Frank Beacham's Journal

Reverend Gary Davis was born 126 years ago today

Rev. Gary Davis plays as Meegan Ochs dances

(Meegan is the daughter of Alice and Phil Ochs)

Photo by Alice Ochs

Reverend Gary Davis was born 126 years ago today.

Davis was blues and gospel singer and guitarist, who was also proficient on the banjo and harmonica. His finger-picking guitar style influenced many other artists. His guitar students included Stefan Grossman, David Bromberg, Roy Book Binder, Barry Kornfeld, Larry Johnson, Woody Mann, Nick Katzman, Dave Van Ronk, Tom Winslow, Rory Block and Ernie Hawkins.

Davis has influenced Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, Jackson Browne, Townes van Zandt, Dave Van Ronk, Wizz Jones, Jorma Kaukonen, Danny Kalb, Keb' Mo', Ollabelle, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Resurrection Band and John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful.

Davis was born in Laurens, South Carolina, and was the only one of eight children his mother bore who survived to adulthood. He became blind as an infant.

Davis reported that his father was killed in Birmingham, Alabama, when Davis was ten, and Davis later said that he had been told that his father had been shot by the Birmingham sheriff. He recalled being poorly treated by his mother and that before his death his father had placed him under the care of his paternal grandmother.

Davis told Stephan Grossman he was born on a farm. “Way down in the sticks, too. Way down in the country, so far you couldn't hear a train whistle blow unless it was on a cloudy day.” He took to the guitar and assumed a unique multi-voice style produced solely with his thumb and index finger, playing not only ragtime and blues tunes, but also traditional and original tunes in four-part harmony.

Davis was a street musician who played parties for both blacks and whites from an area that stretched from Laurens to Greenville, South Carolina. He went to a school for the blind in Spartanburg, S.C., near Greenville.

In the mid-1920s, Davis migrated to Durham, North Carolina, a major center for black culture at the time. There he collaborated with a number of other artists in the Piedmont blues scene including Blind Boy Fuller and Bull City Red.

In 1935, J. B. Long, a store manager with a reputation for supporting local artists, introduced Davis, Fuller and Red to the American Record Company. The subsequent recording sessions marked the real beginning of Davis' career.

During his time in Durham, Davis converted to Christianity. In 1937, he was ordained as a Baptist minister. Following his conversion and especially his ordination, Davis began to express a preference for inspirational gospel music. In the 1940s, the blues scene in Durham began to decline and Davis migrated to New York.

In 1951, well before his “rediscovery,” Davis's oral history was recorded by Elizabeth Lyttleton Harold (the wife of Alan Lomax) who transcribed their conversations into a 300-plus page typescript.

The folk revival of the 1960s re-invigorated Davis' career, culminating in a performance at the Newport Folk Festival and the recording by Peter, Paul and Mary of "Samson and Delilah," also known as "If I Had My Way," originally a Blind Willie Johnson recording that Davis had popularized.

Blues Hall of Fame singer and harmonica player Darrell Mansfield has also recorded several of Rev. Davis song's. Bob Dylan covered Rev. Gary Davis, Dave Von Ronk and Eric Von Schmidt's song, "Baby Let me Follow You Down."

Davis died in May, 1972, from a heart attack in Hammonton, New Jersey. He is buried in plot 68 of Rockville Cemetery in Lynbrook, Long Island, New York.

Here, Davis performs “If I Had My Way”

Rev. Gary Davis, St. Albans, New York, 1961

Photo by Don Schlitten

Sylvia Tyson and Suze Rotolo

Photo by Frank Beacham

Suze Rotolo and Sylvia Tyson on the Rev. Gary Davis...

As I talked with Izzy Young about the Rev. Gary Davis in Washington Square Park in 2007, two women stood nearby listening.

When I finished, Suze Rotolo — perhaps best known as Bob Dylan’s 1960’s girlfriend from the cover of “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” — said she also had a story about Rev. Gary Davis. I quickly turned on my audio recorder.

The follow-up voice is Sylvia Tyson, half of the popular folk duo, Ian and Sylvia, who also had something to say about Rev. Davis. 

Sheldon Harnick is 98 years old today

Photo by Chad Batka

Sheldon Harnick is 98 years old today.

Harnick is a lyricist best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on hit musicals, including Fiddler on the Roof. He began his career writing words and music to comic songs in musical revues. One of these, "The Merry Minuet,” was popularized by the Kingston Trio.

