

1956 Slim Whitman Favorites

(later re-issed as Country Hits Vol 2)

Slim Whitman & His Singing Guitar Vol 2

1957 Slim Whitman Sings

(later re-issued as Country Hits Vol 1)


(later re-issued as My Best To You)


(later re-issued as Country Favorites)

I’ll Walk With God

Slim Whitman Sings Million Record Hits

(later re-issed as The Song Of The Old Water

Wheel)

1960 Slim Whitman

(later re-issued as I’ll Never Stop Loving You)

1961 Just Call Me Lonesome

(later re-issued as Portrait)

Once In A lifetime

(later re-issued as Cool Water)

Slim Whitman Sings Annie Laurie

(later re-issued as Sweeter Than The Flowers

1962 Forever

Slim Whitman Sings

(later re-issued as Anytime

Heart Songs & Love Songs

1963 I’m A Lonely Wanderer

Yodelling

Irish Songs The Slim Whitman Way

1964 All Time Favorites

Country Songs/City Hits

1965 Love Song Of The Waterfall

Reminiscing

0More Than Yesterday

19660 God’s Hand In Mine

A Travellin’ Man

A Time For Love

1967 15th Anniversary Album

Country Memories

1968 In Love The Whitman Way

Happy Street

1969 Slim (later re-issued as Straight From

The Heart)

The Slim Whitman Christmas Album

1970 Tomorrow Never Comes


Slim Whitman

1971 Guess Who (released in UK as Snowbird)

It’s A Sin To Tell A Lie

1972 The Best Of Slim Whitman

1973 I’ll Tell You When

1974 Happy Anniversary

1975 Everything Leads Back To You

1976 Red River Valley

1977 Home On The Range

1978 Ghost Riders In The Sky

1980 Till We Meet Again

Songs I Love To Sing

Christmas With Slim Whitman

1981 Mr Songman

I’ll Be Home For Christmas

1984 Angeline

1988 Magic Moments

1998 Traditional Country: The Legendary Slim

Whitman With Son Byron

1976 The Very Best Of Slim Whitman

1979 All My Best

Slim Whitman’s 20 Greatest Love Songs

1980 Just For You

1982 The Best

20 Golden Greats

1987 A Dream Comes True - The Rarities Album

1989 Best Loved Favorites

1990 The Best Of Slim Whitman 1951 - 1971

1991 20 Precious Memories

Cowpoke

1993 EMI Country Masters: Slim Whitman

1994 Love Songs

1997 Rose Marie (Recordings 1949 - 1959

The Very Best Of Slim Whitman 50th

Anniversary Collection

2009 The Essential Slim Whitman


2010 Twilight On The Trail

COMPILATION ALBUMS

1966 Birmingham Jail & Other Country Favorites

Unchain Your Heart

1967 The Best Of Slim Whitman Vol 3

A Lonesome Heart (also known as Lonesome

Cowboy)

1968 Cool Water (also known as Country Style &

The Best Of Slim Whitman

1970 Ramblin’ Rose

1972 The Slim Whitman Collection

1973 The Slim Whitman Story



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MAGAZINE

DAVID

OLNEY

David Charles Olney (March 23, 1948 –

January 18, 2020) was an American folk

singer-songwriter. Olney recorded more

than twenty albums over his five-decade career.

His songs have been covered by numerous artists,

including Emmylou Harris, Del McCoury, Linda

Ronstadt and Steve Earle.

Olney was born on March 23, 1948, in Providence,

Rhode Island. After briefly attending the University

of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he joined Bland

Simpson’s band ‘Simpson’. They recorded one album

in New York in 1971. The next year he relocated to

Atlanta and in 1973 moved to Nashville with the

hope of selling his material to record labels.

In the early 1980s, he formed the band The X-Rays,

which recorded two albums for Rounder Records.

The group appeared on Austin City Limits, opened

for major acts, including Elvis Costello, and broke up

in 1985.

Over the following decades, Olney performed as

a solo singer-songwriter, releasing more than 20

albums including six live recordings. He collaborated

with artists such as John Hadley and Sergio Webb.

His songs were covered by and co-written with

Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Linda Ronstadt,

Steve Young, Del McCoury, and Laurie Lewis,

among many others.

Olney was a key member of Nashville’s music

community. The Rhode Island native was a

compelling and enigmatic presence in Music City.

He wrote sonnets and starred at the Nashville

Shakespeare Festival, and his live concerts blended

tenderness and ferocity, theatre and sincerity,

agitation and embrace.


Olney resided in Nashville, Tennessee, with his

wife Regine, with whom he had a son, Redding,

and a daughter, Lillian. Olney formed a mutual

admiration with Townes Van Zandt when he began

his solo career. Van Zandt bought Olney a sport coat

from a Goodwill store in Little Rock, and famously

stated that “Dave Olney is one of the best songwriters

I’ve ever heard, alongside Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,

David Olney

Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Bob Dylan.”

Olney died of an apparent heart attack during a

performance onstage at the 30A Songwriter Festival

in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, on January 18, 2020, at

the age of seventy-one. He was in the middle of his

third song when he stopped, apologized and shut his

eyes, according to fellow musician Scott Miller, who

was accompanying Olney.

DAVID OLNEY SOLO ALBUMS

DISCOGRAPHY

1986: EYE OF THE STORM (Philo / Rounder)

Discogs link

1989: DEEPER WELL (Philo)

Discogs link

1991: ROSES (Philo)

Discogs link

1991: TOP TO BOTTOM (Appaloosa)

Discogs link

1992: BORDER CROSSING (SilenZ Records)

Discogs link

1994: ACHE OF LONGING (Roadsongs)

Discogs link

1995: HIGH, WIDE AND LONESOME (Philo /

Rounder) Discogs link

1997: REAL LIES (Philo)

Discogs link

Continental Song City)

Discogs link

2014: WHEN THE DEAL GOES DOWN

(Deadbeet) Discogs link

2017: DON’T TRY TO FIGHT IT (Red Parlor)

Discogs link

2018: THIS SIDE OR THE OTHER (Black Hen

Music) Discogs link

LIVE ALBUMS

1994: LIVE IN HOLLAND (StrictlyCountryRecords.com)

Discogs link

1999: GHOSTS IN THE WIND: Live at La Casa, Michigan

(Barbed) Discogs link

2002: WOMEN ACROSS THE RIVER: Live in Holland

(StrictlyCountryRecords.com)

Discogs link

1999: THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY (Philo /

Rounder) Discogs link

2000: OMAR’S BLUES (Dead Reckoning)

Discogs link

2003: THE WHEEL (Loud House)

Discogs link

2005: MIGRATION (Loud House)

Discogs link

2007: ONE TOUGH TOWN (Red Parlor)

Discogs link

2007: ILLEGAL CARGO (South Central Music)

Discogs link

2009: OL’ DIZ: A MUSICAL BASEBALL STORY. A

Songwriters’ Work in Progress (Deadbeet)

with John Hadley Discogs link

2010: DUTCHMAN’S CURVE (Deadbeet/


2004: ILLEGAL CARGO: Live in Holland

(StrictlyCountryRecords.com) Discogs link

2006: LENORA: Live in Holland (StrictlyCountryRecords.

com) with: Thomm Jutz & Sergio Webb

Discogs link

2008: LIVE AT NORM’S RIVER ROADHOUSE, VOl 1

(Deadbeat) with: Sergio Webb and Jack Irwin

Discog link

2014: SWEET POISON (StrictlyCountryRecords.com)

with: Sergio Webb Discogs link

2016: HOLIDAY IN HOLLAND DVD + CD

(StrictlyCountryRecords.com) with Sergio Webb

Discogs link

2022: EVERMORE (StrictlyCountryRecords.com) with

Daniel Seymour Discogs link

2022: NEVERMORE (StrictlyCountryRecords.com) with

Daniel Seymour Discogs link

55 |

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MAGAZINE

ANNE

FEENEY

Anne Feeney (July 1, 1951 – February 3, 2021) was an

American folk musician, singer-songwriter, political

activist and attorney. She began her career in 1969 as

a student activist playing a Phil Ochs song at a Vietnam War

protest, one of many causes she embraced.

As an undergraduate she cofounded Pittsburgh’s first rape

crisis center and went on to earn a Juris Doctor degree in 1978,

seeking to effect social change through the legal system. She

worked as a lawyer for 12 years while also pursuing music

and activism, and ultimately decided engaging through music

was her calling. Blending Irish music with American folk and

bluegrass, as well as her political message, she recorded twelve

albums and toured most of the period from 1991 to 2015,

attending protest rallies and joining the concerts of groups like

Peter, Paul and Mary. The latter also recorded a version of

Feeney’s anthem for civil disobedience, “Have You Been to Jail

for Justice?”

Feeney was born July 1, 1951, in Charleroi, Pennsylvania,

to Annabelle (née Runner) and Edward J. Feeney. Her

mother was a homemaker and her father a chemical engineer

at Westinghouse Electric Co. She had one sister, Kathleen.

The family moved to the nearby Brookline neighborhood of

the city of Pittsburgh in 1954. Feeney’s grandfather, William

Patrick Feeney, was a significant early influence on her, as

mineworkers’ organizer and violinist who also used his music in

the service of political and labor causes.

Feeney graduated from Fontbonne Academy, a Catholic girls’

high school in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, in 1968.

As a high school student, Feeney purchased a Martin D-28

guitar in 1968 and gave her first performance at an anti-

Vietnam War protest in 1969, playing a song by Phil Ochs.She

played the same guitar for 40 years.

She enrolled in college at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt)

and joined Thinking Students for Peace, a group that protested

the Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa. In 1972, while

an undergrad, she was arrested in Miami at the Republican

National Convention where she was protesting Richard Nixon’s

re-nomination for President of the United States. That same

year, Feeney attended the annual Conference on Women

and the Law. Inspired by the group that founded “Women

Organized Against Rape” in Philadelphia, Feeney began a


Anne Feeney

campaign for a rape crisis center in Pittsburgh. This effort

became Pittsburgh Action Against Rape (PAAR), which still

provides services to rape survivors in the Pittsburgh area as of

2021. Feeney graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in

1974 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

She enrolled in law school, also at Pitt, and in 1976, she joined

a bluegrass band, ‘Cucumber Rapids’. The group disbanded in

1977, but Feeney carried on performing locally.

Feeney graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School

of Law in 1978. She worked for 12 years as a trial attorney,

something she said had interested her as way to effect social

change, although later she found her music to be a better route

for that goal. While a lawyer, Feeney’s clients were mainly

refugees and domestic violence survivors. She was a member

of the Gender Bias Committee of the Allegheny County Bar

Association.

From the early 1980s through the 2010s, Feeney served on

the board of Pittsburgh’s Thomas Merton Center, devoted to

advocating for peace and justice causes. She was also chapter

president of NOW and served on the organization’s state

executive board in Pennsylvania.

In 1989, Feeney’s music career became an increasing focus after

she won a national song writing contest, the Kerrville New

Folk contest. Beginning in 1991, Feeney toured North America

and the world to perform and participate in political and labor

rallies and events. In 2008, she said in an interview,

“I think music is a fantastic way of empowering people and giving

them strength and energy. I’ve spent a good part of my life trying

to find and write music that will empower people to resist and

stand up for what’s right.”

Feeney’s music is frequently featured on the broadcast radio

program Democracy Now! and her anthem “Have You Been to

Jail for Justice?” is featured in the documentaries ‘This is What

Democracy Looks Like, Isn’t This a Time: A Tribute to Harold

Leventhal’ and ‘Get Up/Stand Up: The History of Pop and

Protest’. The song is an ode to civil disobedience, beginning,

Feeney and her daughter, Amy Berlin, performed Feeney’s

song “Ain’t I a Woman” at the March for Women’s Lives in

Washington, D.C., on April 25, 2004. Feeney’s song “Have You

Been to Jail for Justice?” was recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary

and she also worked with John Prine and Pete Seeger. Political

cartoonist Mike Konopacki included her recording of “Union

Maid” in a flash animation in 2003. She also collaborated

with spoken word artist Chris Chandler, whom Sing Out!

said “finally met his match with the powerful, radical singersongwriter”

Feeney, and called their performances together

“highly entertaining.”

The Washington Post described her music as “blending elements

of Irish, bluegrass, folk and pop music while coupling many of her

melodies with political lyrics, sometimes tinged with satire and

humor, that were reminiscent of the ‘60s protest songs.”

In 1989, Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary wrote

expressing his enthusiasm for her music, which he saw as a

continuation of his own efforts:

“I think your songs are wonderful, your group is terrific and your

music rings with resonance of all that Peter, Paul and Mary has

attempted to share throughout the last 28 years. It is comforting

and exciting to know that the torch of folk music is being passed

on to people as concerned, artful and decent as yourselves.”

On November 19, 1977, Feeney married labor attorney Ron

Berlin. She and Berlin had two children, Dan and Amy. The

marriage ended in divorce in 1995. In 2002, she married

Swedish political artist Julie Leonardsson.

In August 2010, while touring in Sweden, Feeney was diagnosed

with small cell lung cancer. She underwent treatment, recovered

and returned to touring, but the cancer returned in 2015.

Feeney was in rehabilitation for a fracture in her back when she

contracted COVID-19 related pneumonia. She died with her

family by her side at UPMC Shadyside hospital in Pittsburgh,

on February 3, 2021, at age 69.

“Was it Cesar Chavez? Maybe it was Dorothy Day

Some will say Dr. King or Gandhi set them on their way

No matter who your mentors are it’s pretty plain to see

That, if you’ve been to jail for justice, you’re in good company.”

Feeney served as president of the Pittsburgh Musicians’ Union

from 1997 to 1998, the first and only woman ever elected to

this position, as of 2021. She was a member of the Industrial

Workers of the Worldas well as the American Federation

of Musicians. In 2005, she was honored with a lifetime

achievement award from the Labor Heritage Foundation.

Her business cards described her as “Performer, Producer,

Hellraiser.”

Her first recording, “Look to the Left”, was released in 1992.

She put out 12 albums in all, including “Union Maid, If I Can’t

Dance, Have you Been to Jail for Justice?’, and ‘Dump the Bosses

Off Your Back’. Fenney’s last album was ‘Enchanted Way’ in

2010.


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anne feeney

GRAFTON STREET

1987 Self Released

Discogs link

I CAN’T DANCE IT’S NOT MY REVOLUTION

1987 Self Released

Discogs Link

UNITED WE BARGAIN, DIVIDED WE BEG

1990 Self Released

Discogs link

THERE’S A WHOLE LOT MORE OF US THAN

THEY THINK

1990 Self Released

Discogs link

LOOK TO THE LEFT

1992 Self Released

Discogs link

HEARTLAND LIVE

1994 Self Released

Discogs link


discography

Anne Feeney

HAVE YOU BEEN TO JAIL FOR JUSTICE

2000 Super 88 Records

Discogs link

FLYING POETRY CIRCUS

2001 Shole - 002

Discogs link

UNION MAID

2003 Self Released

Discogs link

IF I CAN’T DANCE

2006 Self Released

Discogs link

DUMP THE BOSSES OFF YOUR BACK

2008 Self Released

Discogs link

ENCHANTED WAY

2010 Self Released

Discogs link


59 |

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MAGAZINE

IAN

TYSON

Ian Dawson Tyson CM AOE (25 September

1933 – 29 December 2022) was a Canadian

singer-songwriter who wrote several folk songs,

including “Four Strong Winds” and “Someday Soon”,

and performed with partner Sylvia Tyson as the duo

Ian & Sylvia.

Ian Dawson Tyson was born on 25 September

1933, in Victoria, British Columbia to George

and Margaret Tyson. His father George was an

insurance salesman and polo enthusiast who

emigrated from England in 1906. Growing up in

Duncan, British Columbia, he learned to ride horses

on his father’s farm, and eventually became a rodeo

rider in his late teens and early twenties. He took

up the guitar while in hospital recovering from a

broken ankle sustained in a rodeo accident Fellow

Canadian country artist Wilf Carter was a musical

influence. He graduated from the Vancouver School

of Art in 1958.

After graduation, Tyson moved to Toronto where

he began a job as a commercial artist. There he

performed in local clubs and in 1959 began to sing

on occasion with Sylvia Fricker. By early 1959

Tyson and Fricker were performing part-time

at the Village Corner as Ian & Sylvia. The pair

became a full-time musical act in 1961 and married

three years later. In 1969, they formed and fronted

the group ‘The Great Speckled Bird’. Residing in

southern Alberta, the Tysons toured all over the

world. During their years together, the pair released

13 albums of folk and country music.

