May 3rd, 2009
WASN’T THAT A PARTY!
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| Tom Morello, Eric Weissberg and I thrashing out John Henry. Kate Paxton photo |
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| Bruce Cockburn, Tom & Billy Bragg Kate Paxton photo |
Tom with Oscar the Grouch Kate Paxton photo |
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| Tom Morello, Tom and Eric Tom Chapin photo |
We wandered up and down the halls, meeting old friends: Joan Baez, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot and Tom Chapin. I also began what I hope will prove to be an enduring relationship with Oscar The Grouch.
The show began shortly after 5 PM. I cannot imagine the organizational wizardry it took to get it on, period, and to finish 4 and a half hours later was another miracle. Tom, Eric and I followed Ani DiFranco and Bruce Cockburn, who rocked the hall with Which Side Are You On? We did John Henry, one of Pete’s favorite traditional American ballads. Tao Rodriquez-Seeger, who coordinated all the talent for the evening, was the miracle worker that night. Hat’s off and a standing ovation for Pete’s grandson!
Hey, let me say it again: This Land Is Our Land, and wasn’t that a party?
Cruise To Alaska
June 2008
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| Glacier Bay |
It was one of those it’s-a-tough-job-but-someone’s-gotta-do-it deals. On June 1st, Midge and I set sail from Vancouver with The Chad Mitchell Trio and about 110 shipmates on a 7-day cruise to Alaska. The Trio and I did two shows, I taught a song-writing seminar and there was an evening hootenanny (I date myself) hosted by Paul Prestopino. Major fun.
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| Joe Frazier feeding a gull - illegally! | Paul Prestopino, Tom, Midge and John Tviet |
The scenery was off the charts. In Glacier Bay the ship slowly revolved, revealing
glacier after glacier, each one more spectacular than the last.
The food was wonderful and maybe overly available. We had our own area of the dining
room and shifted around from night to night, getting to know more and more folks.
The after-dinner
evenings featured an
informal hoot in the
ship's library, where we
heard from anyone with
an urge to sing a song,
and there were some
gems.
On Wednesday I had the
chance to spend two
hours in the small
theatre with anyone
interested in song-
writing. Some of the
songs we heard were
getting up there.
Upon arrival at the port of Seward the group divided; some went on to a trip to the
interior, while the rest of us flew back to the Lower Forty-eight. As I said, somebody had
to do it -- I'm just glad we were part of the ones who did.
Songwriter's Hall of Fame
June 19, 2008
(All photos by Rich Stumpf)
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| Milt Okun, Tom, Madi Diaz |
Not everything we do in this life is a big damn deal, but, for me, singing at The
Songwriters Hall of Fame was a very big damn deal, indeed. My publisher, mentor and
friend of 48 years, Milt Okun, was to receive the Abe Olman publishing award for a
lifetime of achievement in every phase of the music business and asked me, the first
writer signed to his company, Cherry Lane Music, and Madi Diaz, the most recent
signee, to sing Leaving On A Jet Plane by John Denver, another Cherry Lane writer. It
was an honor to do it.
Madi and I––who had never met––spoke by cell phones and picked a key (D)
and a sequence (“I’ll take this verse; you take that one”) before ever meeting. When we
met at the rehearsal studio we pretty much knew what we wanted to do and sang it
through for the first of
what must have been
forty times before the
performance at the
banquet (Key to
survival: rehearse,
rehearse, rehearse!).
I met Milt in the
Autumn of 1960 when
I auditioned for a spot
in The Chad Mitchell
Trio.
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| Performing John Denver's Leaving On A Jet Plane |
That didn’t work
out, alas, but it
brought me to Milt’s
attention. He was their
musical director and
arranger and had just
started Cherry Lane
Music. I had sung The
Marvelous Toy for him and Chad Mitchell
and Mike Kobluk during a rehearsal break and when he gave me the bad news that the
Trio thing was not going to happen he gave me the good news: They all loved the song
and wanted to record it and he, Milt, wanted to publish it and anything else I would write. It changed the course of my life; aside from that, an average day.
