Plank Road Folk Music Society

Autumn - October 2024 www.plankroad.org

Annual Log Cabin Party is back!

Music, snacks, and camaraderie . . . and did we mention music?

Good times at the Log Cabin!

Kris Kristofferson 

Country music legend Kris Kristofferson died September 28. He was 88.

His greatest success as a singer-songwriter came in the 1970s with the albums The Silver Tongued Devil and I, Border Lord and Jesus Was a Capricorn — all big country hits that also crossed over to the pop album charts. 

But he was first known as a writer of hits for other artists. Roger Miller recorded three of his songs in 1969, including “Me and Bobby McGee,” which became one of Kristofferson’s most covered songs — most notably by Janis Joplin.

Kristofferson was born in Texas, the son of an Air Force pilot. He attended high school and college in California, and was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University, where he began performing his own songs. After earning a master’s degree, he returned to the U.S. and became an Army helicopter pilot. He left the Army in 1965 with the rank of captain, and was offered a post at West Point as an English instructor.

However, a trip to Nashville changed that. He worked at various jobs, and happened to be working at Columbia Records when Bob Dylan came to town to record Blonde on Blonde — which is when he met Johnny Cash, who spread the word that Kristofferson was “the best songwriter around.”

His first #1 country hit was “Why Me,” followed by huge hits like “Sunday Morning Comin’ Down,” “For the Good Times,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” "The Silver Tongued Devil and I," and others, making Kristofferson one the hottest songwriting names in Nashville.

By 1973 his attention turned toward acting. He was cast as Billy the Kid in Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid — which also featured Bob Dylan. Other films included Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, and the blockbuster A Star is Born with Barbra Streisand. He continued to appear in a number of other films.

In 1985, Kristofferson joined Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings to record Highwayman, which quickly became a chart topper. As pioneers of “outlaw country” music, they released two follow-up albums and toured as The Highwaymen. 

The popular folk group, The Highwaymen (of “Michael Row the Boat Ashore” fame, which was a #1 hit in 1961) sued the supergroup over the use of the name. However, an “amicable agreement” was reached, with the folk group retaining ownership of the name. 

Kristofferson was a four-time Grammy winner, and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame.

He was married three times, including to singer Rita Coolidge in 1973. They scored big pop and country hits with three duet albums, but their marriage ended in1980 with Coolidge commenting, “I can’t say enough about what a great man he was. It’s just that he was a (expletive) husband with all his drinking and womanizing.” He stopped drinking that same year.

He once said he wanted the first three lines of Leonard Cohen’s “Bird On The Wire” on his tombstone:

Like a bird on the wire

Like a drunk in a midnight hour

I have tried in my way to be free

JD Souther 

Known for his country rock, JD Souther wrote hit songs recorded by Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles. He died September 17 at age 78.

Souther was born and raised in Amarillo TX. His first recordings were with a local group who recorded at nearby Norman Petty Studios in Clovis NM in 1965 (the same studio that launched Buddy Holly in 1957). After moving to Los Angeles in the late 1960s, Souther met Glenn Frey, becoming close friends and musical collaborators — and briefly performing as a folk duo.

After recording a solo album in 1972, Souther formed the band Souther-Hillman-Furay, releasing two albums. When creative tensions led to the band's demise he released his second solo LP, featuring a duet with Linda Ronstadt. His biggest solo hit was “You’re Only Lonely” in 1979, reaching #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #1 on the Adult Contemporary Chart for five consecutive weeks.

In the 1970s Souther wrote or co-wrote many hits for the Eagles, including “Best of My Love,” “New Kid In Town,” and “Heartache Tonight.” He dated Stevie Nicks and Linda Ronstadt, writing songs for several of Ronstadt’s albums — and collaborated with longtime friend James Taylor on “Her Town Too.”

Souther also appeared in a number of films and TV series, and wrote many songs for other artists. He was inducted into the Songwriter Hall of Fame in 2013, and remembered as “a principal architect of the Southern California sound and a major influence on a generation of songwriters.”

Kinky Friedman

 

Known as a “politically incorrect raconteur,” singer, songwriter, humorist, novelist and politician Richard “Kinky” Friedman died June 27 at age 79. 

He was born in Chicago, eventually moving to Texas. After high school he earned a BA in psychology — and the nickname “kinky,” because of his curly hair. He served two years in the Peace Corps, and later founded an animal rescue shelter near Kerrville TX, saving over 1,000 dogs from euthanasia.

His first band, King Arthur & the Carrots, satirized surf music. In 1973 he formed his second band, Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, which many thought was a play on the famous country band, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. Their first “tour bus” was a Cadillac with expired license plates and a propensity to break down.

He initially found fame as a country/western singer, eventually touring with Bob Dylan — his repertoire mixing social commentary and maudlin ballads with raucous humor. His “Ride ‘Em Jewboy” was actually a tribute to victims of the Holocaust. One of his most famous songs is “They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore.” He and the band taped an Austin City Limits show in 1975, but it was considered “too offensive” and never aired.