From 1970 to 1975, Tyson hosted a national

television program, ‘The Ian Tyson Show’, on CTV,

known as Nashville North in its first season. Sylvia

Tyson and the Great Speckled Bird appeared often


Ian Tyson

in the series.

In 1980, Tyson became associated with Calgary

music manager and producer Neil MacGonigill.

Tyson decided to concentrate on country and

cowboy music, resulting in the well-received 1983

album ‘Old Corrals’ and ‘Sagebrush’, released on

Columbia Records.

In 1989, Tyson was inducted into the Canadian

Country Music Hall of Fame. His next albums were

cowboy music: “I Outgrew the Wagon” (1989), And

“Stood There Amazed” (1991), and “Eighteen Inches

of Rain” (1994). Tyson credited Adrian Chornowol

with creating a unique sound for his platinum album

“Cowboyography”, a unique style that he maintained

for the rest of his recording career.

In 2005, CBC Radio One listeners chose his song

“Four Strong Winds” as the greatest Canadian song

of all time on the series “50 Tracks: The Canadian

Version”. There was strong momentum for him to be

nominated the Greatest Canadian, but he fell short.

He has been a strong influence on many Canadian

artists, including Neil Young, who recorded “Four

Strong Winds” for “Comes a Time” (1978). Johnny

Cash would also record the same song for American

V: “A Hundred Highways” (2006). Judy Collins

recorded a version of his song “Someday Soon” in

1968.

Bob Dylan and the Band recorded his song “One

Single River” in Woodstock, New York, in 1967. The

recording can be found on the unreleased ‘Genuine

Basement Tapes, vol. I’.

In 2006, Tyson sustained irreversible scarring to his

vocal cords as a result of a concert at the Havelock

Country Jamboree followed a year later by a virus

contracted during a flight to Denver. This resulted

in a notable loss of the vocal quality and range

he was known for; he has self-described his new

sound as “gravelly”. Notwithstanding, he released

the album “From Yellowhead to Yellowstone and

Other Love Stories” in 2008 to high critical praise.

He was nominated for a 2009 Canadian Folk Music

Award for Solo Artist of the Year. The album includes

a song about Canadian hockey broadcasting icon

Don Cherry and the passing of his wife, Rose, a

rare Tyson cover written by Toronto songwriter Jay

Aymar.

Sylvia joined Ian to sing their signature song,


“Four Strong Winds”, at the 50th anniversary of the

Mariposa Folk Festival on 11 July 2010, in Orillia,

Ontario.

Tyson has also written a book of young adult fiction

about his song “La Primera”, called ‘La Primera: The

Story of Wild Mustangs’.

Amazon link

The story of the wild mustang

in North America is the

subject of “La Primera,” a song

written and performed by

Canadian folk singer and horse

afficionado, Ian Tyson. And it

is the subject of this handsome

picture book with paintings

by equine artist Adeline

Halvorson.

Tyson’s first marriage, to his musical partner Sylvia

Fricker, ended in an amicable divorce in 1975. Their

son Clay (Clayton Dawson Tyson, born 1966) was

also a musical performer and has since moved to a

career modifying racing bikes.

After the divorce, Tyson returned to southern

Alberta to farm and train horses but also continued

his musical career on a limited basis. In 1978, Neil

Young recorded “Four Strong Winds”, and Tyson

used the royalties for a down payment on a cattle and

horse ranch. He started playing regularly at Calgary’s

Ranchman’s Club around this time.

Tyson’s autobiography, “The Long Trail: My Life

in the West”, was published in 2010. Co-written

with Calgary journalist Jeremy Klaszus, the book

“alternates between autobiography and a broader

study of [Tyson’s] relationship to the ‘West’ – both as

a fading reality and a cultural ideal.” CBC’s Michael

Enright said the book is like Tyson himself –

“straightforward, unglazed and honest.”

Ian Tyson married Twylla Dvorkin in 1986. Their

daughter Adelita Rose was born c. 1987. Tyson’s

second marriage ended in divorce in early 2008,

several years after he and Dvorkin had separated.

A book by John Einarson, ‘Four Strong Winds:

Ian & Sylvia’, was published in 2012. A few years

later, Ian said that Evinia Pulos (Bruce) was his

“soulmate”; since she lived in Kelowna, a city in

south central British Columbia, he said that he was

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unable to see her often. “We’ve been lovers for 55

years. ... How many people can say that?” Tyson said.

In 2018, Tyson made concert appearances in British

Columbia and Alberta. His website indicated that in

2019, he was to make two concert appearances, one

in Calgary and the other in Bragg Creek, Alberta.

Tyson died at his ranch near Longview, Alberta, on

29 December 2022, at the age of 89. According to

his manager Paul Mascioli, this followed several

health issues, including a heart attack and open heart

surgery in 2015.

Tyson became a Member of the Order of Canada

in October 1994 and was inducted into the Alberta

Order of Excellence in 2006. In 2003, Tyson received

a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award.

Tyson’s 1987 album “Cowboyography” contained two

songs that were later chosen by the Western Writers

of America as among the Top 100 Western Songs of

all time: “Navajo Rug” and “Summer Wages”.

He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of

Fame, with Sylvia, in 1992.

Ian Tyson was inducted into the Mariposa Hall of

Fame, with Sylvia, in 2006

He was inducted into the Canadian Country Music

Hall of Fame in 1989. (Sylvia Tyson was inducted in

2003.)

The song “Four Strong Winds”, written by Ian Tyson,

was named as the greatest Canadian song of all time

by the CBC-Radio program 50 Tracks: The Canadian

Version in 2005.

An announcement in July 2019 stated that Ian

Tyson and Sylvia Tyson would be inducted into

the Songwriters Hall of Fame, individually, not as a

duo. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation article

stated that “the duo’s 1964’s hit, ‘Four Strong Winds’,

has been deemed one of the most influential songs

in Canadian history”. The report also referenced

the song “You Were on My Mind”, written by Sylvia

Tyson, as well as her four albums (1975–1980).

ian tyson discography

1973 Ol’ EON

Discogs link

ALBUMS

1978 ONE JUMP AHEAD OF THE DEVIL

Discogs link

1983 OLD CORRALS AND SAGEBRUSH

Discogs link

1984 IAN TYSON

Discogs link

1987 COWBOYOGRAPHY

Discogs link

1989 I OUTGREW THE WAGON

Discogs link

1991 AND STOOD THERE AMAZED

Discogs link

1994 EIGHTEEN INCHES OF RAIN

Discogs link

1996 ALL THE GOOD ‘UNS

Discogs link

1999 LOST HERD

Discogs link

2002 LIVE AT LONGVIEW

Discogs link

2005 SONGS FROM THE GRAVEL ROAD

Discogs link

2008 YELLOWSTONE TO YELLOWSTONE

Discogs link

2011 SONGS FROM THE STONE HOUSE

Discogs link

2012 RAVEN SINGER

Discogs link

2013 ALL THE GOOD ‘UNS VOL 2

Discogs link

2015 CARNERO VAQUERO

Discogs link


Ian Tyson

SINGLES

1973 LOVE CAN BLESS THE SOUL OF

ANYONE

Discogs link

1974 IF SHE JUST HELPS ME

Youtube link

GREAT CANADIAN TOUR

Discogs link

SHE’S MY GREATEST BLESSING

Discogs link

SOME KIND OF FOOL

Discogs link

1975 GOODNESS OF SHIRLEY

Discogs link

1979 HALF A MILE OF HELL

Discogs link

1980 THE MOONDANCER

Discogs link

1983 ALBERTA’’S CHILD

Discogs link

1984 OKLAHOMA HILLS

Discogs link

1987 COWBOY PRIDE

Youtube link

NAVAJO RUG

Discogs link

THE GIFT TO IAN TYSON

Discogs link

1988 FIFTY YEARS AGO

Youtube link

1989 IRVING BERLIN

Youtube link

COWBOYS DON’T CRY

Discogs link

ADELITA ROSE

Youtube link

1990 CASEY TIBBS


Youtube link

SINCE THE RAIN

Youtube link

I OUTGREW THE WAGON

Discogs link

1991 SPRINGTIME IN ALBERTA

Youtube link

BLACK NIGHTS

Youtube link

1992 LIGHTS OF LARAMIE

Youtube link

MAGPIE

Youtube link

YOU’RE NOT ALONE ANYMORE

Discogs link

1993 JAQUIMA TO FRENO

Youtube link

1994 ALCOHOL IN THE BLOODSTREAM

Youtube link

EIGHTEEN INCES OF RAIN

Youtube link

HEARTACHES ARE STEALIN

Youtube link

1995 HORSETHIEF MOON

Youtube link

1996 BARREL RACING ANGEL

Youtube link

1997 THE WONDER OF IT ALL

Youtube link

1999 BRAHMS AND MUSTANGS

Youtube link

2005 LAND OF SHINING MOUNTAINS

Youtube link

THIS IS MY SKY

Youtube link

2006 ALWAYS SAYING GOODBYE

Youtube link

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MAGAZINE

israel

kamakawiwo'ole

Israel Ka’ano’i Kamakawiwo’ole (May 20, 1959 – June 26,

1997), also called Braddah IZ or just simply IZ, was a

Native Hawaiian musician and singer. Kamakawiwo’ole

is regarded as one of the greatest musicians from Hawaii

and is considered the most successful musician from the

state. Along with his ukulele playing and incorporation

of other genres, such as jazz and reggae, Kamakawiwo’ole

remains influential on Hawaiian music. In 2010, he was

named one of the 50 Great Voices by NPR, who called him

“The Voice of Hawaii”.

He achieved commercial success and mainstream

popularity with his 1993 studio album, “Facing Future”.

His medley of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a

Wonderful World” from his album “Ka ‘Ano’i” (1990), has

spent 358 weeks on top of the World Digital Songs chart,

making it the longest-leading number-one hit on any of

the Billboard song charts.

Israel Ka’ano’i Kamakawiwo’ole was born at Kuakini

Medical Center on May 20, 1959, in Honolulu to Henry

“Hank” Kaleialoha Naniwa Kamakawiwo’ole Jr. and

Evangeline “Angie” Leinani Kamakawiwo’ole, who worked

at a popular Waikiki nightclub. His mother was the

manager while his father was a bouncer; his father also

drove a sanitation truck at the U.S. Navy shipyard at Pearl

Harbor. The notable Hawaiian musician Moe Keale was

Kamakawiwoole’s uncle and a major musical influence.

Kamakawiwo’ole was raised in the community of Kaimuki,

where his parents had met and married.

Kamakawiwo’ole began playing music with his older

brother, Henry Kaleialoha Naniwa Kamakawiwo’ole III

(“Skippy”), and cousin Allen Thornton, at age 11 after

being exposed to the music of Hawaiian entertainers of the

time such as Peter Moon, Palani Vaughan, Keola Beamer

and Don Ho, who frequented the establishment where

Kamakawiwo’ole’s parents worked. Hawaiian musician Del

Beazley spoke of the first time he heard Kamakawiwo’ole

perform, when, while playing for a graduation party,

the whole room fell silent on hearing him sing.

Kamakawiwo’ole remained in Hawaii as his brother Skippy

entered the Army in 1971 and his cousin Allen moved to

the mainland in 1976.


Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

In his early teens, Kamakawiwo’ole studied at Upward

Bound (UB) of the University of Hawaii at Hilo and his

family moved to Mākaha. There, Kamakawiwo’ole met

Louis Kauakahi, Sam Gray, and Jerome Koko. Together

with Skippy, they formed the ‘Makaha Sons of Ni’ihau’.

A part of the Hawaiian Renaissance, the band’s blend of

contemporary and traditional styles gained in popularity

as they toured Hawaii and the mainland United States,

releasing fifteen successful albums. Kamakawiwo’ole’s aim

was to make music that stayed true to the typical sound of

traditional Hawaiian music. His cousin Bill Keale is also a

musician.

‘The Makaha Sons of Ni’ihau’ recorded “No Kristo” in 1976

and released several more albums, including “Ho’oluana”,

“Kahea O Keale”, “Keala”, “Makaha Sons of Ni’ihau” and

“Mahalo Ke Akua”.

The group became Hawaii’s most popular contemporary

traditional group with breakout albums 1984’s “Puana

Hou Me Ke Aloha” and its follow-up, 1986’s “Ho’ola”.

Kamakawiwo’ole’s last recorded album with the group was

1991’s “Ho’oluana”. It remains the group’s top-selling CD

In 1982, Skippy died at age 28 of a heart attack. Later that

year, Kamakawiwo’ole married his childhood sweetheart

Marlene. They had a daughter named Ceslie-Ann “Wehi”

Kamakawiwo’ole (born c. 1983).

In 1990, Kamakawiwo’ole released his first solo album

“Ka ‘Ano’i”, which won awards for Contemporary Album

of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year from the

Hawai’i Academy of Recording Arts (HARA). “Facing

Future” was released in 1993 by The Mountain Apple

Company. It featured a version of his most popular

song, the medley “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What

a Wonderful World” (listed as “Over the Rainbow/

What a Wonderful World”), along with “Hawai’i ‘78”,

“White Sandy Beach”, “Maui Hawaiian Sup’pa Man”, and

“Kaulana Kawaihae”. The decision to include a cover of

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was said to be a lastminute

one by Kamakawiwo’ole’s producer Jon de Mello

and Kamakawiwo’ole. “Facing Future” debuted at No. 25

on Billboard magazine’s Top Pop Catalogue chart. On

October 26, 2005, “Facing Future” became Hawai’i’s first

certified platinum album, selling more than a million CDs

in the United States, according to the Recording Industry

Association of America. On July 21, 2006, BBC Radio 1

announced that “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a

Wonderful World (True Dreams)” would be released as a

single in America.

In 1994, Kamakawiwo’ole was voted favorite entertainer

of the year by the Hawai’i Academy of Recording Arts

(HARA). “E Ala E” (1995) featured the political title song

“‘E Ala ‘E” and “Kaleohano”, and “N Dis Life” (1996)

featured “In This Life” and “Starting All Over Again”.

In 1997, Kamakawiwo’ole was again honored by HARA at


the annual Na Hoku Hanohano Awards for Male Vocalist

of the Year, Favorite Entertainer of the Year, Album of the

Year, and Island Contemporary Album of the Year. He

watched the awards ceremony from a hospital room.

The posthumously released album “Alone in Iz World”

(2001) debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s World Chart

and No. 135 on Billboard’s Top 200, No. 13 on the Top

Independent Albums Chart, and No. 15 on the Top

Internet Album Sales charts. In November 2012, Honolulu

magazine ranked it as the third-greatest Hawaii album of

the 21st century.

Kamakawiwo’ole’s album “Facing Future” was the first

Hawaii album to be certified gold.

Kamakawiwo’ole was known for promoting Hawaiian

rights and Hawaiian independence, both through his lyrics,

which often stated the case for independence directly and

through his own actions. For example, the lyric in his song

“Hawai’i ‘78”:

“The life of this land is the life of the people

and that to care for the land (malama ‘āina) is to care for

the Hawaiian culture”, is a statement that many consider

summarizing his Hawaiian ideals. The state motto of

Hawai’i is a recurring line in the song and encompasses

the meaning of his message: “Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ‘Āina i ka

Pono” (proclaimed by King Kamehameha III when Hawai’i

regained sovereignty in 1843. It can be roughly translated

as: “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness”).

Kamakawiwo’ole used his music to promote awareness of

his belief that a second-class status had been pushed onto

fellow natives by the tourism industry.

In the 1990s, Kamakawiwo’ole became a born-again

Christian. In 1996, he was baptized at the Word of Life

Christian Center in Honolulu and spoke publicly about his

beliefs at the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards. Kamakawiwo’ole

also recorded the song “Ke Alo O Iesu” (Hawaiian: The

Presence of Jesus).

Kamakawiwo’ole struggled with obesity throughout his life,

at one point weighing 757 pounds (343 kg) while standing

6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall. Kamakawiwo’ole endured

several hospitalizations because of his weight. With chronic

medical problems including respiratory and cardiac issues,

Kamakawiwo’ole died at age 38 in the Queen’s Medical

Center in Honolulu at 12:18 a.m. on June 26, 1997, from

respiratory failure.