Milt produced many albums for The Chad Mitchell Trio, on which they sang a lot
of my songs, and when Chad left to pursue a solo career and was replaced by a kid
named John Denver Milt became John’s producer, as well. He also arranged and
produced albums for Peter, Paul & Mary and Placido Domingo, among many, many
others; he even produced several albums for me. He has remained my publisher,
mentor and friend to this day.
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| Tom and Madi Diaz |
The awards banquet was held in New York City at the Marriott Marquis hotel in
Times Square. As one of the performers I was required to walk the Red Carpet––just
like walking the plank off a pirate ship. Ten million cameras going mad as I followed
John Rzeznik of The Goo Goo Dolls and his girl friend. There was I, in my tuxedo.
Where was Bob Dylan when I needed him?
Madi Diaz (www.madidiaz.com) is
someone I'll be watching carefully.
She's 23 years old, with one CD to
date. She has the goods to go far
and I believe she'll do it. I invite you
to check her out. We sang Jet Plane about halfway through the evening
and it went just as we'd rehearsed
it. Tough to fail with Jet Plane; John
wrote brilliant melodies.
Other honorees included my old
Greenwich Village pal John
Sebastian and my new pal, Alan Menken, writer of songs for a jillion Disney
movies like The Little Mermaid and Beauty And The Beast.
Tour Update
May 8, 2008
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| Community Theater |
I had some rest and family time after the UK/Paris tour and didn't go back on the road till March 28th in Morristown, NJ. The Community Theatre is another example of a heartening trend in the US: the reclamation of closed and condemned movie theatres into thriving arts centers. This one is a gem. They've deepened the stage so they can do anything - opera, ballet, any kind of theatre; and on this occasion, Lucy Kaplansky, Cheryl Wheeler and I used the space to sing and riff on just about everything, which included a healthy dollop of politics.
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| Lucy Kaplansky |
If you're unfamiliar with either Cheryl or Lucy, catch up; they're wonderful. Cheryl will have you rolling on the floor with her between-songs chatter and then break your heart with an exquisitely crafted song. Lucy has the most perfect pitch I've ever encountered. We had a full house and a great evening.
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| Cheryl Wheeler |
Next morning I drove down to a favorite venue: The Sellersville Theatre in Sellersville, PA, deep in Bucks County. Another reclaimed movie theatre, it's been undergoing even further improvements, including a vastly improved dressing room (that's where the food is!). I was joined by my old pals, Rich Dreuding on guitar and Ron Greenstein on upright bass.
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| Rich Dreuding and Ron Greenstein |
The following weekend I began a ten-day trip; I try to avoid being away from home for this long, but sometimes the schedule is adamant. I began in Winnipeg with a concert at the West End Cultural Center, a funky-but- in-just-the-right-way kind of venue. On Saturday I flew down to Minneapolis to do a show for the New Folk Collective group at the Unitarian Church. I've done so many concerts over the years in Unitarian churches that I must be a member by now. I once heard Unitarians described affectionately as "like vegetarians, except they eat meat."
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| Tom and Peter Ostroushko |
They had me at "meat."
I was joined by (and the music was vastly improved by) Peter Ostroushko, whom you've
doubtlessly heard often on A Prairie Home Companion. Peter is master of a bewildering
variety of instruments, but when with me he sticks to fiddle and mandolin. What a treat
to my ears he is. Several years ago Midge and I did some small folk venues in
Minnesota with Peter and we still talk about them and about how great he is. He's
played with everyone who's anyone in acoustic music and as a composer his work has
been played by the Minneapolis Symphony, The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and many
others.
Peter and I played again on Sunday night at The Pioneer Place Theatre in Saint Cloud.
Another small gem of a theatre and an appreciative crowd.