Harnick was born to American Jewish parents and grew up in the Chicago neighborhood of Portage Park. Yiddish was rarely spoken in the home, mostly as a way of telling secrets between parents. He began writing music while still in Carl Schurz High School in Chicago. After his Army service, he graduated from the Northwestern University School of Music (1946-1949) with a Bachelor of Music Degree, and worked with various orchestras in the Chicago area.

He then moved to New York City and wrote for many musicals and revues. He was friends with Charlotte Rae from college, and he went to see her one night at the Village Vanguard where she was singing a revue.

Yip Harburg, who was one of Harnick's idols, heard she was singing a song of his and decided to come. He told Harnick that he enjoyed his writing, and urged him to continue. He advised Harnick to work with a large number of composers.

He also counseled him to write character and comic songs, not ballads, for Broadway. Harnick followed both tips. Harburg gave him that advice because his old partner, Jay Gorney, had told them ballads were the key to success on Broadway.

Around 1956, Harnick met Jerry Bock, forming "what is arguably the most important musical partnership of the '60s." Their first musical was The Body Beautiful, running for only 60 performances in 1958, but Fiorello! (1959) ran for 795 performances and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Fiddler on the Roof (1964) "became one of the most cherished of all Broadway musicals."

Here’s “If I Were A Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof

Mimi Baez Fariña was born 77 years ago today

Mimi and Richard Fariña

Mimi Baez Fariña was born 77 years ago today.

Fariña was a singer-songwriter and activist, the youngest of three daughters to a Scottish mother and a Mexican-American physicist, Albert Baez. She was the younger sister of the singer and activist, Joan Baez.

Fariña's father, a physicist affiliated with Stanford University and MIT, moved his family frequently, due to his job assignments, working in places not just in the United States, but internationally. She benefited from dance and music lessons, and took up the guitar, joining the 1960s American folk music revival.

Fariña met novelist, musician and composer Richard Fariña in 1963 when she was 17 years old and married him at 18. The two collaborated on a number of influential folk albums, most notably, Celebrations for a Grey Day (1965) and Reflections in a Crystal Wind (1966), both on Vanguard Records.

After Richard Fariña's 1966 death (on Mimi's 21st birthday) in a motorcycle accident, Mimi married Milan Melvin and continued to perform, sometimes recording and touring with either her sister Joan or the folksinger, Tom Jans, with whom she recorded Take Heart, an album in 1971.

Among the songs she has written is "In the Quiet Morning (For Janis Joplin)," which her sister recorded. The song is included on Joan Baez's Greatest Hits album.

In 1967, Fariña joined a satiric comedy troupe called The Committee. That same year, she and her sister, Joan Baez, were arrested at a peaceful demonstration, where the two were temporarily housed in Santa Rita Jail — personalizing the experience of captivity for her. By 1973, she was asked to accompany her sister, Joan, and B.B. King when they performed for the prisoners in Sing Sing Prison.

Those two experiences led her to a desire to do more for those who are held in institutions. In 1974, Fariña founded Bread and Roses, a nonprofit co-operative organization, designed to bring free music and entertainment to institutions, including jails, hospitals, juvenile facilities and nursing homes. Initially it was active in the San Francisco Bay area, but later, nationally.

It still remains in operation, producing 500 shows each year. The organization's name came from a 1911 poem by James Oppenheim, "Bread and Roses," which is commonly associated with a 1912 garment workers strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Though she continued to sing in her later years, releasing an album in 1985 and performing sporadically, Fariña devoted most of her time to running Bread and Roses.

In the late 1980s, she teamed up with Pete Sears to play a variety of benefit and protest concerts. Many concerts were concerned with human rights issues in Central America, especially the U.S.-backed civil wars in Guatemala and El Salvador. They once set up to play on the abandoned railroad tracks outside Concord Naval Base in California.

Surrounded by military police, Fariña and Sears played a show for people protesting U.S. weapons being shipped to government troops in El Salvador.

In 1986, she took the time to record her own album, Mimi Fariña Solo.

Fariña used her connections with the folksinging community to elicit help in her focus with Bread and Roses, including Pete Seeger, Paul Winter, Odetta, Judy Collins, Taj Mahal, Lily Tomlin, Carlos Santana and Bonnie Raitt.

In 2000 alone, Bread and Roses brought performers to play at more than 500 concerts in 82 institutions.

Fariña died of neuroendocrine cancer, at her home in California, on July 18, 2001, at age 56.