On July 10, 1997, the Hawaiian flag flew at half-staff for

Kamakawiwo’ole’s funeral. His koa wood casket lay at

the state capitol building in Honolulu, making him the

third person (and the only non-government official) to

be so honored. Approximately 10,000 people attended

his funeral. Thousands of fans gathered as his ashes were

scattered into the Pacific Ocean at Mākua Beach on July

12. According to witnesses, many people commemorated

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him by honking their car and truck horns on all Hawaiian

highways that day. Scenes from the funeral and scattering

of Kamakawiwo’ole’s ashes were featured in official music

videos of “Over the Rainbow”, released posthumously by

Mountain Apple Company. As of June 2024, the two official

video uploads of the song, as featured on YouTube by

Mountain Apple Company Inc, have collectively received

over 1.63 billion views.

On September 20, 2003, hundreds paid tribute to

Kamakawiwo’ole as a bronze bust of him was unveiled at

the Waianae Neighborhood Community Center on O’ahu.

His widow, Marlene Kamakawiwoole, and sculptor Jan-

Michelle Sawyer were present for the dedication ceremony.

On December 6, 2010, NPR named Kamakawiwo’ole as

“The Voice of Hawaii” in its 50 great voices series.[

On March 24, 2011, Kamakawiwo’ole was honored with the

German national music award Echo. The music managers

Wolfgang Boss and Jon de Mello accepted the trophy in

his stead.

A 2014 Pixar short film, Lava, features two volcanoes as the

main characters. Kamakawiwo’ole’s cover of “Somewhere

Over the Rainbow” and his style of music were James Ford

Murphy’s partial inspiration for the short film.

On May 20, 2020, Google Doodle published a page in

celebration of Kamakawiwo’ole’s 61st birthday. It featured

information about his life, musical career, and impact on

Hawaii. Included was a two-minute cartoon video with

Kamakawiwo’ole’s cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”

playing as the background and imagery of Hawaii. The

section of the page explaining the inspiration of the Doodle

says that “The Doodle is full of places in Hawai’i that had

special significance for Israel: the sunrise at Diamond

Head, Mākaha Beach, the Palehua vista, the flowing lava

and volcanic landscape of the Big Island, the black sand

beach at Kalapana and the Wai’anae coast.”

Kamakawiwo’ole’s recording of “Somewhere Over the

Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” gained notice in 1999

when an excerpt was used in the TV commercials for

eToys.com (later part of Toys “R” Us). The full song was

featured in the movies ‘K-Pax’, ‘Meet Joe Black’, ‘Finding

Forrester’, ‘Son of the Mask’, ‘50 First Dates’, ‘Fred Claus’,

‘Letters to Santa’ and ‘IMAX: Hubble 3D’. It was also

featured in TV series ‘ER’, ‘Between The Lions’, ‘Scrubs’,

‘Cold Case’, ‘Glee’, ‘South Pacific’, ‘Lost’, ‘Storm Chasers’,

the UK original version of ‘Life on Mars’, and in ‘Modern

Family’, among others.

In 1988, a friend of Kamakawiwo’ole called a Honolulu

recording studio owned by Milan Bertosa at 3:00 a.m. with

a request that Kamakawiwo’ole be allowed to come in to

make a recording. Bertosa was about to shut down, but told

the friend that Kamakawiwo’ole could come if he was able

to make it within 15 minutes. In a 2011 interview, Bertosa

recalled,

“In walks the largest human being I had seen in my life.

Israel was probably like 500 pounds. And the first thing at

hand is to find something for him to sit on.”

A security guard gave Kamakawiwo’ole a large steel chair.

“Then I put up some microphones, do a quick sound check,

roll tape, and the first thing he does is ‘Somewhere Over the

Rainbow.’ He played and sang, one take, and it was over.”

Five years later, Bertosa was working as an engineer at

Mountain Apple Company when Iz was making a solo

album there. Bertosa remembered the old demo tape and

introduced it to de Mello, who remarked: “Israel was really

sparkly, really alive.” The original 1988 acoustic version of

the song was released with the 1993 Facing Future album.

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful

World” reached No. 12 on Billboard’s Hot Digital Tracks

chart the week of January 31, 2004 (for the survey week

ending January 18, 2004). It had passed two million paid

downloads in the US by September 27, 2009, and then sold

three million in the U.S. as of October 2, 2011. And, as

of October 2014, the song has sold more than 4.2 million

digital copies. The song is the longest-leading number-one

hit on any of the Billboard song charts, having spent 358

weeks on top of the World Digital Songs chart.

On July 8, 2007, Kamakawiwo’ole debuted at No. 44 on the

Billboard Top 200 Album Chart with “Wonderful World”,

selling 17,000 units.

In April 2007, “Over the Rainbow” entered the UK charts

at No. 68, and eventually climbed to No. 46, spending ten

weeks in the Top 100 over a two-year period.

In October 2010, following its use in a trailer for the

TV channel VOX and on a TV advertisement—for Axe

deodorant (which is itself a revival of the advertisement

originally aired in 2004)—it hit No. 1 on the German

singles chart, was the number-one seller single of 2010 and

was eventually certified 2× Platinum in 2011.

As of November 1, 2010, “Over the Rainbow” peaked at

No. 6 on the OE3 Austria charts, which largely reflects

airplay on Austria’s government-operated Top 40 radio

network. It also peaked at No.1 in France and Switzerland

in late December 2010.

On December 21, 2020, the official music video for “Over

the Rainbow” reached a billion views on YouTube.

In 2021, the song was inducted into the National

Recording Registry as part of the heritage in American

recorded sound.


Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

ISRAEL KAMAKAWIWO'OLE DISCOGRAPHY

STUDIO ALBUMS COMPILATION ALBUMS

KA ‘ANO’I

1990

YOUTUBE LINK

IZ IN CONCERT

1998

DISCOGS LINK

FACING FUTURE

1993

YOUTUBE LINK

ALONE IN IZ

WORLD 2001

DISCOGS LINK

E ALA E

1995

DISCOGS LINK

WONDERFUL

WORLD 2007

DISCOGS LINK

N DIS LIFE

1996

DISCOGS LINK

SOMEWHERE OVER

THE RAINBOW

2011

DISCOGS LINK


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tim

buckley

Timothy Charles Buckley III (February 14, 1947

– June 29, 1975) was an American musician.

He began his career based in folk rock, but

subsequently experimented with genres such as

psychedelia, jazz, the avant-garde, and funk paired

with his unique five-octave vocal range.

His commercial peak came with the 1969 album

“Happy Sad”, reaching No. 81 on the charts, while

his experimental 1970 album “Starsailor” went on to

become a cult classic. The latter contained his best

known song, “Song to the Siren.”

Buckley died at the age of 28 from a heroin and

morphine overdose. He left behind one biological

son, Jeff, who himself was a highly regarded singer

who died young, as well as an adopted son, Taylor.

Tim Buckley was born in Washington, D.C., on

Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1947, to Elaine (née

Scalia), an Italian American, and Timothy Charles

Buckley Jr., a decorated World War II veteran and

son of Irish immigrants from Cork. He has a sister

named Kathleen. He spent his early childhood in

Amsterdam, New York, an industrial city about 40

miles (64 km) northwest of Albany. At five years old,

Buckley began listening to his mother’s progressive

jazz recordings, particularly Miles Davis.

Buckley’s musical life began after his family moved

to Bell Gardens in southern California in 1956. His

grandmother introduced him to the work of Bessie

Smith and Billie Holiday, his mother to Frank

Sinatra and Judy Garland and his father to the

country music of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash.

When the folk music revolution came around in

the early 1960s, Buckley taught himself the banjo at

age 13, and with several friends formed a folk group


Tim Buckley

inspired by The Kingston Trio that played local high

school events.

During high school, Buckley was elected to

class offices, played on the baseball team and

quarterbacked the football team. During a football

game, he broke two fingers on his left hand,

permanently damaging them. He said that the injury

prevented him from playing barre chords. This

disability may have led to his use of extended chords,

many of which don’t require barres.

Buckley attended Loara High School in Anaheim,

California. He cut classes regularly and quit football,

focusing most of his attention on music. He

befriended Larry Beckett, his future lyricist, and

Jim Fielder, a bass player with whom he formed two

musical groups, the ‘Bohemians’, who initially played

popular music, and the ‘Harlequin 3’, a folk group

which regularly incorporated spoken word and beat

poetry into their gigs.

Buckley and lyricist/friend Beckett wrote dozens of

songs, some that appeared on Tim’s debut album,

‘Tim Buckley.’ “Buzzin’ Fly” was written during this

period and was featured on “Happy Sad”, his 1969 LP.

Buckley’s college career at Fullerton College lasted

two weeks in 1965. After dropping out of college,

Buckley dedicated himself fully to music and

playing L.A. folk clubs. During the summer of 1965,

he played regularly at a club co-founded by Dan

Gordon. He played Orange County coffeehouses

such as the White Room in Buena Park and the

Monday-night hootenannies at the Los Angeles

Troubadour. That year, Cheetah magazine deemed

Buckley one of “The Orange County Three”, along

with Steve Noonan and Jackson Browne.

In February 1966, following a gig at It’s Boss, the

‘Mothers of Invention’s’ drummer Jimmy Carl Black

recommended Buckley to the Mothers’ manager,

Herb Cohen. Cohen saw potential in Tim and

landed him an extended gig at the Night Owl Cafe

in Greenwich Village at West 3rd and MacDougal.

Buckley’s girlfriend, Jainie Goldstein, drove him to

New York. While living in the Bowery with Jainie,

Buckley ran into Lee Underwood and asked him to

play guitar for him. The two became lifelong friends

and collaborators.

Under Cohen’s management, Buckley recorded a


six-song demo acetate disc which he sent to Elektra

records owner Jac Holzman, who offered him a

recording contract.

In August 1966, Buckley recorded his self-titled

debut album in three days in Los Angeles. He later

recalled:

“I was only 19, and going into the studio was like

Disneyland. I’d do anything anybody said.”

The record featured Buckley and a band of

Underwood and Orange County friends.

Underwood’s mix of jazz and country improvisation

on a Telecaster guitar became a distinctive part

of Buckley’s early sound. Jac Holzman and Paul

Rothchild’s production and Jack Nitzsche’s string

arrangements cemented the record’s mid-’60s sound.

The album’s folk-rock style was typical of the time,

although many people, including Underwood, felt

the strings by Nitzsche “did not enhance its musical

quality.” Critics took note of Buckley’s distinctive

voice and tuneful compositions.

Underwood considered the record to be “a first

effort, naive, stiff, quaky and innocent but a ticket

into the marketplace”. Holzman expressed similar

sentiments and thought Buckley wasn’t comfortable

in his own musical skin. Larry Beckett suggested the

band’s desire to please audiences held it back.

Elektra released two singles promoting the debut

album, “Wings” with “Grief in My Soul” as the

B-side, and “Aren’t You the Girl”/”Strange Street

Affair Under Blue.” Buckley followed with “Once

Upon a Time” and “Lady Give Me Your Key”, which

were not well regarded but showed potential. Elektra

decided not to release the songs as singles, and the

songs remained in Elektra’s record vaults. Rhino

Records was unable to find “Lady Give Me Your Key”

to include on its ‘Morning Glory: The Tim Buckley

Anthology,’ but the song was the title track on Light

in the Attic Records’ 2017 collection of the previously

unissued 1967 acoustic sessions. “Once Upon A

Time” surfaced on Rhino’s ‘Where The Action Is’

1965–68 Los Angeles anthology in 2009.

‘Goodbye and Hello’, released in 1967, featured late

1960s-style poetry and songs in different timings,

and was an ambitious release for the 20-year-old

Buckley. Reflecting the confidence Elektra had in

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Buckley and group, they were given free rein on the

content of the album. Beckett continued as lyricist

and the album consisted of Buckley originals and

Beckett–Buckley collaborations. Critics noted the

improved lyrical and melodic qualities of Buckley’s

music. Buckley’s voice had developed since his last

release and the press appreciated both his lower

register and falsetto in equal measure.

The subject of the album distinguished it from its

predecessor. Beckett addressed the psychological

nature of war in “No Man Can Find the War”, and

Underwood welcomed Buckley’s entry into darker

territory with “Pleasant Street”. “I Never Asked to

Be Your Mountain” represented a confessional lyric

to his estranged wife and child, while the mix of

introspective folk songs and political-themed content

attracted folk fans and anti-war audiences. Holzman

had faith in Buckley and rented advertising space

for the musician on the Sunset Strip, an unusual

step for a solo act. Buckley distanced himself from

comparisons to Bob Dylan, expressing an apathy

toward Dylan and his work. While “Goodbye and

Hello” did not make Buckley a star, it performed

better in the charts than his previous effort, peaking

at No. 171.

Buckley’s higher profile led to his album “The Best

of Tim Buckley” being used as a soundtrack to the

1969 film “Changes”. Buckley performed “Song to the

Siren” on the final episode of The Monkees. Buckley

was wary of the press and often avoided interviews.

After a slot on ‘The Tonight Show,’ Buckley was

standoffish and insulting toward Johnny Carson, and

on another television appearance refused to lip sync

to “Pleasant Street”.

After Beckett was drafted into the Army, Buckley

developed his own style, and described the jazz/

blues-rock with which he was associated as

“white thievery and an emotional sham.” Drawing

inspiration from jazz greats such as Charles Mingus,

Thelonious Monk, Roland Kirk, and vocalist Leon

Thomas, Buckley’s sound became different from

previous recordings.

In 1968, Buckley toured Europe twice, first including

Denmark, the Netherlands, and England, appearing

e.g. on John Peel’s ‘Top Gear’ radio show on the BBC

and then appearing at the Internationale Essener

Songtage de in Germany, as well as touring England

and Denmark again. Later that year, he recorded

‘Happy Sad’, which reflected folk and jazz influences

and would be his best-charting album, peaking at

No. 81.

During 1969, Buckley began to write and record

material for three albums, ‘Blue Afternoon’, ‘Lorca’,

and ‘Starsailor’. Inspired by the singing of avant-garde

musician Cathy Berberian, he integrated the ideas

of composers such as Luciano Berio and Iannis

Xenakis in an avant-garde rock genre. Buckley

selected eight songs for ‘Blue Afternoon’, an album

similar to ‘Happy Sad’ in style. In a 1977 article for

DownBeat magazine, Lee Underwood wrote that

Buckley’s heart was not in ‘Blue Afternoon’ and that

the album was a perfunctory response to please his

business partners.

While Buckley’s music never sold well, his following

releases did indeed chart. ‘Lorca’ alienated his folk

base, while ‘Blue Afternoon’ was criticized as boring

and tepid, and “not even good sulking music”,

although it has been re-evaluated over the years.’Blue

Afternoon’ was Buckley’s last album to chart on

Billboard, reaching No. 192. Following the albums,

Buckley began to focus on what he felt to be his

masterpiece, ‘Starsailor’.

‘Starsailor’ contained free jazz textures under

Buckley’s most extreme vocal performance, ranging

from high shrieks to deep, soulful baritone. This

personal album included the more accessible “Song

to the Siren”, a song which has since been covered by

Robert Plant, John Frusciante, Bryan Ferry, Sinéad

O’Connor and Brendan Perry. The album was a

critical and commercial failure upon release, despite

having gained a considerable cult status following

‘This Mortal Coil’s’ cover, which renewed interest in

it.

Unable to produce his music and almost broke,

Buckley turned to alcohol and drug binges. He

considered acting and completed an unreleased lowbudget

film entitled Why? (1971). The film was an

experimental use of the new medium video tape and

was commissioned by Technicolor.

On June 28, 1975, Buckley completed a short tour

with a show in Dallas, playing to a sold-out crowd of

1,800 people. He celebrated the end of the tour with

a weekend of drinking with his band and friends. On

the evening of June 29, he accompanied longtime

friend Richard Keeling to his house. At some point,


Tim Buckley

Keeling produced a bag of heroin, some of which

Buckley snorted.

Buckley’s friends took him home and, seeing his

inebriated state, his wife Judy laid him on the livingroom

floor and questioned his friends as to what

had happened. She moved Buckley into bed. When

she checked on him later, she found that he was not

breathing and had turned blue. Attempts by friends

and paramedics to revive him were unsuccessful, and

he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The coroner’s report stated that Buckley died at 9:42

p.m. on June 29, 1975, from “acute heroin/morphine

and ethanol intoxication due to inhalation and

ingestion of overdose”.

Buckley’s tour manager, Bob Duffy, said Buckley’s

death was not expected, but “was like watching a

movie, and that was its natural ending.”

Other friends saw his passing as predictable, if

not inevitable. Beckett recalled how Buckley took

chances with his life, including dangerous driving,

drinking alcohol, taking pills and heroin.

