Sunday, April 29, 2012
LEGENDS OF FOLK RETURN TO GREENWICH VILLAGE
Thursday, April 26, 2012
50 YEARS AGO...THIS DATE AT GERDE'S
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
DYLAN PLAYS FIRST GIG AT GERDE'S FOLK CITY
THIS DATE in Gerde's illustrious history, Bobby Dylan plays his first "real" gig in New York opening up for the great Blues man, John Lee Hooker. Just weeks before, Dylan né Zimmerman had to make his choice of a professional stage name. To this day, he is referred to as Bobby by those who know him, but back then, he decided for the more solid BOB. (Could it play a role in naming a future double album Blonde On Blonde...? Or perhaps why he has taken the stage with his Never Ending Band on his Never Ending Tour closer to 8:08 more often than not...? Let's ask him.)
BACK TO 1961
The first gig was set up by Bobby's first agent/manager, Terri Thal. The library is full of names that may have possibly arranged Dylan's first five day booking, but it was Terri. You read it here first. Ask Terri.
Now, she didn't do it all alone, mind you. She had a husband named Dave Van Ronk who had been poking and prodding my grandfather Mike Porco for weeks to give the kid a shot. Additionally, many of the other performers and newly found friends of the Dylan character had also been giving Mike encouragement to give him some time on the legendary stage. Van Ronk later recalled, "Terri signed Bobby early. Nobody wanted to touch him with a ten-foot pole. He was too raw."
Mike Porco was interviewed several times about the history of his cabaret, and often he would retell some parts of how the events of this week transpired. One of those stories was relayed to Robbie Woliver who bought Folk City from Porco in 1980. The following can be found in his book, Bringing it All Back Home (Pantheon 1986):
"He was a nice kid. He didn't look wild. He didn't argue with anybody. He would stand on the side like a little orphan. I sympathized with his manners, the way he handled himself. Then I heard the songs and I liked them.
"When he got through singing one night I called him into the kitchen, which was my office. I said, "You did a nice set, Bobby. Tell me, would you like to work a couple weeks?" He said "With who?" I said, "With John Lee Hooker." "Ooh yeah!" he said. "Ooh Mike," he said, "great, great oh man, great." So I told him, the only thing is you gotta join the Union. Otherwise the Union comes in and won't let you play. You come tomorrow and we'll go down to the Union. I know some people up there, so I'll go up there with you." "Oh," he said, "great, Mike."
"I called up my friend Mike, the head of the Local 802. "I have a young kid who one of these days you're gonna read about. He's gonna be a big star."
...The man says, "Robert, Mike told me you're gonna be a future star. You're gonna be great. Tell me the truth-what will you do when you become big?" So Bobby looked to him to say, "I don't know." Then he filled out the application. (The man) told him to come the next day with his mother because he was only twenty. Bobby said, "I ain't got no mother." The man said, "That's all right. Come with your father." Bobby said, "I ain't got no father either." The man looks on his application and looked at me and whispered, "What is he, a bastard?"
So the man said, "I can't give you the contract because you have to be twenty-one...unless some legal guardian wants to sign." He said to me, "Mike do you want to sign it as his guardian?" I said, "Bobby, do you want me to sign it?" Bobby said, "Oh sure, Mike. I would appreciate it." So I signed his contract as his guardian.
So he played that show. He did the same as anybody else. They didn't break the doors down to come in. John Lee Hooker was the headliner and Bobby didn't get the applause John Lee Hooker got. But he built up a following from that show.
I told Bob Shelton I was booking him again and Shelton told me to remind him so he can do an article. I almost forgot. I called him just the day before and told him Bobby was starting his gig the next day.
By the second show, people were telling other people, "You know, there's a good kid, Bob Dylan." So the word spread; but the write-up in the New York Times broke him through.
And in another treasure shared with me by the interviewer himself, radio personality Dan Behrman got Mike to reminisce the week of the Folk City 20 year anniversary week in December of 1979. Let Mike tell the story himself again:
Dan Behrman- How were they at the time? How was somebody like Bob Dylan or Phil Ochs? What kind of people were they? Were they shy…
Mike Porco - Well some they were. Some they were very forward. They were expecting more than they were deserving. But people like-a Dylan, he was a very, very shy type. He wouldn't say a word. He never asked me for the job, I had to ask him! A lot of people used to tell him, 'Why don't you ask Mike to give you a job. He can put you as an opening act?' But he never come in and tell me…
...I started listening to some of his songs. I used to pay a little attention to it. To my knowledge, I'm not an expert but it made-a sense. The words were-a pretty well put together. And I said, 'This guy may be able to draw great.' so finally I give him a job to open up for-a John Lee Hooker. That was April 1961.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
NEXT SHOW ANNOUNCED!