She was also the subject of her sister Joan Baez's 1969 song, "Sweet Sir Galahad."

Here, Fariña joins her sister Joan to perform at Sing Sing Prison in 1973

Johnny Horton was born 97 years ago today

Johnny Horton was born 97 years ago today.

Horton was country and rockabilly singer most famous for his semi-folk, so-called "saga songs," which began the "historical ballad" craze of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

With them, he had several major successes, most notably in 1959 with the song "The Battle of New Orleans," written by Jimmy Driftwood.

During 1960, Horton had two other successes with "North to Alaska" for John Wayne's movie, North to Alaska, and "Sink the Bismarck."

That same year, near Milano, Texas, Horton was crossing a bridge when a truck came at him. It hit both sides of the bridge before plunging into Horton's Cadillac. He had in the past avoided head-on collisions by driving into ditches, but on the narrow bridge he had no such opportunity.

He was still breathing when he was pulled from the car, but died en route to the hospital. Horton was 35 years old when he died.

Here, Horton performs “North to Alaska” in 1959 on live television

Bobby Vee was born 79 years old today

Bobby Vee was born 79 years old today.

Vee was a teen idol in the early 1960s and had 38 Hot 100 chart hits, 10 of which hit the Top 20.

Born in Fargo, North Dakota to Sydney Ronald Velline and Saima Cecilia Tapanila, he had his first single with "Suzie Baby,” an original song penned by Vee that nodded towards Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue" for the Minneapolis-based Soma Records in 1959. It drew enough attention and chart action to be purchased by Liberty Records, which signed him to their label later that year.

His fourth release, a revival of the Clovers' doo-wop ballad, "Devil or Angel,” brought him into the big time with U.S. buyers. His next single, "Rubber Ball,” was the record that made him an international star.

Vee's career began amid tragedy. On "The Day the Music Died" (February 3, 1959), three of the four headline acts in the lineup of the traveling Winter Dance Party —Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper — were killed, along with 21-year-old pilot Roger Peterson, in the crash of a V-tailed 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza airplane.

Dion, the second headliner, opted not to be on the plane, which crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa while enroute to the next show on the tour itinerary in Moorhead, Minnesota.

Velline, then aged 15, and a hastily assembled band of Fargo, North Dakota, schoolboys calling themselves, The Shadows, volunteered for and were given the unenviable job of filling in for Holly and his band at the Moorhead engagement. Their performance there was a success, setting in motion a chain of events that led to Vee's career as a popular singer.

Early in Vee's career, a musician named Elston Gunnn briefly toured with the band. "Gunnn,” whose birth name was Robert Allen Zimmerman, later went on to fame as Bob Dylan. In Dylan's autobiography, Chronicles, Volume One, he makes special mention of Vee and shares significant and complimentary details about their friendship, both professional and personal.

In a concert at Midway Stadium in St. Paul, Minnesota, on July 10, 2013, Dylan said he had been on the stage with many stars but that none of them were as meaningful as Bobby Vee. He said Bobby Vee was in the audience and then Dylan played Bobby Vee's hit, "Suzie Baby," with emotion.

On April 29, 2012, Vee announced on his website that, a year previously, he had been diagnosed with early stages of Alzheimer's disease and, as a consequence, would withdraw from the music business. Prior to his death, he received hospice care in a long-term facility in Rogers, Minnesota, just outside of Minneapolis.

On October 24, 2016, Vee died from complications of the disease at the age of 73.

Here’s a segment from a live Bobby Vee show

Bobby Vee meets Bob Dylan after a show at Midway Stadium, St. Paul, 2013

Dylan paid tribute to Vee, who was in the audience, by performing his hit, "Suzie Baby."

Vee hired Dylan in the late 1950s to play piano in his band. After a few small gigs in North Dakota, the idea of lugging around a piano on tour didn't appeal to Vee, so he gave Dylan $30 and sent him on his way.

Alice B. Toklas was born 145 years ago today

Gertrude Stein and Toklas walking their dog, circa 1930s

Photo by Carl Mydans

Alice B. Toklas was born 145 years ago today,

Toklas was an American-born member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century. She was born Alice Babette Toklas in San Francisco into a middle-class Jewish family (her father had been a Polish army officer) and attended schools in both San Francisco and Seattle. For a short time she also studied music at the University of Washington.

