Sandy Paton, RIP

Sandy Paton, a well-regarded traditional folk musician, and founder of Folk Legacy Records of Sharon CT, died yesterday after years of suffering with emphysema.

I didn't know Sandy well, though I met him several times. I knew his music, and the music he played and produced with his family, and of course I knew the many classic traditional and contemporary recordings he produced with Gordon Bok, Bill Staines, Cindy Kallet and the trad folk supergroup, Bok, Muir and Trickett.

I came to know Sandy's music, and Sandy's label through Bill Domler who recruited me as a folk DJ at WWUH. Bill loved the Patons, and their music, and was so inspired by their album of singalong traditional folk, The Golden Ring, that he started a coffeehouse, The Sounding Board, which still runs strongly, three decades later. The Patons played the Sounding Board annually.

The music Sandy and Caroline played and recorded was real, honest-to-god folk and traditional music. Music that had been passed down through generations, hand to hand, until all the burrs had been worn off. Sandy played and preserved the music with a nerdy passion, that we promoters and seekers of edgy, electrified and singer-songwriter type folk music would sometimes scoff at. I confess to a bit of scoffing myself, but I've grown (or grown up) to believe and understand, that without "nerds" like Sandy, we wouldn't have the rich reserve of folk songs and tunes that each successive generation seeks out to learn, love and perform.

Sandy's Folk Legacy label, like folk music itself, has survived the fashionable ups and downs of pop music and sustained an evergreen catalogue of folk songs. What Sandy, and Caroline, have done, and have left us, is important, though not necessarily sexy enough to command headlines.

Sandy left this old world a better place than he found it, and not much higher praise could be given to anyone who has finished trodding its dusty paths.

Duane Jarvis, RIP

LA roots musician Duane Jarvis has died after a short battle with colon cancer. He played with Lucinda Williams, John Prine, Dwight Yoakum and many others, and was a fine songwriter himself.

Hartford for Hartford's Paul Lemay

The Hartford Courant noted Paul Lemay's passing today with a great photo online.

As Kevin Lynch noted in a comment, Paul didn't create the fiddle contest because he loved fiddle music. He created it because he loved people.

In fact, Paul did love music - blues and jazz and folk. But he absolutely adored the late John Hartford. So here's a little Hartford for Hartford as it memorializes Paul Lemay.

Ronnie Drew, RIP

I read last week that the great voice of Ronnie Drew was silenced last week when he died of cancer in Dublin.

Drew, and his band The Dubliners, were a huge inspiration to Shane MacGowan, and the Pogues. The Dubliners and The Pogues had a top ten British hit in the 90's with The Irish Rover.

Erik Darling, RIP

Influential folk artist Erik Darling died Sunday. He had the audacity to score two top ten hits with folk songs - The Banana Boat Song with The Tarriers (in which he performed with actor Alan Arkin) and Walk Right In with the Rooftop Singers. You can hear a sample from each below. Darling left the Tarriers to replace Pete Seeger in the Weavers. He released several solo recordings after his stint with the Rooftop Singer.

Matt Nozzolio, RIP

Middletown resident, MDC spokesman, and accomplished bluegrass dobro player Matt Nozzolio died unexpectedly Sunday after a solo musical performance in New Haven.

More info at his website.