Given the circumstances of his death, police charged

Keeling with murder and distribution of heroin.

At his hearing on August 14, 1975, Keeling pleaded

guilty to involuntary manslaughter and, after failing

to complete community service, was sentenced to

120 days in jail and four years’ probation.

Buckley died in debt, owning only a guitar and an

amplifier. About 200 friends and family attended

his funeral at the Wilshire Funeral Home in Santa

Monica, including manager Herb Cohen and Lee

Underwood. His 8-year-old son, Jeff, had met his

father only once, and was not invited to the funeral.

Jeff Buckley said not being invited to his father’s

funeral “gnawed” at him, and prompted him to pay

his respects by performing “I Never Asked to Be Your

Mountain” in 1991 at a memorial tribute to Buckley

in Brooklyn.

with fatherhood. The couple divorced in October

1966, about a month before their son, Jeff Buckley,

was born. Jeff later said about his father,

“He left my mother when I was six months old ... So I

never really knew him at all. We were born with the

same parts but when I sing it’s me. This is my own time

and if people expect me to work the same things for

them as he did, they’re going to be disappointed.”

In April 1970, Buckley married Judy Brejot Sutcliffe

in Santa Monica, and adopted her son, Taylor Keith

Sutcliffe.

BOOKS

ONCE HE WAS: THE TIM BUCKLEY STORY

(1997) Paul Barrera

Amazon link Paperback £23.48

THIN WIRES IN THE VOICE

(1999) Luca Ferrari writer

Discogs link CD Sized Book £21.58

DREAM BROTHER: THE LIVES AND MUSIC OF

JEFF AND TIM BUCKLEY

(2001) David Browne


BLUE MELODY: TIM BUCKLEY REMEMBERED

(2002) Lee Underwood


VOCI DA UNA NUVOLA – IL SEGRETO DI NICK

DRAKE E TIM BUCKLEY

(2015) Giampiero La Valle

Amazon link Hardback £18.75

During French class in 1964, Buckley met Mary

Guibert. Their relationship inspired some of

Buckley’s music, and provided both of them time

away from their respective turbulent home lives.

After almost a year of dating, Buckley and Guibert

married on October 25, 1965. When Guibert became

pregnant, Buckley decided he was unable to cope


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jody

miller

Myrna Joy “Jody” Miller (November 29, 1941

– October 6, 2022) was an American singer,

who had commercial success in the genres of

country, folk and pop. She was the second female artist to

win a country music accolade from the Grammy Awards,

which came off the success of her 1965 song “Queen of

the House”. By blending multiple genres together, Miller’s

music was considered influential for other music artists.

Miller was born in Arizona, but raised in Blanchard,

Oklahoma. With a passion for folk music, she moved

to Los Angeles, California following high school to

pursue a music career. Her singing attracted the attention

of Capitol Records, which signed her to a recording

contract in 1963. The label released her debut studio

album titled ‘Wednesday’s Child Is Full of Woe’ in 1963.

It was Miller’s answer song to Roger Miller’s “King of

the Road” titled “Queen of the House” that became her

first commercial success. It became a top 20 pop song

and a top five country song. It was followed by the top

25 pop single “Home of the Brave” that discussed social

conformity. Miller remained at Capitol recording various

material until 1969.

Miller was then signed to the country music label, Epic

Records. Under the direction of Billy Sherrill, she

remade pop hits into singles for the country market.

She had top ten country singles with covers of “He’s So

Fine” (1971), “Baby I’m Yours” (1971) and original songs

like “There’s a Party Goin’ On” (1972). The Epic label

released a series of singles and albums that made the

North American country music charts through the end

of the 1970s. She was nominated for another Grammy for

Epic material and appeared on several popular country

television programs during the decade.

Miller left her recording career in the early 1980s.

She spent time with her domestic duties and to assist

her husband’s new business raising quarter horses in

Oklahoma. In 1988, she returned with a pair of new

studio albums including a project of patriotic music

called ‘My Country.’ It attracted the attention of George


Jody Miller

H. W. Bush, who had Miller perform at his campaign

rallies and other presidential events. In the 1990s, Miller

found solace in the religion of Christianity and released

several albums of gospel material. This included ‘Real

Good Feelin’ (1992) and ‘Higher’ (1999). Miller continued

her career through the 2020s, before her death from

Parkinson’s disease in 2022.

Myrna Joy Miller was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1941

while her family was on their way to start a new life in

Oakland, California. She was the youngest of four sisters

born to Johnny Bell Miller and Fay Miller. Miller’s father

was a mechanic, who made fiddles and played them

too. Her mother was a homemaker who enjoyed singing

around the house. Together, Miller would sing harmony

with her four sisters. Her parents discovered their

daughter’s unique singing ability and entered her in talent

contests during her early childhood. Miller’s father also

illegally brought her into bars where his daughter would

stand on tables singing. She became locally known as “the

little girl with the big voice”.

Mr. and Mrs. Miller divorced when their daughter

was eight. She took a Greyhound bus and ended up

in Blanchard, Oklahoma where she was raised by her

paternal grandmother. At her grandmother’s home, she

heard Mario Lanza singing “La donna è mobile”. “That is

when I first realized that I would be a singer. I was bitten,”

Miller wrote on her official website. She also joined choir

in high school and sang in a trio that performed songs by

The McGuire Sisters. Miller graduated from Blanchard

High School in 1959. She then got a job as a secretary in

Oklahoma City and learned to sing folk music.

Miller was performing in coffeehouses throughout her

local area. She was singing in one particular coffeehouse

in Norman, Oklahoma when she was heard by Lou

Gottlieb. Impressed by her singing, Gottlieb encouraged

Miller to move to California. However, she turned down

his offer and married instead. Shortly after her wedding,

Miller and husband moved to Los Angeles, California

in hopes of launching her music career. The couple got

in touch with Gottlieb, he brought her in contact with

his agent. However, Miller did not like Gottlieb’s agent.

She instead contacted actor Dale Robertson, who was

connected to her husband’s family. Robertson helped

Miller get an audition with Capitol Records and she

signed with the label in 1963. The label then changed her

name from “Myrna Miller” to “Jody Miller”.

At Capitol, Miller was signed as a folk recording artist. In

1963, the label released her debut LP titled ‘Wednesday’s

Child Is Full of Woe’. Its background session performers

included Cher and Glen Campbell, both of whom

were not yet artists. Miller then made appearances on

‘Tom Paxton’s folk television show.’ The album failed to

become a commercial success due to the decline of folk


music’s popularity. Miller’s career was then taken into

other genres. In 1964, her debut single “He Walks Like a

Man” made America’s Billboard pop chart. In Australia,

it climbed into the top ten. In 1965, Miller participated

in Italy’s Sanremo Festival as a team companion of Pino

Donaggio. Since the festival was created as a composers’

competition, Miller and Donaggio presented differently

arranged versions of the entry “Io che non vivo (senza

te)”. The song came placed at number seven and was

moderately successful in Italy. It was then recorded in

English by Dusty Springfield and released as “You Don’t

Have to Say You Love Me”.

Upon returning to the United States, Miller was given

a new record producer named Steve Douglas. Douglas

was given a song recently written in response to Roger

Miller’s (no relation) cross-genre hit “King of the Road”.

Titled “Queen of the House”, the song described the

domestic duties of a housewife. Douglas believed the

song to be a hit and had Jody Miller cut the track while

“King of the Road” was still on the charts. “Queen of the

House” was then rush-released as a single in 1965 and was

played simultaneously with “King of the Road”. It reached

number 12 on the Billboard pop chart, number four on

the Billboard adult contemporary chart and number

five on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Miller’s

second LP of the same name then appeared on Capitol

in June 1965. At the 8th Annual Grammy Awards, Miller

took home the Best Female Country Vocal Performance

accolade, becoming only the second female artist to win a

country Grammy.

Miller toured amidst her commercial breakthrough.

Among her gigs was a tour of Hawaii alongside The

Beach Boys. Capitol Records paired Miller alongside

The Rolling Stones for television appearances including

‘Shindig!’ and ‘Hollywood a Go-Go’. A new agent booked

her for shows with entertainers Bob Hope and Bob

Newhart. Miller’s follow-up singles made the pop charts

in North America and Australia. This included “Silver

Threads and Golden Needles” (1965) along with “Home

of the Brave” (1965). The latter recording reached number

25 on the Billboard pop chart, number 29 in Australia and

number five on Canada’s RPM Top Singles chart. The song

was considered “anti-establishment” because it described

how a boy was banned from public school for dressing

different than the other children. It was banned from

many radio stations yet was Miller’s best-selling single in

the United States. “I loved that song. Unfortunately it got a

bad rep,” she said in 2020.

Miller’s country radio success from “Queen of the

House” also influenced her label to have her record more

country music, despite her original opposition to the

genre. Ultimately, she ended up enjoying recording the

genre. “They gave me a Grammy Award for ‘Queen of the

House’, and it thrust me into country and western music,”

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she told Texas Hot Country magazine. Producer Steve

Douglas attempted to embed country into Miller’s Capitol

recordings, but his formula was not successful. “They

saw right through us! We weren’t country people,” she

explained in 2018. Despite this, Capitol issued a country

album of Buck Owens songs in 1966 and another country

album in 1968 titled ‘The Nashville Sound of Jody Miller’.

The latter featured a cover of “Long Black Limousine”, a

song about a funeral procession. Although Elvis Presley

recorded its most notable version, Miller’s cover made the

Billboard country chart in 1968.

Miller briefly retired from her music career due to limited

commercial success and a lack of well-run management.

Instead her family moved back to Oklahoma and

spent time on their newly acquired ranch. Miller was

determined to restart her career after hearing Tammy

Wynette’s “Stand by Your Man”. She located the song’s

producer, Billy Sherrill, called his office in Nashville and

the two later met. This led to her signing a country music

recording contract with Epic Records in 1970. The first

Sherrill-produced album was ‘Look at Mine’ in 1970. The

album included both country and pop tunes and reached

the top 20 of the Billboard country albums chart. Both

of the LP’s singles (the title track and “If You Think I

Love You Now”) reached the top 40 of the American and

Canadian country charts.

At first, Sherrill found it challenging to find Miller’s

musical identity. This was because Miller did not have

the phrasing of a country performer. His idea instead was

to pair Miller’s voice with older pop songs and rework

them for the country market. “We were pioneers of

sorts putting pop music into country and we sold a lot

of records,” she recalled in 1990. Miller’s 1971 remake of

The Chiffons’s “He’s So Fine” reached number five on the

Billboard country chart, crossed over to number 53 on the

Billboard Hot 100 and reached the number two position

on the Billboard adult contemporary chart. Her next Epic

LP (also titled ‘He’s So Fine’) reached number 12 on the

Top Country Albums chart in 1971. The song brought

Miller her second nomination from Grammy Awards.

Miller had continued country chart success during the

early 1970s.

Her next single was a cover of “Baby I’m Yours”, which

reached the Billboard country top five and Canada’s

RPM top ten. She also covered “To Know Him Is to

Love Him” and “Be My Baby”, which both reached the

top 20 respectively. According to Miller, Billy Sherrill

made decisions about what she would record. It was

often difficult for him to find quality material because

Miller was not a songwriter. “I had to wait until someone

brought me some songs,” she told Wide Open Country.

Some of the songs Miller recorded were new material.

Her 1972 single “There’s a Party Goin’ On” was penned by

Sherrill and Glenn Sutton. It became her highest peaking

country single, climbing to number four on the Billboard

country chart and number one on the RPM country chart.

A subsequent LP of the same name reached the Billboard

country top 30. Miller’s next pair of singles were also

original recordings: “Good News” and “Darling, You Can

Always Come Back Home”. Both reached the Billboard

and RPM top ten in 1973. The singles appeared on her

1973 LP, ‘Good News!’, which reached number 18 on the

country LP’s chart.

Despite several years of country commercial success,

her popularity began to wane by 1974. Among her final

top 40 country singles was a cover of “The House of the

Rising Sun”. The Epic label continued releasing Miller’s

material regularly despite reaching progressively lower

chart positions. Fourteen more songs made the Billboard

Hot Country Songs chart. However, most of these singles

made entry-level positions. Among her chart records were

covers of “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”,

“Will You Love Me Tomorrow”, “I Wanna Love My Life

Away” and “Lay a Little Lovin’ on Me”.[ An original 1976

single, “When the New Wears Off Our Love”, went to

number 25 on the Billboard country chart. Its subsequent

album, ‘Here’s Jody Miller’, was considered Miller’s “best

late-period LP” by writers Robert K. Oermann and Mary

A. Bufwack, who noted its Linda Ronstadt influence.

Her final chart appearance occurred in 1979 and her Epic

contract expired the same year.

Miller went into a period of semi-retirement after her

Epic contract ended. She supported her husband’s quarter

horse business and attended to domestic duties on her

Oklahoma ranch. In the late eighties, Miller got the

idea to record an album of American patriotic music.

People around her did not believe it would be successful

and told her she was “crazy”. In 1988, ‘My Country’ was

released by the independent Amethyst label on cassette. It

included covers of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “The

Ragged Old Flag”. It was discovered by future American

Republican president George H. W. Bush, who was then

campaigning. Bush was impressed by Miller’s album

and asked her to perform at some of his campaign stops.

Despite being a registered Democrat, Miller agreed to the

performances. Miller then performed at the Presidential

inaugural ball after he was elected. “It was one of the

highlights of my life,” she later said.

In 1988, the Amethyst label also issued an album of

country recordings titled ‘A Home for My Heart’. Miller’s

daughter Robin coaxed her into recording as a motherdaughter

duo and the pair attempted to sign a country

music recording contract in Nashville. Their first gig

was at the 1989 Oklahoma State Fair. “Robin and I really

do split the vocals 50-50, so we’re more like the Everly

Brothers than the Judds. It’s an honest sound,” she told the

press in 1990. However, they were unsuccessful. Despite


Jody Miller

not getting a major-label contract, the duo recorded

an album. Under the names “Jody and Robin”, the duo

independently released ‘Real Good Feelin’ in 1991.

In 1993, Miller discovered Christianity and began

recording music in the gospel format in the years that

followed. “It’s the gift that I’ve been given, to sing. I think

my Lord deserves recognition for that ... so I love to use

that gift,” she later commented. On independent record

labels, Miller released ‘I’ll Praise the Lamb’ and ‘The Baby

from Bethlehem’, both in 1996. It was followed in 1999 by

another gospel project titled ‘Higher’.

In the final years of her career, Miller formed a trio with

daughter Robin and grandson Montana. They played

gigs and concerts under the name Jody Miller and Three

Generations. The trio performed throughout the state of

Oklahoma by opening their shows together, followed by

Miller performing her own songs and concluded by her

family performing separately. Following Miller’s death in

2022, the Heart of Texas label released an extended play

of her final recordings titled ‘Wayfaring Stranger’. The

project was described as being a collection of “old-time

spirituals”.

Miller’s artistry was defined by the musical genres of folk,

country, gospel, and pop. Critics have commented that

Miller’s musical versatility lacked consistency for her as an

artist. In reviewing her 1970 ‘Look at Mine’ album, Greg

Adams of AllMusic commented, “The wide variety of

songs she recorded and her chameleonic vocals prevented

Miller from establishing a signature sound.” In reviewing

one of her compilations, Richie Unterberger wrote,

“Miller is most often categorized as a country singer, but

in the 1960s she was actually pretty eclectic, roving among

and combining country, folk, pop, and girl group-like pop\

rock. That means there isn’t much stylistic consistency here,

though there are some good songs.”

influencing crossover future country crossover artists like

Linda Ronstadt, Jennifer Warnes and Nicolette Larson.

They further commented on Miller’s legacy, “The countrypop

approach Jody pioneered was a profitable one for

many successors.” Greg Adams commented that Miller,

along with Jan Howard and Jeannie Seely “pioneered

pop-oriented country music in the ‘60s, and their sound

has since come to dominate the field.”