Toklas met Gertrude Stein in Paris on September 8, 1907, the day she arrived. Together they hosted a salon that attracted expatriate American writers, such as Ernest Hemingway, Paul Bowles, Thornton Wilder and Sherwood Anderson. Joining that group were avant-garde painters, including Picasso, Matisse and Braque.

Acting as Stein's confidante, lover, cook, secretary, muse, editor, critic and general organizer, Toklas remained a background figure. She lived in the shadow of Stein, until Stein published her memoirs in 1933 under the teasing title The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. It became Stein's bestselling book.

"She was a little stooped, somewhat retiring and self-effacing. She doesn't sit in a chair, she hides in it; she doesn't look at you, but up at you; she is always standing just half a step outside the circle. She gives the appearance, in short, not of a drudge, but of a poor relation, someone invited to the wedding but not to the wedding feast," wrote W. G. Rogers in his 1946 memoir of the couple.

Poet James Merrill wrote that before meeting her "one knew about the tiny stature, the sandals, the mustache, the eyes," but that he had not anticipated "the enchantment of her speaking voice — like a viola at dusk."

Toklas and Stein were a couple until the latter's death in 1946. Although Gertrude Stein had willed much of her estate to Toklas, including their shared art collection (some of them Picassos) housed in their apartment at 5, rue Christine, the couple's relationship had no legal recognition.

As the paintings appreciated in value, Stein's relatives took action to claim them, eventually removing them from Toklas's residence while she was away on vacation and placing them in a bank vault. Toklas then relied on contributions from friends as well as writing to make a living.

Toklas published her own literary memoir, a 1954 book that mixed reminiscences and recipes under the title The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook. The most famous recipe therein (actually contributed by her friend, Brion Gysin) was called "Haschich Fudge," a mixture of fruit, nuts, spices and "canibus sativa" (marijuana).

The 1968 Peter Sellers movie, I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, was named for Toklas's cannabis brownies, which play a significant role in the plot.

Toklas died in 1967 at the age of 89 in Paris.

Metropolitan Opera House, New York City, as seen from the rear of the stage

Photographed during a concert by pianist Josef Hofmann

Willie Nelson is 89 years old today

Willie Nelson is 89 years old today.

Nelson is a country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor and activist. The critical success of the album, Shotgun Willie (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger (1975) and Stardust (1978), made him one of the most recognized artists in country music.

Nelson was one of the main figures of outlaw country, a subgenre of country music that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restrictions of the Nashville sound. He has acted in over 30 films, co-authored several books and has been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalization of marijuana.

Born during the Great Depression and raised by his grandparents, Nelson wrote his first song at age seven and joined his first band at ten. During high school, he toured locally with the Bohemian Polka as their lead singer and guitar player. After graduating from high school, in 1950, he joined the Air Force, but was later discharged due to back problems.

After his return, Nelson attended Baylor University for two years but dropped out because he was succeeding in music. During this time, he worked as a disc jockey in Texas radio stations and a singer in honky-tonks. Nelson moved to Vancouver, Washington, where he wrote "Family Bible" and recorded the song, "Lumberjack," in 1956.

In 1958, he moved to Houston, Texas after signing a contract with D Records. He sang at the Esquire Ballroom weekly and he worked as a disk jockey. During that time, he wrote songs that would become country standards, including "Funny How Time Slips Away," "Hello Walls," "Pretty Paper" and "Crazy."

In 1960, he moved to Nashville and later signed a publishing contract with Pamper Music which allowed him to join Ray Price's band as a bassist. In 1962, he recorded his first album, And Then I Wrote.

Due to this success, Nelson signed in 1964 with RCA Victor and joined the Grand Ole Opry the following year. After mid-chart hits in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Nelson retired in 1972 and moved to Austin, Texas.

The rise of the popularity of hippie music in Austin motivated Nelson to return from retirement, performing frequently at the Armadillo World Headquarters. In 1973, after signing with Atlantic Records, Nelson turned to outlaw country, including albums such as Shotgun Willie and Phases and Stages.

In 1975, he switched to Columbia Records, where he recorded the critically acclaimed album, Red Headed Stranger. The same year, he recorded another outlaw country album, Wanted! The Outlaws, along with Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser.

During the mid-1980s, while creating hit albums like Honeysuckle Rose and recording hit songs like "On the Road Again,” "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" and "Pancho & Lefty," he joined the country supergroup, The Highwaymen, along with fellow singers Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson.