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| with The Chad Mitchell Trio |
On Monday I flew out to Seattle for a Wednesday night concert with The Chad Mitchell Trio at The Moore Theatre in Seattle and a Saturday night concert at The Elsinore Theatre in Salem, Oregon. My history with the Trio goes back to 1960. I won an audition to replace one of the original members and even though things didn't work out on that front I they did work out on others. During a rehearsal break I sang them a song of mine called The Marvelous Toy. They loved it and recorded it successfully. We've been friends ever since and now that they've decided to do a
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| outside the MainStay |
series of concerts (including the cruise to Alaska mentioned elsewhere on this site)
we've teamed up a lot, in places like The Big Top Chatauqua in Bayfield, Wisconsin,
Washington, DC and others.
There was time for golf on the day before the Salem
concert; we shall draw a discreet veil over the scorecards,
but we had a great day.
In April I played my annual concert at The Barns at Wolf
Trap, just outside Washington, DC. My accompanist was
Robin Bullock. You fans of Celtic guitar simply have to go
to his website. I have over an hour of his playing on my
iPhone, so you know I'm a fan.
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| with Robin Bullock |
Robin also played with me two days later in Rock Hall, Maryland, on the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay. The venue is called The Mainstay and both Robin and I fell instantly in love with it. It's a store-front converted to a performing space, furnished with chairs from every garage sale within fifty miles, it seems. But it works! And the audience was wonderful from the start.
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| with The Kennedys |
I finished my April touring in New England, playing The Iron Horse in Northampton, MA on a Thursday night with my friends, Pete and Maura Kennedy. Their new CD, Better Dreams on Appleseed Recordings is my favorite of all their work so far.
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| Club Passim |
On Friday night I played in Cambridge, MA at Passim, the Harvard Square descendent of the immortal Club 47 of the '60s. It's a small club, down a few steps and has grown into a dynamic center of the arts, with a busy program for kids, a school of music and a list of performances to excite any fan of the music. I was joined by Geoff Bartley, a guitarist, songwriter and organizer of open mics (what we used to call "hootenannies"in days of yore)
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| with Geoff Bartley |
at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge. Geoff is also the designer of the Tom Paxton
signature model Martin guitar and this night was a rare occasion on which two of them
appeared on the same stage.
We played together again on Saturday at the Old Stone Church, a music center in New
Market, New Hampshire which is - you guessed it - an old stone church.
World Folk Music Tribute
May 3, 2008
The World Folk Music Association pulled off a tribute concert for me on May 3,
2008 at the Rachel Shlesinger Hall in Northern Virginia. Abraham Lincoln used to tell
about the fellow being ridden out of town on a rail saying that if weren’t for the honor of
the thing he’d just as soon have walked. And Garrison Keillor, who was the presenter
during the portion of the The Kennedy Center Honors in which Pete Seeger was
inducted, told Midge and me that to see Pete and Toshi getting out of a limousine––Pete
wearing a tuxedo and Toshi in a long gown––was to see a man on the way to his own
hanging. Yes, exactly.
The evening––which, let me hasten to say, I deeply appreciated––was organized
by Doris Justis from Side By Side and longtime DC area folk DJ Dick Cerri, and played
to a sold-out house.
I began the concert with three songs to ”calm my nerves,” and then watched the
show from a box I shared with my daughters, grandsons, assorted relatives and, of
course, Midge, my wife and partner of 45 years. The boys enjoyed the show but it was a
close call between the show and the big table of food backstage. Platter after platter
disappeared during the intermission.
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| Peace Will Come |
The Limeliters followed, singing Forest Lawn and a great version of The Bravest. For any songwriter, the greatest kick has to be hearing talented friends singing his or her songs and doing it beautifully. I was blissing out and the show had barely begun. They were followed by Carolyn Hester, with her daughters Karla and Amy, and, to close the first half, Christine Lavin had the audience sing Peace Will Come and then had them stand up and sing it to me. I was, as they say in England, gob-smacked! Ambushed!
