Tom Paxton

Tom Paxton with Kristi Nebel

                                                                                 

We're at day five of Folk Alliance International Conference in Kansas City.  I don't expect to be forgiven for name-dropping nor for getting all gooey over my folk idols.  I have not led a life blessed by near-encounters with the famous, possibly because I'm from Spokane, not San Franciso, Nashville, New York, or Los Angeles, nor have I lived anywhere near those places.  Nor have I gone chasing after such experiences.  I do know people who can regale with the best of raconteurs of their experiences with famous people.  If you frequently find yourself in certain places you can have a reasonable expectation of a life like Forest Gump, I figure.  I just have to record this little incident for myself so I can look back on it as it's remarkable to me.  I'm a big fan of Tom Paxton.  I've sung along with his songs for much of my life and even played one of them dozens of times onstage.  "Wasn't that a Party" was a barrom hit for bands such as ours to play for drunks on a nightly basis.  "Here's to You, My Rambling Boy" is one I loved early on in my adolescence.  More recently in our tours of British folk clubs his songs pop up frequently among singers because he has earned legions of admirers everywhere we go there.   "Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound", and "The Last Thing on My Mind" live on yet after all these years among lovers of folksinging.  So last year I was thrilled to spot him at Folk Alliance International and had my photo taken with him to shamelesslly show off to my friends on Facebook (many of whom are British).  Tonight we were watching Iain Matthews (formerly of Fairport Convention fame), and someone behind us tapped Steve on the shoulder and said familiarly, "You're not the kind of guy to wear that big black cowboy hat.  Seems like you should have a white one!"  I know Steve was floored to see it was Tom Paxton.  Tom in the past year announced his 63rd recording “Boat In The Water,” and recently hit the road with special guests Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer in the UK in January 2017.  We aren't actually pals with him, but had exactly one conversation in our lives with him, last year at Folk Alliance International.  This wasn't a good chance to talk because the concert was about to begin.  I had just enough time to lean over my seat and ask him if he still remembered Rob Folsom, a mutual friend who was his concert promoter in Tacoma.  He said "Of course!  Rob Folsom, yes!"  I told him that we'd seen Rob at an open mic last year, had a really nice time with him, and Rob played the most perfect set of music I'd ever seen from him.  Then Rob went home and died in his sleep.  Tom took that in.  Then he said, "That's how I'd like to go."  Then the concert started and after a few songs from "Plainsong", Tom disappeared.  I'm still scratching my head over how he managed to remember us at all, and decided to seek out Steve in a crowd for some familiar gentle joking.  But I'm tickled pink.  And the concert was great.

Here I am tonight with Tish Hinojosa directly after her concert.

Andy Roberts and Ian Matthews started Plainsong in 1972 before fanning out into their own careers with Pink Floyd and Fairport Convention, then reunited recently.  This concert was part of a project to rearrange and revive the songwriting of Richard Farina.  They breathed new life into Farina's songs with their tight harmonies and new grooves and with predictably expert guitar work on tunes that seemed to predict the violent death of this fine creative spirit.  The songs took me back to a place in my life when his poetic lyrics touched my rebellious youthfulness.  I was hoping to get a photo with Iain Matthews but haven't had the nerve to interrupt him in the halls here while he chats with others.  Tonight he sat next to Steve at the concert we attended of Tish Hinojosa, but I was unable to catch him before he darted away.  I did catch Tish though as you can see.  She played a lovely concert all by herself, featuring her appealingly melodic songwriting.  She proudly announced that her CD, "Culture Swing" has been named one of the 50 greatest Texas singer-songwriter albums by the Houston Chronicle.

Here's Steve today waiting outside the room for our interview with KC Cafe Radio.

We had an information table at the event all four days, allowing us to meet and mingle with folk deejays, some of whom we've known now for many years from airplay given to our previous recordings.  We gave away plenty of our promotional materials and met a couple of concert presenters who expressed interest in our music; one Scotsman, Rob Ellen, is familiar with our folk musician friends in Fife, Davey and Mary Stewart. And we had fun "chilling" with our friends from Seattle, Rick Ruskin and Jim Page.  We all compared notes from the late-night guerilla showcases that left everyone red-eyed from lack of sleep.  Today we had an interview on KC Cafe Radio with deejay Kathy Forste, who has by now crossed paths with us several times from Folk Alliances and become a friend.  Her interest is in singer songwriters and her programming reflects this. Folk Alliance shamelessly promotes the idea of developing relationships in the world of folk music, and this works out to be an enjoyable aspect of the experience for us.

Vance Gilbert

Here's someone you should catch if ever you can: Vance Gilbert, a truly great singer with some razor-sharp humor routines between his songs.

The event ends tomorrow with a "Folk Festival" featuring among others, the music of Billy Bragg.  His political messages are particularly germaine to the theme of this year, "Forbidden Folk", which Sonny Ochs still openly calls protest music.  The theme was chosen before the election, but many are saying this is the perfect time for creative juices to flow and for the music of protest to find a new audience.  Of course we couldn't be happier about that in spite of all this new administration is doing to make us unhappy.


                                                                           

Tom Paxton @ Phil Ochs tribute
We did finally on the last day of FAI run into him again and he did indeed perform.  This was part of a Phil Ochs tribute during which he shared a story of his friendship with Ochs and sang (still in fine form) "There But For Fortune" by Phil Ochs.