In 1990, Nelson's assets were seized by the Internal Revenue Service, which claimed that he owed $32 million. It was later discovered that his accountants, Price Waterhouse, did not pay Nelson's taxes for years. The difficulty of paying his outstanding debt was aggravated by weak investments he had made during the 1980s.

In 1991, Nelson released The IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories? By 1993, the profits of the double album, destined to the IRS, and the auction of Nelson's assets cleared his debt.

During the 1990s and 2000s, Nelson continued touring extensively and released albums every year. Reviews ranged from positive to mixed. He explored genres such as reggae, blues, jazz and folk.

Nelson made his first movie appearance in the 1979 film, The Electric Horseman, followed by other appearances in movies and on television.

Nelson is a major liberal activist and the co-chair of the advisory board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Following the legalization of marijuana in different states, Nelson announced the establishment of his own marijuana brand, Willie's Reserve.

Plans to open chain stores in the states were marijuana was legalized were announced, to be expanded state-to-state if marijuana legalization is further expanded. Bowman called the brand "a culmination of (Nelson's) vision, and his whole life."

On the environmental front, Nelson owns the bio-diesel brand, Willie Nelson Biodiesel, which is made from vegetable oil.

Nelson is also the honorary chairman of the Advisory Board of the Texas Music Project, the official music charity of the state of Texas.

Here, Nelson performs his song, “Crazy,” in 1992

My doctor tells me I should start slowing it down — but there are more old drunks than

there are old doctors so let’s all have another round.


— Willie Nelson

Here, Nelson performs “Funny How Times Slips Away” in 1997

Toots Thielemans was born 100 years ago today

Photo by Frank Beacham

Toots Thielemans was born 100 years ago today.

A Belgian jazz musician known for his guitar and harmonica playing as well as his whistling, Thielemans was one of the greatest harmonica players of the 20th century. He worked as a bandleader (scoring an international hit in the 1960s with his song, "Bluesette") and as a sideman (notably on many projects with composer/arranger Quincy Jones). He appeared on dozens of film soundtracks.

In 2009, he became NEA Jazz Master, the highest honor for a jazz musician in the United States. He may be best known to some as the performer whistling the melody in commercials for Old Spice cologne.

Thielemans started his career as a guitar player. In 1949, he joined a jam session in Paris that included Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Max Roach. In 1949 and 1950, he participated in European tours with Benny Goodman, making his first record in Paris with fellow band member, tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims.

In 1951, he became a band member of the singer-songwriter and compatriot Bobbejaan Schoepen (at the time still as a guitarist). He moved to the U.S. in 1952 where he was a member of Charlie Parker's All-Stars and worked with Miles Davis and Dinah Washington.

From 1952 to 1959, he was a member of the George Shearing Quintet, primarily playing guitar but also being featured on harmonica both in performances and on recordings. He played and recorded with Ella Fitzgerald, Jaco Pastorius, Stephane Grappelli, Édith Piaf, J.J. Johnson, Michael Franks, Peggy Lee, John Williams, Quincy Jones, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, The Happenings, Astrud Gilberto, Shirley Horn, Elis Regina and Joe Pass.

A jazz standard by Toots Thielemans is "Bluesette," where he used whistling and guitar in unison. First recorded by him in 1962, with lyrics added by Norman Gimbel, the song became a major worldwide hit.

Thielemans announced his retirement, at the age of 91, on March 12, 2014. He died in Belgium in August, 2016, at the age of 94.

Here, Thielemans performs “Bluesette”

Toots Thielemans and friends at his 90th birthday concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center

Photos by Frank Beacham

Tammi Terrell was born 77 years ago today

Tammi Terrell was born 77 years ago today.

Terrell, who died in 1970, was a star singer for Motown Records during the 1960s, most notably for a series of duets with Marvin Gaye.

Terrell's career began as a teenager, first recording for Scepter/Wand Records, before spending nearly two years as a member of James Brown's Revue, recording for Brown's Try Me label. After a period attending college, Terrell recorded briefly for Checker Records, before signing with Motown in 1965.

With Gaye, Terrell scored seven Top 40 singles, including "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By."

Terrell's career was interrupted when she collapsed into Gaye's arms as the two performed at Hampden-Sydney College on October 14, 1967 concert, with Terrell later being diagnosed with a brain tumor. She had eight unsuccessful operations before succumbing to the illness on March 16, 1970 at the age of 24.

Here, Terrell and Gaye performs “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”