Topic: RIP Mary McCaslin

[lindy]

Not blues, but there were several reasons why I was a big fan that y'all might appreciate -- for one, her use of a wide variety of open tunings (and putting them in her liner notes). Another was her straightforward folk-singer-with-a-guitar renditions of pop songs from Motown and the Beatles. Clean, simple, toe-tappin'.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/20/arts/music/mary-mccaslin-dead.html

A few examples:





and a Woody Guthrie classic

[Stuart]

Thanks for this, Lindy. Living in Vermont at the time Philo was getting going, I have some of their early releases, including her first. Philo's artists would sometimes play locally and I'd have a chance to see them. Our sometimes poster, Martin Grosswendt, was an occasional sideman at Philo and I saw Martin play solo a few times as well. Mary was quite talented and her passing is another difficult loss. Rest In Peace, Mary McCaslin.

[lindy]

I wasn't aware of the Grosswendt connection, but I am aware of several others who recorded on that label: Jay Ungar (who now runs a summer music camp in upstate NY), Rosalie Sorrels, Patty Larkin, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and Utah Phillips, who recorded his moose turd pie story for posterity on a Philo record. These and a bunch of other Philo musicians were big names on the 70s-80s folk circuit, when I was doing folk and blues radio shows. An offshoot label also recorded some solo performers and trios based in Maine and New Hampshire, I still have a copy of a County Down record that I used to play on my shows. Using real turntables! 

Those were good days, lots of dedicated musical talent grinding out playing dates in small venues with an occasional festival gig thrown in.

Lindy