Miller has since been recognized for her contributions to

the music industry. In 1999, the Country Gospel Music

Association inducted Miller into its Hall of Fame, along

with Loretta Lynn, Barbara Mandrell, Andy Griffith,

David L. Cook and Lulu Roman. In 2018, Miller was

among several recording artists that were inducted into

the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame. In 2021, Miller’s

hometown of Blanchard named a new performing arts

center after Miller. In November 2021, she participated in

a ceremony dedicated to its opening. It will be named the

“Jody Miller Performing Arts Center” Miller’s career was

also shown in a Grammy exhibit titled ‘Stronger Together:

The Power of Women in Country Music’ that was shown

at the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In January 1962 Miller married her high school

sweetheart, Monty Brooks. The couple lived in Los

Angeles, California for the first eight years of the

marriage. In 1965 Miller gave birth to her only child,

Robin. In 1970, the family moved to Blanchard,

Oklahoma so their daughter could attend school in their

home state. For many years, Brooks and Miller operated

a quarter horse breeding and training business on their

Blanchard ranch.

Miller was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the final

seven years of her life. She died on October 6, 2022, in

Blanchard, Oklahoma, from complications caused by the

disease, at age 80.

On her own artistic diversity, Miller commented, “I like to

sing all kinds of songs, so I didn’t fit into a mold.”

Writers have also remarked on Miller’s voice. Greg Adams

commented that Miller’s voice resembled that of Bobbie

Gentry’s but with more “technical ability”. In a separate

AllMusic review, Adams commented that Miller’s also

drew similarities to that of sixties pop singer Vicki

Carr and found that it lacks any “rural or working-class

character” in comparison to country performers. Ed

Shanahan of The New York Times described Miller’s as “a

versatile singer with a rich, resonant voice”.

Miller’s fusion of country, folk and pop were said to

influence other female artists that followed. Writers Mary

A. Bufwack and Robert K. Oermann described Miller

as having a “variety pack approach” to her musical style,


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The discography of American singer Jody Miller

contains 21 studio albums, five compilation

albums, one video album, one album appearance,

one extended play (EP) and 57 singles. Of her 57 singles,

47 were issued with Miller as the lead artist, two were

released as a collaboration, two were promotional singles

and five were internationally-released singles.

At Capitol Records, Miller recorded several albums

beginning with “Wednesday’s Child Is Full of Woe”

(1963). In 1963, her debut single “He Walks Like a Man”

reached the American Billboard Hot 100. In 1965, the

single “Queen of the House” reached number 12 on the

Hot 100 and the top five of Billboard Hot Country Songs

chart. A corresponding album of the same name reached

number 12 on the Billboard Top Country Albums survey

and number 124 on the Billboard 200. It was followed

by the charting single “Silver Threads and Golden

Needles” and the top 30 song “Home of the Brave”. The

Capitol label issued three more studio albums of Miller’s

recordings, including The Nashville Sound of Jody Miller

(1968), which reached the country albums top 50.

At Epic Records, Miller’s singles and albums made the

North American country charts. Her first Epic album

was 1970’s Look at Mine. It was followed by 1971’s He’s

So Fine, which featured the top five Billboard country

songs “He’s So Fine” and “Baby I’m Yours”. Both singles

also reached the Hot 100 and the Billboard adult

contemporary chart. These songs also made the top ten of

the Canadian RPM Country Tracks survey.

Three more singles reached the country top ten through

1973: “There’s a Party Goin’ On”, “Good News” and

“Darling You Can Always Come Back Home”. Three

additional singles made the North American country top

20: “Be My Baby”, “To Know Him Is to Love Him” and

“Let’s All Go Down to the River”. Her top ten singles were

featured on the studio albums There’s a Party Goin’ On

(1972) and Good News! (1973). Both albums made the

American country chart.

Miller remained at the Epic label through 1979, releasing

four more studio albums such as House of the Rising Sun

(1974) and Country Girl (1975). Her final studio album

was 1977’s Here’s Jody Miller. Following a single also

titled “House of the Rising Sun”, her recordings reached

progressively lower chart positions on the country charts.

She reached the Billboard country top 40 one more time

with 1976’s “When the New Wears Off Our Love”. Her

singles charted through the close of the decade. Miller’s

final charting single was “Lay a Little Lovin’ on Me”

(1979). Miller sporadically recorded for different labels

over the next several decades. This included My Country,

Higher, Real Good Feelin and Bye Bye Blues.

jody miller d

STUDIO ALBUMS

WEDNESDAY’S CHILD IS FULL OF WOE

1963 Capitol

Discogs link

QUEEN OF THE HOUSE

1965 Capitol

Discogs link

HOME OF THE BRAVE

1965 Capitol

Discogs link

JODY MILLER SINGS THE GREAT HITS OF

BUCK OWENS

1966 Capitol

Discogs link

THE NASHVILLE SOUND OF JODY MILLER

1968 Capitol

Discogs link

LOOK AT MINE

1970 Epic

Discogs link

HE’S SO FINE

1971 Epic

Discogs link

THERE’S A PARTY GOIN’ ON

1972 Epic

Discogs link

GOOD NEWS!

1973 Epic

Discogs link

HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN

1974 Epic

Discogs link

COUNTRY GIRL

1975 Epic

Discogs link

WILL YOU LOVE ME TOMORROW

1976 Epic

Discogs link


Jody Miller

iscography

HERE’S JODY MILLER

1977 Epic

Discogs link

MY COUNTRY

1988 Amethyst

Website link

A HOME FOR MY HEART

1988 Amethyst

Youtube link

REAL GOOD FEELIN’

1991 Zero

Discogs link

GREATEST HITS

1992 CEO Nashville

Discogs link

THE BABY FROM BETHLEHAM

1996 Jody Miller

Youtube link

I’LL PRAISE THE LAMB

1996 White Dove

Discogs link

HIGHER

1999 Compendia

Discogs link

BYE BYE BLUES

2002 Jody Miller

Performance link

COMPILATION

ALBUMS

QUEEN OF COUNTRY

1966 Hilltop

Discogs link

THE BEST OF JODY MILLER

1973 Capitol

Discogs link

ANTHOLOGY

2000 Renaissance

Discogs link


COMPLETE EPIC HITS

2012 Epic/Real Gone

Discogs link

THE BEST OF JODY MILLER

1973 Capitol

Discogs link

SINGLES

He Walks Like A Man

They Call My Guy A Tiger

The Fever

Warm Is The Love

Look For Small Pleasures

Never Let Him Go

Queen Of The House

Silver Threads & Golden Needles

Home Of The Brave

Magic Town

We’re Gonna Let -

The Good Times Roll

I Remember Mama

Things

If You Were A Carpenter

How Do You Say Goodbye

Kiss Me

To Sir With Love

I Knew You Well

It’s My Time

Long Black Limousine

Bon Soir Cher

My Daddy’s Thousand Dollars

Look At Mine

If You Think I Love You Now

He’s So Fine

Baby I’m Yours

Be My Baby

Let’s All Go Down To The River

There’s A Party Goin’ On

To Know Him Is To Love Him

Good News

Darling, You Can Always Come

Back Home

The House Of The Rising Sun

Reflections

Natural Woman

Country Girl

The Best In Me

Don’t Take It Away

Will You Love Me Tomorrow

Ashes Of Love

When The New Wears Off

Spread A Little Love Around

Another Lonely Night

Soft Lights & Slow Sexy Music

I Wanna Love My Life Away

Kiss Away

I Don’t Want Nobody -

To Lead Me On

Lay A Little Lovin’ On Me

SUMMARY

Studio albums 21

EPs 1

Compilation albums 5

Singles 57

Video albums 1

Lead singles 47

Collaborative singles 2

Promotional singles 2

International singles 5

Other album appearances 1

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julie

felix

Julie Ann Felix (June 14, 1938 – March 22, 2020) was an

American-British folk singer and recording artist who

achieved success, particularly on British television, in the

late 1960s and early 1970s. She later performed and released

albums on her own record label.

Felix was born in Santa Barbara, California, to a father of

Mexican and Native American origin and mother of English

and Welsh ancestry. She graduated in 1956 from high school

in Westchester, Los

Angeles.

Felix grew up in a musical household: her father was a

professional mariachi musician, and her mother was an

amateur singer who loved the music of Burl Ives. Her father

taught her to play ukulele and then guitar, and she wrote her

first song at the age of seven.

After studying speech and drama at the University of

California, Santa Barbara, Felix worked as a sports mistress

at a school for disabled children. She began her music career

by singing at night in coffee shops in her native Los Angeles,

where she met a young David Crosby.

After saving up $1000 from her job, she left the United States

in June 1962 and travelled extensively around Europe for

around two years, often playing in bars and coffee shops to

earn extra money. It was during her stay on the Greek island

of Hydra that she met Leonard Cohen, who at this time had

become part of the ‘salon’ that formed around expatriate

Australian writers George Johnston and Charmian Clift.

She arrived in the United Kingdom in 1964, and became the

first solo folk performer signed to a major British record label

when she gained a recording contract with Decca Records,

for whom she recorded three solo albums. Her first major

break was a headlining appearance at the Fairfield Halls in

Croydon in 1965, and later that year her first solo show gave

her the distinction of being the first folksinger to fill the

Royal Albert Hall, and she was described by The Times as

“Britain’s First Lady of Folk”. Her first major break in British

television was an appearance on the ‘Eamonn Andrews’ TV

show, which was so well-received that she was invited back to

perform again the following week. Felix was also the first pop


Julie Felix

musician ever to perform at Westminster Abbey.

In 1966, on the way to the launch party for her debut album,

Felix had a chance meeting with comedian

David Frost in the elevator of her Chelsea apartment

building. Frost – who had recently been chosen as the host

of a new BBC topical satire series – accompanied Felix to

the launch, and was so impressed by her performance that

he lobbied the BBC to include her as one of the two resident

musical performers on his new BBC television programme

‘The Frost Report’ (the other being American musical satirist

Tom Lehrer). Her appearances on the series brought her

international recognition and made her a household name in

the UK.

In 1966, following the end of her deal with Decca, Felix

signed a new contract with Fontana Records, a subsidiary

of the Dutch-based Philips label. She made six albums for

Fontana between 1966 and 1969. Her first Fontana LP,

‘Changes’, was a UK Top 40 hit, reaching no. 27, and the label

also released two “tie-in” EPs of songs Felix performed on

‘The Frost Report’.

In 1967, with strong support from Frost (with whom she had

a long-running romantic relationship), Felix was hired to

host and perform in her own musical variety shows on BBC2,

which ran from 1967 to 1970.

Felix made two consecutive musical-variety shows for the

BBC, both directed and produced by Stanley Dorfman. The

first was ‘Once More With Felix’. The premiere episode was

transmitted on December 9, 1967. It was the first BBC TV

series made in colour, and one of the first British shows of

that genre to be hosted by a female pop performer. (Dusty

Springfield’s show Dusty, also produced and directed by

Dorfman, had premiered 18 months earlier, in June 1966).

In an interview promoting her 80th birthday concert in 2018,

Felix recalled that the BBC gave her one of the first colour

televisions in Britain at the time, and she recounted how her

Chelsea flat was “packed” with friends and guests who came

to watch the Boxing Day 1967 premiere broadcast of ‘The

Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour’ on her colour TV.

Many notable musical guests featured on ‘Once More with

Felix’ and its successor ‘The Julie Felix Show,’ including

Manfred Mann, Dusty Springfield, Billy Preston, The

Kinks, Tim Buckley, The Hollies, The Incredible String

Band, Fleetwood Mac, and The Four Tops, as well as

comedians Peter Cook and Spike Milligan. She invited her

old friend Leonard Cohen to appear in 1968, marking his

British TV debut, and ‘Led Zeppelin’ lead guitarist Jimmy

Page gave a rare solo performance, playing “White Summer”

and “Black Mountain Side”.

Felix also regularly performed with her guests; surviving

segments from the show include her duetting with Cohen,

singing and playing guitar with The Incredible String

Band on their song “Paintbox” and singing the Tom Paxton

song “Going to the Zoo”, backed by The Hollies. The BBC

subsequently wiped most of the master tapes of her shows,

and only selected excerpts survive, which vary greatly in

quality. Some of these can be viewed on YouTube.

On May 1, 1967, Felix appeared on the German TV show

‘Beat-Club,’ and in September 1968 at the ‘International Essen

Song Days’. She performed at the Isle of Wight Festival in

1969.

In 1968, Felix was caught in possession of cannabis at

Heathrow Airport, en route to Amsterdam. She was arrested,

charged, and remanded on bail, and her public image suffered

somewhat, although her TV show remained on the air. She

was defended in court by John Mortimer, QC.

In 1971, Felix travelled to New Zealand and performed at the

‘Western Springs music festival’. On 19 December that year

she gave birth to her only child, a daughter, Tanit Alexandra

Teresa Guadalupe, choosing to raise the child herself as a

single mother. Felix would not discuss her child’s father and

never revealed his identity.

She had two UK Singles Chart hits in 1970, the first of several

on the RAK label, produced by Mickie Most. The first was

with the song titled “If I Could (El Cóndor Pasa)”, while the

second, “Heaven Is Here”, was written by Errol Brown and

Tony Wilson of Hot Chocolate.

Felix released 14 albums on various labels between 1972

and 2018; many were released by her own label, Remarkable

Records, including the 1989 album ‘Bright Shadows’.

Felix relocated to Norway for several years in the late 1970s,

but she grew disenchanted with the direction her career was

taking and returned to her native California, where she took a

break from music to study yoga and other spiritual practices.

She resumed performing in the late 1980s, and returned to

the UK, where she resided for the rest of her life.

Social activism and charity work played a large role in Felix’s

life and career, and she performed on behalf of or was an

activist for many causes.

On March 24, 2008, she appeared on a BBC Four programme

in which stars of The Frost Report gathered for a night

celebrating the 40th anniversary of Frost Over England;

Felix sang “Blowin’ in the Wind”. She appeared at the Wynd

Theatre, Melrose, Scottish Borders, on an annual basis in the

2000s.

After her return to the UK, Felix lived in Chorleywood,

Hertfordshire, England until her death, still recording and

performing. In 2018, she celebrated her 80th birthday with a

special concert at the Charing Cross Theatre, which featured

guest appearances by John Paul Jones, singer Madeline Bell

and composer-arranger-musician John Cameron (famed for

his collaborations with Donovan and Hot Chocolate).

Julie Felix died on March 22, 2020, after a short illness.


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ALBUMS

1964 Julie Felix (Decca) including version of

“Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)”

LINK

1965 2nd Album (Decca)

LINK

1966 3rd Album (Decca)

LINK

1966 Changes (Fontana)

LINK

1967 In Concert (World)

LINK

1967 Flowers (Fontana)

LINK

1968 This World Goes Round and Round

(Fontana)

LINK

1968 Julie Felix’s World (Fontana)

LINK

1969 Going to the Zoo (Fontana)

LINK

1972 Clotho’s Web (RAK)

LINK

1974 Lightning (EMI)

LINK

1977 Hota Chocolata (Monte Rosa)

LINK

1980 Colours in the Rain (Scranta)

LINK

1982 Blowing in the Wind (Scranta/Dingle’s)

LINK

1987 Amazing Grace (Starburst)

LINK

julie felix d

1989 Bright Shadows (Remarkable)

LINK

1993 Branches in the Mist (Remarkable)

LINK

1995 Windy Morning (Remarkable)

LINK

1998 Fire – My Spirit (Remarkable)

LINK

2002 Starry Eyed and Laughing: Songs by

Bob Dylan (Remarkable)

LINK

2008 Highway of Diamonds (Remarkable)

LINK

2013 La Que Sabe (She Who Knows) (Remarkable)

LINK

2018 Rock Me Goddess (Talking Elephant)

LINK

EP’S

1965 Sings Dylan & Guthrie (Decca)

LINK

1966 Songs from the Frost Report (Fontana)

LINK

1967 Songs from the Frost Report, Vol. 2 (Fontana)

LINK

SINGLES

1965 “Someday Soon” (Decca)

LINK

1966 “I Can’t Touch the Sun” (Fontana)

LINK

1967 “Saturday Night” (Fontana)

LINK

1967 “The Magic of the Playground” (Fontana)

LINK


iscography

1968 “That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” (Fontana)

LINK

1970 “If I Could (El Cóndor Pasa)”

(RAK) – UK[13] No. 19

LINK

1970 “Heaven Is Here” (RAK) – UK[13] No. 22

LINK

1971 “Snakeskin” (RAK)

LINK

1971 “Moonlight” (RAK)

LINK

1972 “Fire Water Earth and Air” (RAK)

LINK

1974 “Lady With the Braid” (EMI)

LINK

1974 “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine” (EMI)

LINK

1977 “Hota Chocolata” (Talent)

LINK

1978 “Come Out” (Talent)

LINK

1981 “Yoko (We Believe)” (Scranta)

LINK

1981 “Dance With Me” (Scranta)

LINK

1988 “The Sea and the Sky” (Remarkable)

LINK

1992 “Woman” (Remarkable)

LINK

Julie Felix

1974 “Finally Getting to Know One Another”

(EMI) LINK


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TIM

HARDIN

James Timothy Hardin (December 23, 1941 – December

29, 1980) was an American folk music and blues singersongwriter

and guitarist. In addition to his own success,

his songs “If I Were a Carpenter”, “Reason to Believe”, “Misty

Roses” and “The Lady Came from Baltimore” were hits for

other artists.

