TOUR UPDATE - 5/8/08

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

outside the MainStay

We've been friends ever since and now that they've decided to do a 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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

NEXT! THE WFMA TRIBUTE!

 

I first saw Pete Seeger at Carnegie Hall in 1960. He was doing a series of hootenannies for Sing Out! Magazine and I was a new kid in New York, come to see the man who, for me and for my generation, was the driving force behind the rapidly growing folk music movement. Even in my seat in the far reaches of the upper balcony, his energy and spirit overwhelmed me.

On another occasion I was going from club to coffeehouse down in the Village, from The Gaslight to The Bitter End and small "basket houses" in between, greedy for every note of every folk song I could hear. Up on Bleecker Street stood The Village Gate, several rungs higher up the prestige ladder than any of the folk clubs where I occasionally got the chance to sing a song or two. The Village Gate played nationally known acts like Leon Bibb, Miriam Makeba, Woody Allen and, on this rare occasion, Pete Seeger. Whatever the admission price was, I didn't have it, so I lurked in the lobby and caught a glimpse now and then through the curtain of Pete singing for a packed house. It was as thrilling for me as Carnegie Hall had been.

Tom and Pete - Newport, 1966 Photo: Joe Alper

I finally met Pete in 1963. Everyone knew he had been blacklisted for years and was never on TV or commercial radio. When the Hootenanny show went on the TV (ironic that Pete had been largely responsible for coining the word) it was obvious to many that he belonged on it if anyone did. The producer, Fred Weintraub (who owned The Bitter End) claimed that there was no blacklist; no, no, Pete hadn't been invited on to the show because they didn't think he could hold an audience. Hello? Had they ever seen this man turn a crowd of thousands into an instant choir?

Several of us Village folksingers––Phil Ochs, Pat Sky, Dave Van Ronk, Eric Anderson, John Phillips and I, among others––decided to organize a boycott of Hootenanny. We had a few small meetings at our Morton Street apartment and then a large session one afternoon at The Village Gate. We must have had 50 or 60 performers there and our surprise visitor was Pete himself. Predictably, Pete argued that whatever its wrongs to him personally, the show, for him, had more to recommend it. He felt it could spread folk music to a far greater audience and that fact, for him, was persuasive. We talked it over and found we still felt that he was being unfairly treated and so the boycott went on.

After the meeting I got up my courage and approached Pete. I took off my figurative activist/organizer hat and stood revealed as a young songwriter looking for a breakl I asked Pete if I could sing him a song I'd just written. He never says no to a request like that and I was able to sing Ramblin' Boy for him. To my great joy, he liked it and recorded it at Carnegie Hall I (I couldn't believe it) in a reunion concert with The Weavers (How great was that?). Because he had just learned it he got the chorus slightly wrong, singing, "Fare thee well, my Ramblin' Boy," instead of "Here's to you." Not a big deal at all to someone as thrilled as I was.

Pete and his family took off on a year's trip around the world and when the album came out, complete with Pete's mistake, I received a post card from India, containing Pete's signature drawing of a banjo and a message reading, "Dear Tom, Oops! Pete."

When I wrote How Beautiful Upon The Mountain last summer and recorded it for Comedians & Angels, Pete was prominent among those who inspired the song.

Alexandria
March 2008

The following items are now available directly from Tom online:

Comedians & Angels

Comedians & Angels is Tom's NEWEST RELEASE (February, 2008). Songs of love and remembrance recorded in Nashville with a country/Americana tinge. Over the course of the new CD's 15 tracks, Paxton pays tribute to his family, his fellow musicians and activists, and to lovers "real or merely imagined." This album stylistically unites seven newly-penned originals with rerecorded versions of songs from his back catalogue of more than 40 albums, and delivers the warmth, simplicity and from-the-heart grace that has been as much a Paxton trademark as his humorous, sometimes biting political songs, his Scandinavian fisherman's cap, and the twinkle in his eyes. CD will be signed by Tom. [ read review ]
[ Order Directly from Tom ]

Live In The U.K.