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| Paul Prestopino, Noel Stookey, Dick Kniss, Peter Yarrow |
After songs by Side By Side and Anne Hills, Noel Paul Stookey and Peter Yarrow completely cracked up the audience and me with their waaaaay over-the-top deconstruction of Goin’ To The Zoo. Noel surprised me with a beautiful and subtle reading of a song from my newest CD, Comedians & Angels: And If It’s Not True. Being the artist he is, he made the song his own, and I loved it.
The Chad Mitchell Trio closed the show.. We go back to the Autumn of 1960 when I almost became a member of the trio but settled for being the first writer signed to a new music,publishing, company––Cherry Lane Music–– owned by their musical director, Milt Okun. I'm still there. Talk about silver linings!
After they presented me with a plaque and destroyed my composure once again, I joined the group to sing The Last Thing On My Mind. We finished with Ramblin’ Boy, and a reprise of How Beautiful Upon The Mountain. My particular thanks to Doris Justis and Dick Cerri, who organized the event, and to the innumerable volunteers who ran it; particularly Maureen Harrigan, who accomplished what we all recognize as the major miracle of bringing the curtain down on schedule. It was a terrific experience and I loved every minute of it.
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| Sean, Peter and Christopher Silvia attack the buffet, watched by son-in-law Steve Silvia and proud Grandpa. |
Tour Update
March, 2008
It's a cloudy Friday in Virginia, but I'm still glowing from a great time with my friends, The Kennedys, at XM Satellite Radio. We recorded a concert there last Wednesday and Pete & Maura accompanied me and sang some glorious harmonies. The show will air on Tuesday, April 8th, at noon and will repeat on April 11th at midnight. All times EST on XM's Channel 15, The Village. If you don't have XM, let me recommend it to you. And, by all means, go to the Kennedys' web site and sign up for their mailing list.
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| Robin & Tom at soundcheck, Bristol. |
Another recommendation: folkalley.com. Here's an internet station playing nothing but folk music 24/7 and their play list is wonderful. I'm hearing many artists for the first time on folkalley, most recently the Scottish group Malinky. Wonderful treatments of traditional Scottish music in a contemporary treatment that preserves the traditional feel. I've got to feel that you'd love them, too.
The January tour of England, Scotland and Paris couldn't have gone better. The shows were fun and the traveling mercifully easy, thanks to my super tour manager, Sean McFettridge. We had a night off in Birmingham and went to see No Country For Old Men. Being by now something of an old man myself, I couldn't agree more!
My accompanist was the amazing instrumentalist Robin Bullock who can play anything with strings.
If you like Celtic music, you must check out Robin's recordings. I have several on my iTunes site.
At our concert in Glasgow, as part of the Celtic Connections festival that runs there every January, who should show up at the sound check but my old and very friend, Josh White, Jr.
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| Tom and Josh White, Jr. Glasgow 2008 |
Josh was there at the invitation of the Festival to play songs made famous by his fat her, the late Josh White. If you remember listening to Josh, Sr., you'd be astounded to hear Josh, Jr. do them. We had a great, if brief, reunion.
The tour finished in Paris. I hadn't played Paris in years and years and was glad to accept the invitation to play at a tiny little cellar club called La Pomme d'Eve (Eve's Apple) in the Latin Quarter. It's on a tiny street, down 20 or so steps into a medieval cellar (13th century or so). I was told that just a year or so ago they discovered an identical cellar just below this one!
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| Tom and Eric Andersen Paris 2008 |
I complain about the travel (with cause!) but it does have it's blessings, such as seeing old friends like Josh and Eric and playing with fantastic players like Robin.
I'll be writing more soon and I thought I might write a little about songwriting, if you'd like.
Please take note that you can now order Comedians & Angels, Live in The UK, Your Shoes, My Shoes, and my book, The Honor Of Your Company directly from the web site. Everything will be personally signed. And for those of you in my age bracket who have discovered how incredibly time seems to pass these days, let me remind you that Christmas is a week from next Tuesday.