Hardin was raised in Oregon and had no interest in school,

withdrawing before graduating high school, and joining

the Marines. After his discharge, he moved to Greenwich

Village and Cambridge, where he played and recorded several

albums. He also performed at the Newport Folk Festival and

at Woodstock. He struggled with drug abuse throughout most

of his adult life and his live performances were sometimes

erratic. He was planning a comeback when he died in late

1980 from an accidental heroin overdose.

Tim Hardin was born in Eugene, Oregon to Hal and Molly

Hardin, who both had musical backgrounds. His mother

was a violinist and concertmaster of the Portland Symphony

Orchestra and his father played bass in jazz bands in the

Army and in college.

While a student at South Eugene High School, Hardin first

learned to play the guitar. When he was 18, he dropped

out and joined the Marines, improving his guitar skills and

building a repertoire of folk songs. He first tried heroin while

stationed with the Marines in Southeast Asia.

After his discharge in 1961, Hardin moved to New York City,

where he briefly attended the American Academy of Dramatic

Arts. He was eventually dropped for poor attendance and

began to focus on his music, performing around Greenwich

Village playing folk songs and blues. During this time, he

became friends with fellow musicians Cass Elliot, John

Sebastian and Fred Neil. He moved to Boston in 1963 and

became part of a growing folk music scene there. In Boston,

he was discovered by upcoming record producer Erik

Jacobsen (later the producer for the Lovin’ Spoonful), who

arranged a meeting with Columbia Records. The next year,

Hardin returned to Greenwich Village to record for Columbia

and recorded several demos as an audition that the label did

not release. Columbia soon terminated his contract. Verve

Forecast would release these tracks six years later as ‘Tim

Hardin 4’.

After moving to Los Angeles in 1965, Hardin met actress


Tim Hardin

Susan Yardley Morss (known professionally as Susan Yardley)

and returned to New York with her. He signed with Verve

Forecast and released his first album, ‘Tim Hardin 1’, in 1966,

which included “How Can We Hang On to a Dream”, “Reason

to Believe” and the ballad “Misty Roses” to critical acclaim

and mainstream radio airplay. That same year, he played at a

Saturday afternoon workshop of contemporary and protest

songs at the Newport Folk Festival.

Hardin was admired for his singing voice, described by a Los

Angeles Times reviewer as

“a voice which quavers between the tugs of the blues and the

tender side of joy. He can sing nasty, but his forte is gentle songs

whose case allows him to slip and slide through a rainbow of

emotions.”

However, Hardin said in another interview:

“I think of myself more as a singer than a songwriter and always

did. It happened to be that I wrote songs. I’m a jazz singer, really,

writing in a different vocabulary mode but still with a jazz feel.

I don’t ever sing one song the same way. I’m an improvisational

singer and player.”

He recorded “Black Sheep Boy” in 1966, a song about his drug

use and the alienation from his family. Bobby Darin, Ronnie

Hawkins, Bill Staines, Joel Grey and Don McLean recorded

cover versions of the song.

In 1967, Verve released ‘Tim Hardin 2’, which contained one of

Hardin’s most famous songs, “If I Were a Carpenter”. That same

year, Atco, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, released an album

of earlier material called ‘This Is Tim Hardin’, featuring covers

of “The House of the Rising Sun”, Fred Neil’s “Blues on the

Ceiling” and Willie Dixon’s “Hoochie Coochie Man” as well

as the original songs “Fast Freight” and “Can’t Slow Down”.

The album’s liner notes state that Hardin recorded the songs in

1963–1964, well before the release of ‘Tim Hardin 1’.

By 1967, after critical acclaim for Hardin’s first album and the

release of ‘This Is Tim Hardin’, a wide variety of artists were

covering his songs and he was in demand to tour Europe and

the United States. However, the quality of his work was in

decline partly because of

“his own combativeness in the studio, his addiction to heroin,

his drinking problems and his frustration with his lack of

commercial success”.

He began performing poorly and missing shows, reputedly

falling asleep on stage at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1968.

At the time, he was viewed as enigmatic, with one journalist

stating that while

“his position as one of the best songwriters of his generation is

unquestioned, he courted the scene in the most fumbling manner

imaginable”.

The same writer noted Hardin’s “uninspired stage presence”

and seemingly ambivalent relationship with his audience, as

he often ignored them, just singing “at times badly, at times

beautifully ... somehow always fascinating”. The tour was cut

short after Hardin contracted pleurisy.

In 1968, Verve released ‘Tim Hardin 3 Live in Concert’, a

collection of live recordings along with remakes of earlier

songs, followed by ‘Tim Hardin 4’. In September 1968, Hardin

and Van Morrison shared a bill at the Cafe Au Go Go, each

performing an acoustic set. In 1969, he signed with Columbia

again, recording three albums for them, ‘Suite for Susan

Moore and Damion’: We Are One, One, All in One’, ‘Bird on

a Wire’ and ‘Painted Head’. He had one of his few commercial

successes with a non-album single, a cover of Bobby Darin’s

“Simple Song of Freedom” that reached #48 in the U.S. as well

as the Canadian charts. Because of his heroin use and stage

fright, he was undependable in his live performances and he

did not tour in support of the single.

In 1969, Hardin appeared at the Woodstock Festival, where he

sang “If I Were a Carpenter” solo and played a set of his songs

backed by a full band. None of his performances were included

in the documentary film or the original soundtrack album. His

performance of “If I Were a Carpenter” was included in the

1994 box set ‘Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music’.

In the years that followed, Hardin traveled between Britain

and the U.S. In 1969, he went to England for a program to treat

heroin addiction but was unsuccessful and became addicted to

the barbiturates that were administered during the withdrawal

stage His heroin addiction controlled his life by the time his

last album, ‘Nine’, was released in 1973 (the album was not

released in the U.S. until Antilles Records released it in 1976).

He sold the rights to his songs, but accounts of how this

happened differ.

In late November 1975, Hardin performed as a guest lead

vocalist with the German experimental rock band ‘Can’ for

two UK concerts at Hatfield Polytechnic in Hertfordshire and

at London’s Drury Lane Theatre. According to author Rob

Young in the book ‘All Gates Open: The Story of Can’, during

an argument with Can after the London concert, Hardin threw

a television set through a car’s windshield.

After several years in Britain, Hardin returned to the U.S.

in early 1980, writing ten new songs and recording them

at home for a comeback. However, on December 29, his

longtime friend Ron Daniels found him dead on the floor of

his Hollywood apartment. The police determined that there

was no evidence of foul play, and it was initially believed that

Hardin had died from a heart attack. The Los Angeles coroner’s

office later confirmed that the cause of death was an accidental

heroin overdose. Hardin was interred at Twin Oaks Cemetery

in Turner, Oregon.

The following year, Columbia released his last work, eight

unfinished tracks, on the posthumous album ‘Unforgiven’,

along with a compilation of his previous work for the label

titled ‘The Shock of Grace’.

Among his successes, Tim Hardin wrote the top 40 hit “If I

Were a Carpenter”, covered by Bobby Darin, Bob Dylan, Bob


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Seger, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, the Four Tops, Robert Plant,

Small Faces, Johnny Rivers, Bert Jansch, Willie Nelson,

Sheryl Crow, Dolly Parton, Joe Nichols, The Free Design,

Ernest Wilson, John Holt and others.

Many artists covered his song “Reason to Believe”, such as the

Carpenters, Neil Young and Rod Stewart, whose version

became a #1 hit in the UK. “How Can We Hang On to a

Dream” has been covered by Cliff Richard, Françoise Hardy,

Marianne Faithfull, Fleetwood Mac, Peter Frampton, The

Nice and Echo and the Bunnymen. Morrissey and Nico

recorded versions of “Lenny’s Tune”. Bobby Darin and Johnny

Cash both charted with covers of “The Lady Came from

Baltimore”. Astrud Gilberto sang “Misty Roses” and Johnny

Mathis had a top 40 hit with a cover version of the song.

In 2005, the indie rock band ‘Okkervil River’ released a tribute

album called ‘Black Sheep Boy’ said to be based on Hardin’s

life. According to one reviewer, the concept of the album is a

“collection that should go some way towards rekindling an

interest in his life and work”.

Will Sheff from ‘Okkervil River’ said:

“There is something very disarming about how simple those

songs are ..., a Tim Hardin song never outstays its welcome. It’s

very short and pretty: one verse, one chorus, second verse, the

song is over and he’s out of there. It’s like a tiny, perfectly cut

gem”.

In January of 2013, a tribute album, ‘Reason to Believe: The

Songs of Tim Hardin’ featuring indie and alternative rock

bands from the U.K. and U.S. was released. Mark Lanegan,

who sang Hardin’s “Red Balloon” on the album, told Rolling

Stone:

“I’ve always been haunted by his devastating voice and beautiful

songs ... I can’t imagine anyone hearing him and not feeling the

same”.

Another performer on the album, Canadian singer-songwriter

Ron Sexsmith said of him that

“you get what he’s telling you without him spelling it out ...

when it came time to make my first record, I kept that in

mind”.

One music website initially described the album as appearing

“surprisingly mainstream” but later acknowledged it in the

article as a

“comprehensive package that transcends its limitations with the

folkier songs] capturing the fragility of Hardin’s original work

without disrupting the moody, maudlin flow”.

The album was described as an opportunity to focus more on

his music than his issues with drugs and his early death.

Roger Daltrey included “How Can We Hang On to a Dream”

on a commemorative CD of his favorite music, which won the

2016 Music Industry Trusts Award. In the liner notes, Daltrey

wrote: “I was a huge fan of Tim’s”

On his third solo album, recorded in 2015, Pete Sando of the

1960s band Gandalf included a song called “Misty Roses on

a Stone” that he cowrote as a dedication to Hardin after a visit

to Hardin’s grave. Sando acknowledged that he was greatly

influenced by Hardin, noting “his lyrical economy and musical

balance ... just the sheer simplicity and beauty of his songs was so

appealing”

Bob Dylan reportedly said that Hardin was “the greatest living

songwriter” after hearing his first album. In a 1980 interview

when asked about the Dylan quote, Hardin recalled:

“Yeah, I played him part of the album one night and he started

flipping out, you know. Man, he got down on his knees in front

of me and said: ‘Don’t change your singing style and don’t bleep

a blop...’”

In the same interview, Hardin expressed some mixed feelings

about Dylan, but in another article, Brian Millar concluded:

“Dylan was right: for some years, Tim Hardin was the greatest

songwriter alive. And just as no one sang Dylan like Dylan, no

one sings Hardin like Hardin”

Hardin claimed to be either a distant relative of or direct

descendant of John Wesley Hardin, the 19th century outlaw,

and it has been said that this provided the inspiration for

Dylan’s album ‘John Wesley Harding’.

After his death, there was considerable reflection on his

impact. Writers said that, along with Leonard Cohen, he was

the only musician who could rival Bob Dylan in composing

“deeply moving love songs” however critics also noted that

he never gained the attention he deserved and by the time

he died, not one of his albums was still in print. Jon Marlow

writing in the Miami News said he was not about to

“glorify yet another dead junkie’s lifestyle” but held that the Tim

Hardin Memorial album is an “unheralded but still beautiful

record of 12 songs that deserve your attention and money ... and

has nothing to do with dead hero worship ... it’s simply here to

remind us that via his first two albums Tim Hardin made a lot of

promises he couldn’t keep”.

Another reviewer wrote of the memorial album that it “firmly

establishes him as an enduring and influential artist”. Though

his excesses came under scrutiny, one reviewer noted that

“few people who have ever heard the poignant, often lonely, tone

of his body of work would dispute the suggestion that he was one

of the most affecting singer-songwriters of the modern pop era”.

The Los Angeles Weekly said’ that his life showed that drugs,

alcohol and creativity were not a long lasting or positive

partnership, with the writer concluding:

“I don’t think Tim Hardin was ever really sure how good he was

and he went from arrogance to despair, conscious of the promises

he couldn’t keep He is gone, but the songs aren’t and they will

last”.


Tim Hardin

tim hardin discography

TIM HARDIN 1

1966

DISCOGS LINK

TIM HARDIN - SUITE

FOR SUSAN MOORE &

DAMIEN

1969

DISCOGS LINK

TIM HARDING 2

1967

DISCOGS LINK

BIRD ON A WIRE

1971

DISCOGS LINK

THIS IS TIM HARDIN

1967

DISCOGS LINK

PAINTED HEAD

1972

DISCOGS LINK

TIM HARDIN 3

LIVE IN CONCERT

1968

DISCOGS LINK

TIM HARDIN NINE

1973

DISCOGS LINK

TIM HARDIN 4

1968

DISCOGS LINK

TIM HARDIN

UNFORGIVEN

1980

DISCOGS LINK


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CASS

ELLIOT

Ellen Naomi Cohen (September 19, 1941 – July 29,

1974), known professionally as Cass Elliot, was an

American singer. She was also known as “Mama

Cass”, a name she reportedly disliked. Elliot was a member

of the singing group the Mamas & the Papas. After the

group broke up, she released five solo albums. Elliot

received the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary (R&R)

Performance for “Monday, Monday” (1967). In 1998, she

was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of

Fame for her work with the Mamas & the Papas.

Ellen Naomi Cohen was born on September 19, 1941, in

Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of Philip (died 1962)

and Bess Cohen (née Levine; 1915–1994).[4] All four

of her grandparents were Russian-Jewish immigrants.

Her family was subject to significant financial stresses

and uncertainties during her childhood years. Her father,

involved in several business ventures, ultimately succeeded

through the development of a lunch wagon in Baltimore

that provided meals to construction workers. Her mother

was a trained nurse. Elliot had a brother, Joseph, and

a younger sister, Leah, who also became a singer and

recording artist. Elliot’s early life was spent with her family

in Alexandria, Virginia, and when she was 15, the family

moved back to Baltimore, where they had briefly lived at the

time of Elliot’s birth.

Elliot adopted the name “Cass” in high school. Her later

stage name came about in part from her father calling his

spirited daughter “the mad Cassandra.” She assumed the

surname “Elliot” some time later, in memory of a friend

who had died. While in Alexandria, she attended George

Washington High School. When Elliot’s family returned

to Baltimore, she attended Forest Park High School in

Dorchester. While attending Forest Park High School, Elliot

became interested in acting. She won a small part in the

play ‘The Boy Friend’, a summer stock production at the

Hilltop Theatre in Owings Mills, Maryland in 1959 under

the name Ellen Cohen. She left high school shortly before

graduation and moved to New York City to further her

acting career (as recounted in the lyrics to “Creeque Alley”).

After leaving high school to pursue an entertainment career

in New York, Elliot toured in the musical ‘The Music Man’


Cass Elliot

in 1962 under the name Cass Elliot, but lost the part of

Miss Marmelstein in ‘I Can Get It for You Wholesale’ to

Barbra Streisand. Elliot sometimes sang while working

as a cloakroom attendant at The Showplace in Greenwich

Village, but she did not pursue a singing career until she

moved to the Washington, DC, area to attend American

University (not Swarthmore College as mentioned in the

biographical song “Creeque Alley”).

America’s folk music scene was on the rise when Elliot

met banjoist and singer Tim Rose and singer John Brown,

and the three began performing as the ‘Triumvirate’. In

1963, James Hendricks replaced Brown, and the trio was

renamed the ‘Big 3’. Elliot’s first recording with the ‘Big 3’

was “Winken, Blinken, and Nod”, released by FM Records in

1963. In 1964, the group appeared on an “open mic” night

at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village, billed as Cass Elliot

and the Big 3, followed onstage by folk singer Jim Fosso

and bluegrass banjoist Eric Weissberg.

Tim Rose left the Big 3 in 1964, and Elliot and Hendricks

teamed with Canadians Zal Yanovsky and Denny Doherty

to form the ‘Mugwumps’. This group lasted eight months,

after which Cass performed as a solo act for a while. In

the meantime, Yanovsky and John Sebastian co-founded

the Lovin’ Spoonful, while Doherty joined the New

Journeymen, a group that also included John Phillips and

his wife Michelle. In 1965, Doherty persuaded Phillips that

Elliot should join the group, which she did while the group

members and she were vacationing in the Virgin Islands.

