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PUBLISHED BI-WEEKLY
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FEBRUARY 5-19, 1981
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VOLUME I, NUMBER 8
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Sandinista: The Clash
Detroit Folk Revival?
: Deliver
by Jan Loveland
|: s happening in little nooks and crannies,’ Dacia a longtime observer of local folk life. “But there’s no ‘battery’ neighborhood.” “And it’s like everything in Detroit. Everyone is headed in the same direction . . . but
Photo: Hoot Magazine
‘together and separately at the same time.”
When | surveyed the current scene, this quizzical dictum made sense. Scattered over several suburbs and a variety of settings (from funky bar to sterile civic center), the folk music community was alive and well, but at best obscured from view in a city most noted for its jazz, rock and R & B. And those who were trying to keep the music going were obviously getting tired—one of the area’s four coffeehouses has just closed for exactly that reason. Another was gone because it had been evicted from its host club. And the musicians sounded a bit worn from the effort, too. But in all of these troubles, there was still hope, and maybe even new growth.
ineteen sixty-six might have found a young Saskatchewan songstress named Joni Anderson sharing the mike with her boyfriend (later husband) Chuck Mitchell at the Chessmate on McNichols. Other young conquering folk heroes like Gordon Lightfoot or Tom Paxton would come on ¥ the national circuit that included the ws Raven Gallery and would share the _stage with local artists like Ron Coden or Jonathan Round. Then there was the Retort, that introduced a young Jose Feliciano to Detroit and also gave Buffy Sainte-Marie her first hearing here. | In church basements across the city, little proving-ground coffeehouses operated on shoestrings, giving would-be
the Zoo and $30 million
Black History Month |
Joni Mitchell, circa 1966
in—to the thrill of everyone in the crowd. What became of them all? The big rooms, the “listening” rooms, including,,
erowitz r wave musical last fall. Paxton Mer a new gethe y still writes protest songs, though his music J “ is seldom if ever heard on the airwaves.
minstrels their first chance to learn the trade—among these young pups were Claudia Schmidt and Joe Vermilion.
finally, the Raven, all closed. The little coffeehouses went through mutation and permutation and still exist with different
Lightfoot has been considerably more successful in that regard, though “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” might
Sometimes at the Absolute Zero, the Crystal Wind, the Amani or Saga Joe’s . Post Office, you’d hear a bigger name:sit
‘people involved and in different settings. Coden is ‘part of a’children’s TV show and still does a solo act. Round put to-
not qualify as protest music. Claudia Schmidt left town and has begun to earn a national. reputation for her talents. Joe continued’on page 8
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