Mike Porco: From Cabinet making in Calabria to the stage at Madison Square Garden

 

Bob Dylan Acknowledges his New York Father before a packed house at MSG in 1975

Bob Dylan was busy in the Summer and Fall of 1975. He was spending a lot of time in Greenwich Village and surrounds.

🎼He was recording the Desire album and assembling the troops for the Rolling Thunder tour. This is a snippet of the Gerde's Folk City doc pointing just how important Mike Porco was to Bob Dylan.The first leg of the Rolling Thunder Tour culminated in a benefit concert for framed-boxer Reuben 'Hurricane' Carter at the World's Most Famous Arena. Mike was there to the delight of Dylan.

They had both come a long way from Dylan's first weeks in NYC in 1961 when Mike sponsored Dylan's Union and Cabaret cards as his PARENTAL GUARDIAN. AND Mike gave Bobby a little red wine and roast beef. Not a bad deal.

The Italian immigrant found himself on the stage at Madison Square Garden with all of his famous friends.

🚨The GerdesFolkCityDoc is a SUBSCRIPTION ONLY VIDEO.🚨 Subscribe for free to get free content. Pay for a subscription to get access to the Folk City documentary.

Help me gain 600 new subscribers so the unbelievable tale of Mike Porco can be told🎥🏆🍿🎼🍿🏆🌎🤌🏼 This link will take you directly to the post with the GerdesFolkCityDoc🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼👇🏽 🙏 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 https://bobporco86.substack.com/p/documentary-on-mike-porcos-folk-music

NYC's Folk Music Director OSCAR BRAND

I was fortunate to meet and speak with Oscar on a few occasions. I was able to thank him for helping my Grandfather make Gerde's Folk City what it became. Oscar was the City's authority- quite literally- on Folk Music at the time of Gerde's Restaurant's conversion from Wine and sauce shop into ''New York's Center of Folk Music.'' Oscar helped Mike Porco weed out talent and create a crowd around the best acoustic entertainment Washington Square had to offer

Here's an excerpt from a radio broadcast from at Gerde's when Israel G. Young was booking the FIFTH PEG:

Ed Herlihy:….''We take you back to New York's first Folk Music cabaret Gerde's- G-E-R-D-E and our reporter at the club…''

Sean Fitzpatrick: This is Sean Fitzpatrick and I'm talking to Oscar Brand, an expert on Folk music….and Oscar we're wondering if this is the beginning, well, it looks like the beginning for Folk music's spreading to the general populace.

Oscar Brand: Well, I'm hoping so. I think that the best way to make people learn about Folk music is to let them hear Folk music….and if this club is successful in the way that other clubs around the country have been successful, I will be a very happy, grateful and fulfilled young man.

Reporter: Thank you, Oscar Brand.

Oscar: It's a pleasure to talk to you even if I don't know what I'm talking about! (laughter)

~ Recorded January 1960,
The Fifth Peg at Gerde's
11 W. 4th St.
NYC

Oscar Brand
1920-2016

MORE on Oscar Brand's incredible career here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/oscar-brand-folk-troubadour-and-radio-host-for-seven-decades-dies-at-96/2016/10/01/cd5a6100-87cf-11e6-a3ef-f35afb41797f_story.html