A popular legend about Elliot is that her vocal range was

improved by three notes after she was hit on the head by

some copper tubing while walking through a construction

site behind the bar where the New Journeymen were playing

in the Virgin Islands. Elliot confirmed the story in a 1968

interview with Rolling Stone, saying:

“It’s true, I did get hit on the head by a pipe that fell down

and my range was increased by three notes. They were tearing

this club apart in the islands, revamping it, putting in a dance

floor. Workmen dropped a thin metal plumbing pipe and it

hit me on the head and knocked me to the ground. I had a

concussion and went to the hospital. I had a bad headache for

about two weeks and all of a sudden I was singing higher. It’s

true. Honest to God”

Friends later said that the pipe story was a less embarrassing

explanation for why John Phillips had kept her out of the

group for so long, because he considered her too fat.

With two female members, the New Journeymen needed

a new name and they agreed on the ‘Mamas & the Papas’.

The group lasted from 1965 to 1968. According to Doherty,

as written in his website, Elliot had the inspiration for

the band’s new name. Doherty also said that the occasion

marked the beginning of his affair with fellow band member

Michelle Phillips. Elliot was in love with Doherty and was

displeased when he told her of the affair. Doherty has said

that Elliot once proposed to him, but that he was so stoned

at the time that he could not even respond.

Elliot was known for her sense of humor and optimism,

and was considered by many to be the most charismatic

member of the group. Her powerful, distinctive voice was

a major factor in their string of hits, including “California

Dreamin’”, “Monday, Monday”, and “Words of Love”. She

also performed the solo “Dream a Little Dream of Me”

(credited on the label of the single as ‘Featuring Mama Cass

with the Mamas and the Papas’), which the group recorded

in 1968 after learning about the death of Fabian Andre,

one of the men who co-wrote it, whom Michelle Phillips

had met years earlier. Elliot’s version is noteworthy for its

contemplative pace, whereas many earlier recordings of

“Dream a Little Dream of Me” (including one by Nat King

Cole and another by Ozzie Nelson) had been up-tempo

versions—the song having been written in 1931 as a dance

tune. The Mamas and the Papas continued to record to meet

the terms of their record contract until 1971.

After the breakup of the Mamas and the Papas, Elliot

embarked on a solo singing career. Her most successful

recording during this period was 1968’s “Dream a Little

Dream of Me” from her solo album of the same name,

released by Dunhill Records, though it had originally been

released earlier that year on the album ‘The Papas & The

Mamas’

In October 1968, Elliot made her live solo debut headlining

in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace, scheduled for a three-week

engagement at $40,000 per week with two shows per night.

According to Elliot, she went on a six-month crash diet

before the show, losing 100 of her 300 pounds. However, she

attributed a stomach ulcer and throat problems to her severe

regimen, which she treated by drinking milk and cream—

rapidly regaining 50 pounds in the process.

She was confined to her bed for three weeks before the

first performance while the musical director, band, and

production supervisor attempted to put together a show

in her absence. She was scheduled to rehearse for a full

three days before the show opened, but she managed to

get through only part of one run-through with the band

before saying that she was losing her voice. She skipped the

remainder of rehearsals and drank tea and lemon, hoping to

recover and pull herself together for opening night.

An audience of 950 people filled the Circus Maximus theater

at Caesar’s Palace on the evening of Wednesday, October 16,

including Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Jimi Hendrix,

Joan Baez, Liza Minnelli, and Mia Farrow, who had sent

flowers to Elliot’s dressing room, but backstage she had

developed a raging fever. Friends urged her manager to

cancel the show, but she felt that it was too important and

insisted on performing. Sick and having barely rehearsed,

she began to fall apart during the course of her first

performance; her voice was weak and barely audible, and

the large crowd was unsympathetic, despite the celebrity


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well-wishers. At the end of the show, Elliot returned to the

stage to apologize to the audience; “This is the first night,

and it will get better”, she said. She then sang “Dream a Little

Dream of Me” and left the stage as the audience applauded

half-heartedly. She returned later that night to perform the

second show, but her voice was worse, and many of the

audience noisily walked out.

Reviews were harsh. Esquire magazine called the show

“Sink Along with Cass” and “a disaster” that was “heroic in

proportion, epic in scope”. The Los Angeles Free Press called

it “an embarrassing drag”, while Newsweek compared it to

the Titanic disaster:

“Like some great ocean liner embarking on an ill-fated

maiden voyage, Mama Cass slid down the waves and sank to

the bottom”.

The show closed after only one night, and Elliot flew back to

Los Angeles for what was described as “a tonsillectomy”.

Within hours of the end of Elliot’s Las Vegas concert,

rumors began to spread that she had been taking drugs

during the weeks leading up to it. Eddi Fiegel wrote in

the biography ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me’ that Elliot

later admitted to a boyfriend that she had injected heroin

immediately before going on stage. Embarrassed by the

debacle, Elliot plunged into a deep depression.

Elliot appeared in two television variety specials: ‘The Mama

Cass Television Program’ (ABC, 1969) and ‘Don’t Call

Me Mama Anymore’ (CBS, 1973). She was a regular guest

on TV talk shows and variety shows in the early 1970s,

including ‘The Mike Douglas Show’, ‘The Andy Williams

Show’, ‘Hollywood Squares’, ‘The Johnny Cash Show’, ‘The

Ray Stevens Show’, ‘The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour’,

and ‘The Carol Burnett Show’, and was a guest panelist for a

week on the game show ‘Match Game ‘73’. She guest-hosted

for Johnny Carson on ‘The Tonight Show’ and appeared as

a guest on the show 13 other times. She also appeared on

and co-hosted ‘The Music Scene’ on ABC and was featured

on the first ‘The Midnight Special’ on NBC.

Elliot performed the title song “The Good Times Are

Comin’” during the opening sequence of the 1970 film

‘Monte Walsh’, starring Lee Marvin and Jack Palance. In

1970, Elliot was signed to RCA Records; her first album for

RCA, ‘Cass Elliot’, was issued in January, 1972. Also in 1972,

she made three appearances on the variety series ‘The Julie

Andrews Hour.’ Her final appearance on the show was the

Christmas installment that aired on Wednesday, December

20, 1972. In December 1978, four years after Elliot’s death,

the episode was rebroadcast on syndicated stations as

a Christmas special titled ‘Merry Christmas with Love,

Julie’. However, all of Elliot’s solos were deleted from the

syndicated edit. In 2009, a complete videotape of ‘The Julie

Andrews Hour Christmas Show’ was donated to The Paley

Center For Media in New York, with all of Elliot’s numbers

intact.

In 1973, Elliot performed in ‘Saga of Sonora’, a TV musiccomedy-Western

special with Jill St. John, Vince Edwards,

Zero Mostel, and Lesley Ann Warren. She also sang the

jingle “Hurry on down to Hardee’s, where the burgers are

charco-broiled” for Hardee’s advertisements. Throughout the

early 1970s, Elliot continued her acting career, as well. She

had a featured role in the movie ‘Pufnstuf ’ (1970) and made

guest appearances on TV’s ‘The New Scooby-Doo Movies’;

‘Young Dr. Kildare’; ‘Love, American Style’; and ‘The Red

Skelton Show’; among others.

In 1973, Elliot hired as her manager Allan Carr, who was

also managing the careers of Tony Curtis, Ann-Margret,

and Peter Sellers. Carr felt Elliot needed to leave pop and

rock music and head into the cabaret circuit, so a show

was put together comprising old standards along with a

few new songs written for her by friends. The act included

Elliot and two male singers who served as backup singers

and sidekicks during the musical numbers. The title of the

show was ‘Don’t Call Me Mama Anymore’, named after one

of the songs written by Elliot’s friend Earle Brown. The song

was born out of Elliot’s frustration with being identified as

“Mama Cass”. The show debuted in Pittsburgh on February

9, 1973. Elliot felt ready to tackle Las Vegas once again and

premiered at the Flamingo. This time, she received rave

reviews. The Las Vegas Sun wrote,

“Cass Elliot, making a strong point that she is no longer

Mama Cass, has a good act serving notice that she is here to

stay. The audience was with her all the way ... no empty seats

anywhere.”

She then took her act to higher-echelon casinos and

swankier nightclubs in cities throughout the country.

Elliot provided the voice for her appearance on the 1973

episode of ‘The New Scooby-Doo Movies,’ “The Haunted

Candy Factory”. She also appeared on ‘Scooby-Doo!

Mystery Incorporated’ in the episodes “The Secret Serum”,

“Pawn of Shadows”, and “Dance of the Undead” as a Crystal

Cove citizen.

The city of Baltimore dedicated August 15, 1973, as “Cass

Elliot Day” in her honor for her homecoming.

On April 22, 1974, Elliot collapsed in the California

television studio of ‘The Tonight Show’ Starring Johnny

Carson immediately before her scheduled appearance on

the show. She was treated at a hospital and released, then

dismissed the incident as simple exhaustion in interviews

and in the conversation she had with Carson during her

May 7 visit to his show’s studio where she made it through

the telecast.

Soon after Elliot videotaped an appearance on the

syndicated ‘Mike Douglas Show,’ which originated from

Philadelphia, she began two weeks of solo concerts at the

London Palladium. She felt elated by the standing ovation

she received on the last night of the engagement, which


Cass Elliot

was Saturday night, July 27. She made an international

phone call to Michelle Phillips, during which Elliot cried

from happiness over her success at the Palladium, as

Phillips has stated in numerous interviews. Elliot began a

24-hour celebration. She first attended the 31st birthday

party of Mick Jagger at his home on Tite Street in Chelsea,

London. After the party, Elliot went to a brunch in her

honor presented by Georgia Brown. While there, according

to biographer Eddi Fiegel, Elliot was blowing her nose

frequently, coughing and having trouble breathing. Next she

attended a cocktail party hosted by American entertainment

journalist Jack Martin. She seemed in high spirits but also

appeared physically exhausted and sick. Elliot left that party

at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 28, saying she was tired and

needed to get some sleep.

Elliot retired to an apartment at Flat 12, 9 Curzon Place

(later Curzon Square) in the Shepherd Market area of the

Mayfair neighbourhood of Central London, owned by

singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson who allowed her to stay

there. Later that night, several hours after Elliot left Jack

Martin’s cocktail party, she died in her sleep at age 32.

According to Keith Simpson, who conducted her autopsy,

she died of a heart attack, and there were no drugs in her

system. Four years later, Keith Moon, drummer for The

Who, died in the same bedroom, also aged 32 years.

Elliot did not die from choking on a ham sandwich, as has

been alleged. According to Lindsay Zoladz in The New

York Times in 2024, this

“cartoonish rumor—propagated in endless pop culture

references, from Austin Powers to ‘Lost’—cast a tawdry light

over Elliot’s legacy and still threatens to overshadow her

mighty, underappreciated talent”

In 2020, a journalist and friend of Elliot’s, Sue Cameron,

publicly admitted that she promulgated the false ham

sandwich story by writing it into Elliot’s obituary for The

Hollywood Reporter. She claimed she was asked to print

the lie by Elliot’s manager Allan Carr, who decided that the

humiliating falsehood was preferable to any implication that

Elliot’s death was associated with substance abuse.

Elliot’s body was cremated at the Hollywood Forever

Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Her ashes were later

buried in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los

Angeles.

Elliot was married twice, the first time in 1963 to

Jim Hendricks, her groupmate in the ‘Big 3’ and the

‘Mugwumps’. It was a marriage of convenience to assist

him in avoiding being drafted during the Vietnam War;

the marriage was never consummated and was annulled

in 1968. In 1971, Elliot married journalist Donald von

Wiedenman, heir to a Bavarian barony.Their marriage

ended in divorce after a few months.

a singer and toured with Beach Boys member Al Jardine.

Cass Elliot never publicly identified the father, but many

years later, Michelle Phillips helped Elliot-Kugell locate her

biological father, Chuck Day. His paternity was not publicly

revealed until his 2008 death. After Elliot’s death, her

younger sister, Leah Kunkel (then married to Los Angeles–

based session drummer Russ Kunkel), was awarded custody

of seven-year-old Owen and raised her along with her own

son, Nathaniel.

David Crosby published a memoir in 1988 saying he used

opiates and cocaine with her, preferring heroin in London

because of its availability there.

In 1967, while staying in London, Elliot was prosecuted

for stealing bed linen from a hotel where she and her

bandmates had stayed on an earlier visit. She denied

responsibility, and the case was brought before the West

London magistrates’ court, where the charges against her

were dismissed in the absence of any evidence. ‘The Mamas

& the Papas’ were forced to cancel their upcoming British

concerts as a result of the incident, and the band broke up

the next year. On a return visit to London, Elliot admitted

to the audience at the London Palladium that she had taken

two sheets, saying “I liked ‘em so I took ‘em”. She said she

had kept quiet because of the way she had been treated in

police custody.

Elliot received the 2,735th star on the Hollywood Walk of

Fame on October 3, 2022.

The British play and film ‘Beautiful Thing’ feature her

recordings, and one character reflects on her memories of

Elliot. Elliot was the subject of a 2004 stage production in

Dublin, ‘The Songs of Mama Cass’, with Kristin Kapelli

performing main vocals. Elliot was portrayed by Shannon

Lee in the Bruce Lee Biopic Dragon: ‘The Bruce Lee Story’.

She was portrayed by Rachel Redleaf in the 2019 film ‘Once

Upon a Time in Hollywood’.

The Crosby, Stills & Nash ‘Daylight Again’ video released in

1982 was dedicated to Cass Elliot as was the Crosby, Stills

& Nash ‘Greatest Hits’ album released in 2005.

The song “Mama, I Remember You Now” by Swedish artist

Marit Bergman is allegedly a tribute to Elliot.

Elliot’s recording of “Make Your Own Kind of Music” is

featured prominently in several episodes of seasons two and

three of ‘Lost’ as well as season eight, episodes two and nine

of ‘Dexter’ (the later one also uses the title as the episode’s

title). It was also featured in ABC’s ‘The Middle’ when

Sue Heck graduates from high school and in Netflix’s ‘Sex

Education’ when Aimee smashes up an abandoned car. Her

recording of “It’s Getting Better” is featured in a season-four

episode of ‘Lost’.

Elliot gave birth to a daughter, Owen Vanessa Elliot-Kugell,

on April 26, 1967. Elliot-Kugell also grew up to become


89 |

SFM

MAGAZINE

MAMA & PAPAS

SINGLES

1965 Go Where You Wanna Go

California Dreaming

1966 Monday, Monday

I Saw Her Again

Look Through My

Window

Words Of Love

Dancing In The Street

1967 Dedicated To The

One I Love

Creeque Alley

Twelve Thirty

Glad To Be Unhappy

Dancing Bear

1968 Safe In My Garden

Dream A Little Dream

Of Me

For The Love Of Ivy

Do You Wanna Dance

1072 Step Out

MAMA & PAPAS

STUDIO &

COMPILATION

ALBUMS

1966 If You Can Believe Your

Eyes And Ears

RIAA Platinum

Link

1966 The Mama’s And The

Papa’s

RIAA Gold

Link

1967 Deliver

RIAA Gold

Link

Farewell To The First

Golden Era

RIAA Gold

Link

1968 The Papa’s And The

Mama’s

Link

Golden Era Vol 2

Link

1969 Hits Of Gold

Link

16 Of Their Greatest Hits

Link

1970 A Gathering Of Flowers

Link

1971 People Like Us

Link

1970 Historic Performances At

The Monterey

International Pop Festival

Link

1973 20 Golden Hits

Links

1977 The Best Of The Mama’s

And Papa’s

Link

1979 The ABC Collection

Link

cass elliot d

1986 The Hit Singles Collection

Link

1989 Greatest Hits Live in 1982

Link

1991 Live In Concert

Link

The Star Collection

Link

Creeque Alley: The

History Of The Mama’s

And Papa’s

Link

1995 California Dreamin: The

Very Best Of The Mama’s

And Papa’s

Link

1997 California Dreamin

Link

California Dreamin: The

Greatest Hits Of The

Mama’s And Papa’s

Link

1998 Greatest Hits

Link

1999 Live!

Link

Before They Were The

Mama’s And Papa’s - The

Magic Circle

Link

20th Century Masters -

The Millenium Collection:

The Best Of The Mama’s

And Papa’s

Link


iscography

2001 All The Leaves Are Brown

The Golden Era Collection

Link

2004 Complete Anthology - 4

Disc Box Set

Link

2005 Gold

Link

2006 California Dreamin’: The

Best Of The Mama’s And

Papa’s

Link

2011 Icon

Link

2016 The Complete Singles -

50th Anniversary

Collection

Link

2016 Ultimate Anthology

Link

1963 The Big 3

Link

THE BIG 3

1964 Live At The Recording

Studio

Link

THE MUGWUMPS

1967 The Mugwumps

SOLO

1968 Dream A Little Dream

Link

1969 Bubblegum, Lemonade

Cass Elliot

And Something For Mama

Link

1969 Make Your Own Kind Of

Music

Link

1970 Mama’s Big Ones

Link

1971 Dave Mason And Cass

Elliot

Link

1972 Cass Elliot

Link

The Road Is No Place For

A Lady

Link

1973 Don’t Call Me Mama

Anymore

Link


91 |

SFM

MAGAZINE

paddy

moloney

Paddy Moloney (Irish: Pádraig Ó Maoldomhnaigh; 1 August

1938 – 12 October 2021) was an Irish musician, composer,

and record producer. He co-founded and led the Irish musical

group the Chieftains, playing on all of their 44 albums. He was

particularly associated with the revival of the uilleann pipes.

