March 31 I will be performing at the local Folksinging Society’s Members’ Showcase Concert. The concert will consist of three acts or performers, each getting 25-30 minutes.
I have regularly played at church and for my Fraternity, but I have not performed for an audience in a folk-type setting in more than 25 years!
The coordinator of the concert asked for a picture and a bio. Here’s what I sent him:
I discovered folk music through Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, and Simon and Garfunkel. I was especially inspired by Seeger’s joyful performing, social concern, and sense of humor.
I performed sporadically in coffee houses and at festivals in the 1970’s and 1980’s. In addition, two friends requested that I provide the music for their garden wedding: They wanted all Dylan tunes. And I was even part of the community choir for a Peter, Paul & Mary Holiday Concert at the Eastman Theatre in the late 1980’s. But by the 1990’s I had shifted my focus to being a children’s performer and acting with local community theater groups. I blended the two to become a professional Santa, something I continue to do. My only regular singing and playing since the 1990’s has been church-related.
But being involved with (this group), and seeing friends perform, has inspired me to return to the stage to play folk music again.
I’ve selected the following songs for my set:
I’m Gonna Live ‘til the Day I Die (original)
Bottle of Wine (Tom Paxton)
Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport (Rolf Harris)
I Am Going Home (original)
Oh Sinner Man (traditional)
There’s a Great Big Monster Under My Bed (original)
Walking Down the Line (Bob Dylan)
Get Up and Go (Pete Seeger)
Of the original songs, “Gonna Live” was an upbeat tune I wrote 40 or more years ago. The message is that no matter what happens we should live fully up until the end. Of the named “people” in the Song, Hank Scudder, the farmer, was based on a garage in my home town; Seamus Ferlie, the bad singer, was my pet cat (the fiddle reference was a joke, as fiddles were supposedly strung with catgut); Mollie, the victim of a stroke, was my wife’s dog.
“I Am Going Home” was written two years ago in response after hearing a song about a guy deserting his woman, leaving her the house, and not caring if she’s grieving. I didn’t like that message, so I wrote a song about a man who looks forward to going home.
The “Monster” song was one I wrote during my days as a children’s performer back in the 1990’s. The monster turns out to be friendly, enjoying catch, tic-tac-toe, and telling jokes. It went with a story about overcoming childhood fear of monsters.
The Paxton song was one I always liked. “Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport” was a novelty hit when I was 8; it was the first song on the radio that caught my attention. I had grown up in a family where my mother was hearing impaired and my father was tone deaf, so there was little music in our home. I date my interest in music to hearing that song.
“Oh Sinner Man” is my own arrangement of a traditional song I first heard Peter, Paul, and Mary perform. “Walking Down the Line” is an odd little Bob Dylan tune I discovered through Arlo Guthrie’s cover of it. And “Get Up and Go” is a Pete Seeger tune I always liked, and, given my gray hair and aching joints, is appropriate for me!
I used to play out back in the 1970’s and 1980’s. But I was always self conscious about my voice and my playing, and I didn’t like the idea of trying to tour. Then a woman I was with in those days told me I was not good enough. Her remark fed into my own doubts, and so I stopped playing out.
In the 1990’s I did become a children’s performer - stories and songs - in part because I felt more comfortable about children, who I felt were less demanding. I could be silly with them, and I didn’t have to be perfect. But as I became more involved with theater and playing/singing in church, and when I returned to teaching and so my schedule was less flexible, I stopped doing that.
Then I attended a members’ concert in December that featured three friends. One of them suggested I give it a try. I decided it was time to get back on stage.
I plan to suggest friends bring ear plugs, though!