CHAMPIONS OF FOLK MUSIC REUNITE AT 116 MACDOUGAL STREET.
Join us for this one-time event hosted by FRIENDS OF MIKE PORCO.
RANDY BURNS was destined to be a Folk singer. After arriving in Greenwich Village in the mid 60s, he began like so many others before and after him. Every week, he played the open mic nights at the original Gerde's Folk City, The Gaslight Café and The Bitter End making friends and gaining an audience everywhere he went.
Randy holds the rare distinction of getting signed to a recording contract with ESP Records before playing his first paying gig!
Impressed by his talent, Clarence Hood, the owner of the legendary Gaslight, hired Randy as the permanent opening act. At only eighteen he was opening for some of the biggest folk stars in the country John Hammond, Tom Paxton, Dave Van Ronk, Eric Andersen, Spider John Koerner, Sonny and Brownie, Phil Ochs, Carolyn Hester, Washboard Sam and many others.
Later, Randy Burns and The SkyDog Band would tour under contract with Mercury and Polydor. Now based in NYC, he continues to bring generations of Folk musicians together by organizing Monday night song nights at the same venue where it all began for him, 116 MacDougal.
DAVID MASSENGILL came to New York from the Virginia/Tennesee border in the mid 70s with a mountain dulcimer, 5 original songs and a dream to make his mark in the world of American music history.
He would go on to become one of the more important figures during the revitalized "Folk Scare" of the 70s and 80s.
Renowned as a brilliant song writer faithful to American folk traditions, his epic compositions have been recorded by David Bromberg, Joan Baez and "The Mayor of MacDougal Street," Dave Van Ronk. In fact, Massengill and Van Ronk later became close friends and touring mates.
As part of the original New York Fast Folk crowd, Massengill forged an alliance with dozens of other aspiring musicians, including the late Jack Hardy. The pair formed the "Folk Brothers" and David continued to bring a slice of Americana to audiences around the nation sharing songs and stories like no one else can.
Burns and Massengill have crossed paths many times throughout the years- at Kenny's Castaways, Gerde's Folk City and on the road- but they've never played the Gaslight space together.
That will change on April 28th as these Champions of Folk music bring their talents to the stage for this historic evening.
Doors at 5. Show at 7PM
Two-for-one drinks 5-7.
$12 in advance. $15 at the door. SEATING IS LIMITED
Advance tickets on sale NOW! Click HERE
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Sunday, March 25, 2012
OSCAR AND ERIK: PACKED HOUSE TREATED TO STELLAR SHOW
It'll go down in his story.
THE NIGHT OSCAR ISAAC played the Gaslight like he played the Gaslight in the movie 'Inside Llewyn Davis' where he played the Gaslight for a guy who looked like Mike Porco.
In case you missed it, so did I. I didn't record shit. But I have a :40 audio clip on my iPhone voice memo app.
Co-Stars John Goodman and Johnny (Ethan) Phillips and Garrett Hedlund were there. Hedlund and I shared a toast with whiskey. It was a great fu&king show. The 60 people sandwiched in there thanked me. Good luck, Oscar.
(Pictures courtesy Dave Peller)
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| John Goodman, Oscar Isaac at 116 Macdougal |
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| Erik Frandsen, Kate Sland |
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| Oscar Isaac |
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| Oscar, unnamed GF |
(Pictures courtesy Dave Peller)
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
GREENWICH VILLAGE LEGEND AND STAR OF VAN RONK BIOPIC PLAY MACDOUGAL STREET
ERIK FRANDSEN and OSCAR ISAAC
116 MacDougal Street, NYC
Saturday, March 24
7PM
Erik Frandsen gets his bread buttered from acting jobs these days, but acting is only one of the many talents he's manifested over the last 4 decades. As a teenager, he would travel into New York City to see and hear performances by some of the most influential Blues and Acoustic guitar greats ever to play Greenwich Village. By the mid-1960s, he had become one of those very people himself.
