Old Folkies Home

[maryportfuncity 10,647]

There's a whole generation of folk singers out there straddling the mid sixties to seventies in age. Whilst not seriously old a lot of this crowd have played night after night in smoky venues, drunk heavily throughout their careers and been obliged to drive long distances in search of a few quid because many of them never really made it.

 

One or two - like Gordon Lightfoot - did do well. Others, like Tom Paxton and many of the British crowd - Wizz Jones, Harvey Andrews etc - never made it out of the folk clubs and have no massive 'hits' covered by other artists to keep them in cash, obliging them to keep covering road miles and turning up in front of a few dozen people.

 

It can't be doing them any good. I know Gordon Lightfoot was lucky to survive suffering an abdominal haemorrage on stage in 2002 and miraculously recovered to play Live8. There must be a few others in this category fixin' to strum their last. Anyone know more than me and want to share it?

[VileBody 11]

Maybe we could have some famous Morris Dancers as well....

[Magere Hein 1,400]

Maybe we could have some famous Morris Dancers as well....

Huh? Famous Morris dancers... we might as well add flying pigs.

 

regards,

Hein

[VileBody 11]

Who said the Dutch don't understand irony....

[The Four Horsemen 26]

I dispute that - the most famous living Morris dancer is probably John Kirkpatrick, something of a hero in certain circles (of which I'm proud to be in!).

[Cerberus 302]

Don't know if you'd call him a folk singer (probably not) but Roy Harper has been knockin' on Heaven's door for a while, with various ailments physical and mental, and balladeer/singer-songwiter Dan Fogelberg has been battling prostate cancer, but I don't really think that they, or anyone else mentioned here would really qualify on the famous front.

[VileBody 11]

Ohgodohgodohgod.....

[Tuber Mirum 125]

It's never a bad idea to turn off your computer before "bumping bellies with Nasty Nell"

[Dr Strangelove 14]

Maybe we could have some famous Morris Dancers as well....

A new potential definition for oxymoron I see.

[VileBody 11]

I dispute that - the most famous living Morris dancer is probably John Kirkpatrick, something of a hero in certain circles (of which I'm proud to be in!).

"Probably..."???????

 

You mean you know the names of two of them??????????

[Cerberus 302]

To be fair, entering "John Kirkpatrick" into my search engine did produce 133,000 results

[VileBody 11]

To be fair, entering "John Kirkpatrick" into my search engine did produce 133,000 results

Oh well, pardon me....had I but known.....

[maryportfuncity 10,647]

Fogleberg sold records around the world, I reckon he'd qualify. Certainly more of an international celebrity than Claire Raynor and Patrick Moore combined.

[Typhoid Harry 23]

Any "Folk" singer worth his or her salt had the good sense to die early in their careers to ensure their position of "suffering artist". See, Ochs, Phil, for confirmation. He was so proficient at upsetting the applecart he was murdered.

[maryportfuncity 10,647]

So Pete Seeger who's done more for folk music than several thousand others combined obviously isn't a folk singer.

 

Does Keith Richards continued hold on life stop him being a rock star?

[The Four Horsemen 26]

Try John Kirkpatrick accordion and see what happens in Google.

Most of the other famous morris dancers are dead, but the Bampton and Adderbury morris troupes are probably the best know collections of morris dancers.

 

Is that my credibility disappearing into the distance I can see??

[lospalmas7 12]

Do the Bampton and Adderbury morris dancers all cram themselves in a phone box after their dance? Witnessing morris dancers do that about 10 years ago is enough to make me a defender of the art that is morris dancing.

[maryportfuncity 10,647]

Four Horseman....I thought your credibility was in danger until I spotted the beautiful creature in the bathtub on your very own page.

 

Anyone with such taste in lady friends has credibility, end of.

[BrunoBrimley 86]

Judy Colllins is still out and about and performing as is that raspy throated squwaker who at least began in folk although he crossed over rather substantially into the pop charts--yes that one--Bobby Zimmerman, usually known as Bob Dylan. It's odd but years back he kept saying 'It's alright ma I'm only bleeding' and yet he's still alive. After all these years bleeding you'd have thought he woulkd have kicked off. What gives? And then of course Joan Baez is still with us and still performing (hopefully for a long long time to come ).

[Cerberus 302]

Is Ewan MacColl still around?

[The Four Horsemen 26]

Nope, died years ago.

Anyway, some folkies are important enough to be recognised - Martin Carthy and Maddy Prior are both MBEs I think (might be OBEs or CBEs - can't rightly recall).

 

Earl Scruggs is still going I think, must be 90something by now. And some of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem........

[Anubis the Jackal 77]

Back to the original post, Wizz Jones is still up and at 'em around London Town. Davy Graham is looking old but in decent health nowadays despite his somewhat wayward lifestyle, although I haven't seen him for a year or so. He played an impromptu gig in my mates' garden last year... a neighbour introduced him with the words, "This is Davy, he plays the guitar too." Jaws dropped and fingers turned to jelly... "err, you could play this one if you like Mate!"

 

Top Man.

[Octopus of Odstock 2,197]

Earl Scruggs is still going I think, must be 90something by now.

 

Earl Scruggs still picking

[Handrejka 1,904]

I was thinking about Ralph McTell recently (Streets of London) he's still going strong though it seems

 

 

Oh and perhaps I shouldn't admit this but I won medals for Morris dancing as a child

[Six 23]

Bert Jansch is in his 60's now, and still on the road - still an excellent guitarist too...

 

 

 

ps, I was never a Morris Dancer, thankfully.