After his musical career stalled in the 1980s, Friedman began writing detective novels, and wrote a regular column for Texas Monthly magazine.

In 1984 he ran for Justice of the Peace in Kerrville, but lost. In 2004 he began a serious, though colorful, campaign for Governor of Texas — hoping to follow in the footsteps of other entertainers-turned-governors like Reagan, Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura. He was defeated. Originally a Republican, Friedman switched parties in 2013, claiming he was actually “a Democrat all his life.” 

Happy Traum 

Folk musician and noted guitarist and banjo player, Harry Peter “Happy” Traum, died July 17 at age 86. He was a mainstay of the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early 1960s and a Dylan collaborator. 

He was born in New York City, and as a teenager frequented the folk music gatherings in Washington Square and Greenwich Village in the late 1950s and 60s.

While in high school he became friends with Peter Yarrow and Eric Weissberg. He received a bachelor’s degree at New York University, and became part of the Woodstock music community in the 70s and 80s. He and his brother, Artie, performed at the Newport Folk Festival and toured the world. Traum released eight albums and had an influential career as a music instructor.

According to Blues magazine, Traum “is easily one the most significant acoustic-roots musicians and guitar pickers of his generation.”

He first appeared on record at a historic session in 1962, when a group of young folk musicians, including Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger and others, gathered in the studio at Folkways Records. With his group, The New World Singers, Traum cut the first version of “Blowin’ In the Wind,” in early 1963. “We didn’t know how special it was, and that we’d still be talking about it 60 years later.”

They also released the first recorded version of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright,” in 1963 — followed that same year on Dylan’s album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. For several years Traum studied blues guitar with Brownie McGhee, who was a big influence. 

He was a sought-after sideman, recording with Dylan, Pete Seeger, Levon Helm, Peter Tosh and  others. He also sang a duet with Dylan (who performed under the pseudonym Blind Boy Grunt).



John Mayall



English blues and rock musician, songwriter and producer John Mayall was born in Cheshire, England in 1933. He died July 22 at age 90. In the 1960s he formed John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers — a band that included legendary artists Eric Clapton, and later, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood.

Mayall was a singer, guitarist, harmonica player and keyboardist, with a career spanning nearly seven decades. He remained an active musician until his death, and has been referred to as the “godfather of British blues” — and was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

From an early age he was drawn to the sounds of American blues, teaching himself to play piano, guitar and blues harmonica. Mayall served in the British military in Korea, and while on leave, bought his first electric guitar in Japan. After college he worked as an art designer, while playing in various bands, until 1963, when he opted for a full-time musical career in London. 

Mayall received a recording contract with Decca Records in 1964. A year later former Yardbirds guitarist Eric Clapton joined the band — and the Bluesbreakers began attracting considerable attention. In 1966, unknown to Mayall, Clapton had been negotiating with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker to form their own band, Cream.

After many lineup changes during the 60s, Mayall tried different formats eventually moving to Los Angeles, where he recorded with local musicians for various labels. 

Maurice Williams



Born in 1938 in South Carolina, Maurice Williams died August 5 at the age of 86. His first experience with music was in the church where his mother and sister both performed — and by the time he was six he was regularly performing there. With a childhood friend he formed a gospel group, but rock & roll and doo-wop soon became their interest.

In 1956, while still in high school, Williams and his band traveled to Nashville to record —  and changed their name to the Gladiolas. A year later they released “Little Darlin,” which was a hit on the R&B Chart, but only reached #41 on Billboard’s Top 100. However, when it was covered by the Canadian group, The Diamonds, it rocketed up to #2.

After high school the band hit the road. Legend has it their station wagon broke down in West Virginia, and they came across a British-built Ford car known as the Zodiac. They immediately changed their name to Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs. And the rest is history.

In 1959 the band recorded several tracks they hoped would include a hit. One of those tracks was “Stay,” a song that Williams wrote back in 1953. In early 1960, “Stay” was released, quickly rising to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. At a mere 1 minute and 36 seconds, “Stay” is the shortest recording ever to reach #1. Since then the song has been covered by the Hollies, the Four Seasons, Jackson Browne and others.

Williams continued to record, tour and release music until his death.

The “27 Club”

Since we had an unusually high number of celebrity musician deaths in this issue — and Halloween is just around the corner — it seems only right that we talk about the infamous “27 Club.” As you may be aware, 27 was a not a lucky age for a number of famous artists.

There are currently six in the Club: 

Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse. 

Each was seemingly on the path to success, but struggled with various issues, such as chronic unhappiness, insecurity, low self-esteem, tumultuous relationships, depression, and addiction — which ultimately became paths to destruction — at the young age of 27.

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Plank Road Folk Music Society

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