Another future Village legend, David Bromberg, went to the same high school with Erik. They sometimes would come down on the train from Tarrytown, NY to watch the amazing flat picking talents of Doc Watson. Erik remembers seeing Doc Watson perform at Gerde's Folk City just as Acoustic Folk and Blues music had completely wrestled the Village away from the Beat Society. A year older than Frandsen, Bromberg would be the first of the schoolmates to be hired by Mike Porco to perform at Folk City's hallowed confines on West 4th Street. Erik would headline eventually in 1966. Not long after that, Bromberg would go into the studio with Gerde's favorite son, Bob Dylan, to record with him on Self Portrait and New Morning. Erik would get his invitation from Dylan in 1976 to record, what became an outtake from the Desire sessions, "Catfish."
Along the way, Erik Frandsen had "earned his bones" working coast-to-coast as an accompanist, mainly to leading musician, Patrick Sky. Pat Sky left the music business in 1975, but Erik continued to work, not only as a touring musician, but as a playwright and actor. Acting is where Frandsen's true passion lies, but his encyclopedic song repertoire is as unique as his presentation of it on stage. Part comedy routine, part story-hour and part theater, his stage show is a sight to behold. As an oft used emcee at Folk City and many other clubs in The Village, Erik knows how to entertain crowds from all walks of life. It's his musicianship on guitar that makes people sit up and take notice. As his fingers crawl across the fretboard, he weaves original and traditional songs of lost love, witticism, romance in rhyme like few others ever to take the stage in Greenwich Village.
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Oscar Isaac is a name that will soon be known more widely than just New York and Hollywood once Inside Llewyn Davis hits theaters. The Coen Brothers handpicked him to star in their ode to the Greenwich Village music scene for more than just his ability to play guitar on film. Oscar's standout performances in Robin Hood with Russell Crowe and Drive with Ryan Gosling surely had something to do with it. His characters "jump off the screen" as the viewer can plainly see that he is an actor who pours all that he is into his roles.
Being given the title character to play, Isaac has an opportunity to use his first leading role as a springboard to much greater success. He'll be supported in this movie by Justin Timberlake, John Goodman and F. Murray Abraham. All the characters in the movie (to be released in 2013), have roles replicating some of the most important figures in Greenwich Village during the Blues and Folk Revival of the 1960s. The Coens have taken artistic liberty by condensing some instances and events into a setting lasting one week and have only twisted some names slightly. In the movie, there is a "Jim and Jean," a Grossman character and, I'm told, a club owner with the last name of Porco (Hmmmm). Other than Bob Dylan, perhaps no other figure represents the scene in New York more succinctly than Dave Van Ronk. The screenplay for Inside Llewyn Davis has been adapted for Hollywood by the Coen Brothers using Dave Van Ronk's autobiography as a guide. Portraying a Van Ronk-type character means portraying "The Mayor of MacDougal Street."
Van Ronk was the resident master of ceremonies at the original Gaslight Cafe taking over the reigns from another luminary, Noel Stookey (Noel is better known as "Paul" in the trio Peter, Paul and Mary…but you don't need me to tell you that). It was there that Dave Van Ronk sized up, evaluated and corralled the brightest young Folk stars of the day and it was there where one could see him perform every week alongside some of the biggest names on the Folk and Blues circuit at the time. Many of the same musicians that played for my grandfather at Gerde's also performed for a hat full of dollars and quarters at the coffee-only Gaslight. Along with Dylan, names like José Feliciano, John P. Hammond, Phil Ochs, Peter Yarrow, Tom Paxton, Len Chandler, Happy and Artie Traum, Pat Sky, Buffy Sainte Marie, Danny Kalb and many others made the Gaslight world famous.
THE THEME OF THE ORIGINAL GASLIGHT RETURNS TO MACDOUGAL STREET
On Saturday, March 24th, Erik Frandsen and musician and actor buddy Oscar Isaac will add their names to the venue's historic line of stars and stalwarts of acoustic music. The new owners of 116 MacDougal pride themselves on offering professional musical events that are faithful to the former Gaslight's history. Oscar and Erik know how to bring life to the songs and sounds that made the Village great. But perhaps the most novel fact about this show is that it will be held in the very same space once occupied by the original Village Gaslight Cafe. The basement club has gone through many changes over the years, and is now trying to recapture attention as a place where people can go and hear live Folk, Roots and Blues in a living landmark. FRIENDS OF MIKE PORCO is committed to bringing the veterans of New York Folk together on stage with the younger generation of passionate musicians for older and newer audiences alike. Come and enjoy!!
ADVANCE TICKETS HERE
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