Moloney was born in the Donnycarney area of Dublin on 1

August 1938, the son of housewife Catherine (née Conroy)

and Irish Glass Bottle Company accountant John Moloney.

His mother bought him a tin whistle when he was six and

he started to learn the uilleann pipes at the age of eight. In

addition to the tin whistle and the uilleann pipes, Moloney also

played button accordion and bodhrán.

Moloney first met Seán Ó Riada in the late 1950s. He then

joined Ó Riada’s group, ‘Ceoltóirí Chualann’, in 1960.

Along with Sean Potts and Michael Tubridy, Moloney

formed the traditional Irish band the ‘Chieftains’ in Dublin

in November 1962. As the band leader, he was the primary

composer and arranger of much of the ‘Chieftains’ music, and

composed for films including ‘Treasure Island’, ‘The Grey Fox’,

‘Braveheart, Gangs of New York’, and Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Barry

Lyndon’.

| 90

Moloney did session work for Mike Oldfield, The Muppets,

Mick Jagger, Gary Moore, Paul McCartney, Sting, Don

Henley, and Stevie Wonder.

Moloney was married to artist Rita O’Reilly from 1962 until

his death in 2021. They met during the 1950s while he was

working for Baxendale & Company. They had three children

together named Aonghus, Padraig, and Aedin, the last of

whom is an actress and producer. He was a fluent speaker of

Irish.

Moloney died suddenly at a hospital in Dublin on 12 October

2021, at the age of 83. His funeral was held on 15 October at

St. Kevin’s Church in Glendalough, followed by a burial at the

adjoining cemetery.

Moloney received the Ohtli Award, Mexico’s highest cultural

award, on 13 September 2012. On 28 June of the following

year, he and the other members of the Chieftains received

the Castelao Medal by the Government of Galicia, Spain for

services to Galician culture and society. He was named a

Commander of the Order of Civil Merit in Spain four years

later.


Paddy Maloney/ Seán Potts

Sean

Potts

Seán Desmond Potts (5 October 1930 – 11 February 2014)

was an Irish musician. Born in The Liberties, Dublin, he was

best known for his tin whistle playing and his long history with

The Chieftains (from 1962 to 1979).

Potts was a founding member of The Chieftains. He was great

friends with fellow band member and whistle player Paddy

Moloney, and they often went around Dublin playing in

sessions and gigging during the 1950s. In November 1962, Potts

helped form The Chieftains. He briefly left the group in 1968

for a contract with Gael-Linn Records but returned to play for

the band soon after. He was primarily a whistle player, although

he also played the bodhrán and bones. He played with the band

until 1979, when the pressures of the music scene and touring

prompted him to leave the band for an easier life.

Before The Chieftains, Potts was an original member of Seán

Ó Riada’s group “Ceoltoirí Chualann”. After The Chieftains,

Potts did a lot of radio work for RTÉ and founded ‘Bakerswell’,

with whom he undertook several fund-raising tours for NPU

in the United States. In 1972, while still with ‘The Chieftains’,

Potts and Paddy Moloney, along with Peadar Mercier (another

Chieftains member) recorded an album called ‘Tin Whistles’

where both Potts and Moloney played tin whistle tunes

accompanied by a bodhrán. Potts also played the bodhrán and

bones, and attempted to learn the uilleann pipes but admitted

he never felt quite comfortable with the instrument and, after a

few years at the pipes, he gave up and went back to the whistle.

After Potts retired from the traditional scene, he could still be

found playing at traditional festivals around the country and

occasionally abroad. He served as chairman and Honorary

President of Na Píobairí Uilleann in Dublin. He died at age 83

on 11 February 2014.

Seán and his wife Bernadette (who wed in 1960) had four

children. Potts’ family was filled with musicians. From his

grandfather, John Potts, an accomplished uilleann piper and

native of Kiltra, County Wexford, to his uncles Tommy Potts,

a fiddler, and Eddie Potts, a piper, fiddler and saxophonist.

His aunt Teresa was an accordionist and pianist in the 1950s.

Another aunt, originally named Mary, who became Sister

Kevin of the ‘Presentation Sisters’, taught music at a convent

school in Dingle, County Kerry.

janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com 91 |

SFM

MAGAZINE

THE

CHIEFTANS

phil

ochs

The Chieftains are a traditional Irish folk band formed

in Dublin in 1962, by Paddy Moloney, Seán Potts

and Michael Tubridy. Their sound, which is almost

entirely instrumental and largely built around uilleann pipes,

has become synonymous with traditional Irish music. They

are regarded as having helped popularise Irish music around

the world. They have won six Grammy Awards during their

career and they were given a Lifetime Achievement Award at

the 2002 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Some music experts have

credited The Chieftains with bringing traditional Irish music

to a worldwide audience, so much so that the Irish government

awarded them the honorary title of ‘Ireland’s Musical

Ambassadors’ in 1989.

The band’s name is alleged to have come from the book ‘Death

of a Chieftain’ by Irish author John Montague. Assisted

early on by Garech Browne, they signed with his company

Claddagh Records. They needed financial success abroad and

succeeded in this.

Paddy Moloney was a member of ‘Ceoltóirí Chualann’, a group

of musicians who specialised in instrumentals and sought to

form a new band. Their first rehearsals were held at Moloney’s

house, with David Fallon and Martin Fay joining the original

three. The group remained only semi-professional until the

1970s. By then, they had achieved great success in Ireland and

the United Kingdom.

In 1973, their popularity began to spread to the United States

when their previous albums were released there by Island

Records. They received further acclaim when they worked on

the Academy Award–winning soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick’s

1975 film ‘Barry Lyndon,’ which triggered their transition to the

mainstream in the US.

The group continued to release successful records throughout

the 1970s and 1980s, and their work with Van Morrison in 1988

resulted in the critically acclaimed album Irish Heartbeat. They

went on to collaborate with many other well-known musicians

and singers; among them Luciano Pavarotti, the Rolling

Stones, Madonna, Sinéad O’Connor, Roger Daltrey, and Van

Morrison.

In 2012, they celebrated their 50th anniversary with an

ambitious album and tour. The album, ‘Voice of Ages’, was

produced by T Bone Burnett and featured the Chieftains


The Chieftans

collaborating with many musicians including Bon Iver, Paolo

Nutini and The Decemberists. It also included a collaboration

with NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman playing the flute

aboard the International Space Station as it orbited the Earth.

The Chieftains performed at Carnegie Hall on March 17, 2012.

In February 2019, ‘The Chieftains’ embarked on an extensive

farewell tour entitled the “Irish Goodbye Tour”, including a

2019 European leg, a 2020 Canadian leg and two 2019 and

2020 US legs.

On 13 March 2020, the band announced that a few tour dates

of their “Irish Goodbye Tour” had been postponed (until

further notice) due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chieftains’ co-founder and leader Paddy Moloney died

suddenly on 12 October 2021, leaving the band’s future

uncertain.

On 23 July 2022, in celebration of the band’s 60 years, it was

announced the forthcoming release on 2 September 2022 on

vinyl, CD, and digital downloads of Bear’s Sonic Journals: ‘The

Foxhunt, The Chieftains Live in San Francisco 1973 & 1976’

featuring the Chieftains performing live in San Francisco

in 1973 and 1976. The 2CD & Digital editions of the album

feature the recordings of two entire shows in San Francisco:

on October 1, 1973 at The Boarding House during their first

tour in the U.S. (an unscheduled gig which occurred at Jerry

Garcia’s invitation to open for his bluegrass band, ‘Old & In

the Way’) and on May 5, 1976 at ‘The Great American Music

Hall’, while the vinyl release features 2 sides containing only the

performance from October 1, 1973.

The band has become known for their vast work of

collaborations with popular musicians of many genres,

including country music, Galician traditional music,

Newfoundland music, and rock and roll. Their widespread

work as collaborators resulted in the Irish Government

awarding the group the honorary title of Ireland’s Musical

Ambassadors in 1989.

Moya Brennan, Jackson Browne, Rosanne Cash

The Civil Wars, Ry Cooder, The Corrs

Elvis Costello, Roger Daltrey, The Decemberists

Lila Downs, The Dubliners, Elio e le Storie Tese

John Entwistle, Marianne Faithfull, Bela Fleck

James Galway, Art Garfunkel, Glass Tiger

Mike Gordon, Great Big Sea, Nanci Griffith

Emmylou Harris, Mick Jagger, Colin James

Tom Jones, Sissel Kyrkjebø, Kepa Junkera

Mark Knopfler, Diana Krall, Alison Krauss

Nolwenn Leroy, Los Cenzontles, Lyle Lovett

The Low Anthem Ashley MacIsaac, Natalie MacMaster

Madonna, Ziggy Marley, Loreena McKennitt

Sarah McLachlan Natalie Merchant Milladoiro

Gary Moore, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson

Nickel Creek, Carlos Núñez, Paolo Nutini

Siobhán O’Brien, Sinéad O’Connor, Mike Oldfield

Luciano Pavarotti Pink Martini, The Pogues

Punch Brothers, Eros Ramazzotti, The Rolling Stones

Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs, Sting

Ultravox, Jim White, John Williams

In May 1986, they performed at Self Aid, a benefit concert

held in Dublin that focused on the problem of chronic

unemployment which was widespread in Ireland at that time.

In 1994, they appeared in Roger Daltrey’s production, album

and video of ‘A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and

The Who’. They performed with Canadian astronaut Cmdr.

‘Chris Hadfield’ in Houston, Texas, on 15 February 2013.

Hadfield sang and played guitar on “Moondance” from aboard

the International Space Station.

The band has won six Grammy Awards and has been

nominated eighteen times. They have won an Emmy and

a Genie and contributed tracks, including their highly

praised version of the song ‘Women of Ireland’, to Leonard

Rosenman’s Oscar-winning score for Stanley Kubrick’s

1975 film ‘Barry Lyndon’. In 2002 they were given a Lifetime

Achievement Award by the UK’s BBC Radio 2. Two of

their singles have been minor hits in the UK Singles Chart.

“Have I Told You Lately” (credited to The Chieftains with

Van Morrison) reached No. 71 in 1995. “I Know My Love”

(credited to The Chieftains featuring The Corrs) reached No.

37 in 1999.

Dr. Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin said the success of The

Chieftains helped place Irish traditional music on a par with

other musical genres in the world of popular entertainment.

By collaborating with pop and rock musicians, they have taken

Irish music to a much wider audience. They have become, in

effect, musical ambassadors for Ireland. This de facto role was

officially recognised by the Irish government in 1989 when

it awarded the group the honorary title of Ireland’s Musical

Ambassadors.

They played in a concert for Pope John Paul II, before an

audience of more than one million people in 1979 in Phoenix

Park in Dublin, to mark the Papal visit to Ireland.

In 1983, they were invited by the Chinese Government to

perform with the Chinese Broadcasting Art Group in a concert

on the Great Wall of China, becoming the first Western

musical group to do so. They were the first group to perform in

the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., invited by Senator

Edward Kennedy and the former Speaker of the House, Tip

O’Neill

In 2011, they performed at a concert in Dublin attended by

President Mary McAleese and Queen Elizabeth II of Britain

during her first-ever official trip to Ireland.

On 14 April 2023, they reunited for one last time to play for

president Joe Biden who was visiting his ancestral home of

Ballina, County Mayo in a historical tour of the Island.

CURRENT MEMBERS

Kevin Conneff – bodhrán, vocals (1976–present)

Matt Molloy – flute, tin whistle (1979–present)


95 |

SFM

MAGAZINE

the chieftaIns al

THE CHIEFTAINS

1964

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINK

THE CHIEFTAINS 9

1979

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINK

THE CHIEFTAINS 2

1969

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINK

THE CHIEFTAINS 3

1971

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINK

THE CHIEFTANS 10

1980

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINK

THE GREY FOX

1982

DG RECORDS

LINK

THE CHIEFTAINS 4

1973

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINKS

THE CHIEFTAINS 5

1975

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINK

YEAR OF THE FRENCH

1983

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINK

THE CHIEFTAINS IN

CHINA 1985

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINK

BONAPART’S RETREAT

1976

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINK

THE CHIEFTAINS 7

1977

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINK

BALLAD OF THE IRISH

HORSE 1986

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINK

CELTIC WEDDING

1987

RCA

LINK

THE CHIEFTAINS LIVE

1977

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINK

THE CHIEFTAINS 8

1978

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINK

IN IRELAND

1987

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINK

IRISH HEARTBEAT

1988

MERCURY

LINK


bum discography

The Chieftains

THE TAILOR OF

GLOUCESTER 1988

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINK

THE CELTIC HARP

1993

RCA VICTOR

LINK

A CHIEFTAINS

CELEBRATION 1979

RCA VICTOR

LINK

OVER THE SEA TO

SKYE 1990

RCA VICTOR

LINK

THE LONG BLACK

VEIL 1995

RCA VICTOR

LINK

FILM CUTS

1996

RCA VICTOR

LINK

THE BELLS OF DUBLIN

1991

RCA VICTOR

LINK

REEL MUSIC

1991

RCA VICTOR

LINK

SANTIAGO

1996

rca victor

LINK

LONG JOURNEY HOME

1998

RCA VICTOR

LINK

ANOTHER COUNTRY

1992

RCA VICTOR

LINK

AN IRISH EVENING

1992

RCA VICTOR

LINK

FIRE IN THE KITCHEN

1998

RCA VICTOR

LINK

SILENT NIGHT

1998

RCA VICTOR

LINK

THE BEST OF THE

CHEIFTAINS 1992

COLUMBIA

LINK

FAR AND AWAY

1992

MCA

LINK

TEARS OF STONE

1999

RCA VICTOR

LINK

WATER FROM THE WELL

2000

RCA VICTOR

LINK


97 |

SFM

MAGAZINE

the chieftaIns album discography

THE WIDE WORLD

OVER 2002

RCA VICTOR

LINK

SAN PATRICIO

2010

BLACKROCK RECORDS

LINK

DOWN THE OLD

PLANK ROAD

2002

RCA VICTOR

LINK

VOICES OF AGES

2012

BLACKROCK RECORDS

LINK

FURTHER DOWN THE

OLD PLANK ROAD

2003

RCA VICTOR

LINK

CHRONICLES 60 YEARS

OF THE

CHIEFTAINS

2012

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINK

LIVE FROM DUBLIN

TRIBUTE TO DEREK

BELL 2005

SONY

LINK

A CELTIC LANDSCAPE

2021

CLADDAGH RECORDS

LINK

THE ESSENTIAL

CHIEFTAINS 2006

RCA VICTOR

LINK

BEARS SONIC

JOURNALS 2022

Unknown

LINK


The Chieftains


99 |

NATIONAL

CENTRE FOR

BIRDS

OF

PREY

National Centre of Birds of Prey

• largest collection of birds of prey in the UK

• over 50 spacious aviaries

• daily flying demonstrations

• free coach parking

• on site cafe

• open every day from mid February until end of October

• full disabled access

10am until 5.30pm (or dusk if earlier)

Duncombe Park

Helmsley

YO62 5EB

North Yorkshire

www.ncbp.co.uk

charlie@ncbp.co.uk

Tel 01439 772080

Remembering Folk Legends - Volume 2

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