Live In The UK, received a 2006 Grammy® nomination in the Traditional Folk category. Subtitled Souvenir, the CD is just that. Recorded live on mini-disc during a 10-city tour of England and Scotland in 2003, the CD celebrates Tom's 40-year relationship with his British fans.
Live In The UK features Tom's typical 'short shelf-life' musical commentaries on the current scene, as well as including most of the British audience's favorites: Ramblin' Boy, The Last Thing On My Mind and Bottle Of Wine. CD will be signed by Tom.
[ Order Directly from Tom ]

Your Shoes, My Shoes

Your Shoes, My Shoes (Grammy®-nominated !) was recorded at Bias Studios in Springfield, VA, in 2001, produced by Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, who have been Grammy nominees four times for their wonderful children's recordings. Joined by children on this album, Tom sperforms such classics as "Barney Ate My Homework","It's Time Out Again", and the title song "Your Shoes, My Shoes." CD will be signed by Tom.
[ Order Directly from Tom ]

The Honor of Your Company

In the book, Tom Paxton: The Honor of Your Company, he tells his story as only he can, from his early days in Oklahoma through the exciting '60s in Greenwich Village and London, up to the present, including his long interest in creating and performing children's music. Lavishly illustrated with photos and anecdotes throughout, this wonderful collection features music and lyrics to 89 beloved standards and songs of protest, love, humor and childhood. Includes: My Dog's Bigger Than Your Dog · My Ramblin' Boy · The Marvelous Toy · The Last Thing on My Mind · and many more. Book will be signed by Tom.
[ Order Directly from Tom ]





WFMA CELEBRATES TRIBUTE TO TOM PAXTON

The World Folk Music Association honored folk performer and songwriter, Tom Paxton, with a special lifetime tribute and concert on Saturday, May 3, 2008. The event was held at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center at Northern Virginia Community College, Alexandria Campus, Alexandria, VA.

In addition to live on-stage performances, a large television screen was utilized to present performers unable to attend but wanting to be included in the tribute. One of the featured groups was the first group to ever record a Tom Paxton song, The Chad Mitchell Trio. (shown above with Tom) Information and Tickets

TOM WILL JOIN CHAD MITCHELL TRIO FOR CRUISE TO ALASKA

Traveling Troubadour Cruises & Tours will present folk music legends Tom Paxton and The Chad Mitchell Trio together for a voyage into the great land of Alaska in June, 2008! You can join them for this adventure!

The cruise will include 7 breath-taking days of spectacular scenery, as it makes its way through the inside passage on the voyage to Alaska. Onboard Holland America's MS Volendam the tour's group will enjoy 2 private receptions and 2 private concerts with the Chad Mitchell Trio and Tom Paxton in addition to all the amenities and pampering that cruising is known for. This truly will be the trip of a lifetime!

For more information or to reserve a place on the trip, go to http://www.travelingtroubadour.com/CMT-Tom_Paxton_2008_Alaska.htm

Live at McCabes Guitar Shop

Live at McCabes Guitar Shop was recorded in 1991 at the popular Santa Monica folk institution. Accompanied only by his own guitar, Tom sings many of the songs that have enthralled his listeners since Bottle of Wineto the more contemporary One Million Lawyers and The Ballad of Gary Hart, and shows Tom to be be an endearing entertainer.
[ Order from Amazon.com] [ sample or download from iTunes ]

Looking For The Moon

Looking for the Moon was released in late 2002 and was nominated for a 2003 Grammy® Award.
This is a reunion with one of Tom's favorite producers, ever: Jim Rooney. He persuaded Jim to come down from Vermont and assemble a tremendous group of musicians. They all met at Jack's Tracks in Nashville, along with Nanci Griffith and Anne Hills, who added some great harmonies. The sessions were pure joy and with Jim's confident chivvying, they moved right along. Tom finally had the chance to record some songs he had been doing for a few years, but hadn't yet recorded, like the title track, and some brand new ones, as well.
[ Order from CD Baby ] [ sample or download from iTunes ]