Originally posted by @tom-wolsey
More music from a small, unknown band.
[youtube Amazing Meet Project]IIbAsO8rOrk[/youtube]
Kind of a 'we will, we will rock you' kind of vibe understated though.
If I put up common folk playing what would be your reaction? I know a lot of great musicians, and I play myself, I have 66 tracks, over 40 originals for solo acoustic guitar, mandolin, dulcimer and keyboards and my wife has some nice songs onstage and recorded in our flat in Jerusalem with some great singers there, wonder if you listen much to acoustic instrumentals much or do you mainly listen to electric bands? There are some jaw dropping acoustic virtuoso's out there totally unheard of by the general public which is part of the charm of folk music, you go to someone's house, sit on the front porch and listen to a totally unknown genius playing guitar or fiddle or whatever and you just go OMG, and realize you are one of the very few to have ever been lucky enough to have heard of that person.
One total unknown was a guy who became my guitar teach, Mike Stewart, AKA Backwards Sam Firk, he and Stephan Michaelson AKA Delta X, recorded on Adelphi Records owned by a buddy of mine, Gene Rosenthal.
I used to live in Alexandria Virginia in the old town district a few blocks from the river and I found out just a couple blocks away was the Alexandria Folklore center, great hangout for folkies like me.
So I asked them one day if they needed a guitar teach, they said yes, come in Saturday and we can talk.
I go in Saturday, guitar in hand, king of the world, hot shot guitarist that I was (well what I THOUGHT I was🙂 and talked to the manager, he said we got Mike Stewart instead. I go who is that? He says You don't know about Mike Stewart, Backwards Sam Firk? I go No, he goes Boy are you in for a surprise! I say so where is he, He is in the third teaching booth down on the left.
So I go over and introduce myself and we get to talking and he plays a couple of pieces and my jaw drops about 2 feet, and I went instantly from being potential teacher to actual student and stayed with him for a couple of years, when I got laid off from the Apollo tech job I had at Goddard Space Flight Center, we, gf and I, drifted back west to my parents house in Escondido.
But Firk and Delta X still are with me, even though Firk is gone now, died in 2004 of massive heart attack. Stephan is still around, he has a Phd in economics and has a CD with a trio of like folks singing songs about money and such and his great guitar playing.
I had a self produced CD ready to send to Firk when I found out from Joe Bussard (Fonotone records) that he had died. I was a bit devastated to hear of Mike's death. And his wife, Carol, Gene's sister who died at age of 28 of also a massive heart attack, I still grieve them both.
I love having played music with some of the greats of folk, Pete Seeger, Libba Cotton, Rev. Gary Davis, Sam Mcgee, Firk, Delta X, Tom Hoskins (Fang), Fang and Firk are the ones who went to Avalon Mississippi and found Mississippi John hurt, got him out of retirement and back to Maryland where he lived at Firk's place for 3 months and then hit the folk circuit and had a great 5 years before he too died.
Those are the kind of common folk I talk about but uncommonly strong musicians.
What are you listening to?
05 Aug '18 20:541 edit
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