Tom Paxton
Encyclopedia
Thomas Richard Paxton is an American
folk
singer and singer-songwriter
who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years. In 2009, Paxton received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
.
Paxton's songs have demonstrated enduring appeal, including modern standards such as "The Last Thing on My Mind
", "Bottle of Wine", "Whose Garden Was This", "The Marvelous Toy", and "Ramblin' Boy". Paxton's songs have been recorded by Pete Seeger
and The Weavers
, Judy Collins
, Sandy Denny
, Joan Baez
, Doc Watson
, Harry Belafonte
, Peter, Paul and Mary
, Marianne Faithfull
, The Kingston Trio
, The Chad Mitchell Trio
, John Denver
, Dolly Parton
and Porter Wagoner
, Willie Nelson
, Flatt & Scruggs, The Move
, The Fireballs
, and many others (see covers). He has performed thousands of concerts around the world in such places as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, Scandinavia, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland, England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and all over the United States; and his songs have been translated into various languages. Paxton enjoys a strong relationship with fans throughout the world.
Tom Paxton's songs can be emotionally affective and cover a wide range of topics, from the serious and profound to the lighthearted and comical. "What Did You Learn in School Today?" mocks the way children are often taught lies. "Jimmy Newman" is the story of a dying soldier, and "My Son John" is a moving song about a soldier who comes back home and can't even begin to describe what he's been through. "Beau John" is a civil rights era song about taking a stand against racial injustice
. "A Thousand Years" tells the chilling tale of Neo-Nazi
uprising, and "Train for Auschwitz" is about the Holocaust
. "On the Road to Srebrenica" is about Bosnian Muslims
who were killed in a 1995 massacre
in Bosnia and Herzegovina
. "The Bravest" is a song about the firefighters who gave their lives while trying to save others on September 11, 2001. Then there are Paxton's "short shelf life songs", which are topical song
s about current events and things in the news. These songs can be lighthearted and comical, or serious depending on the situation, and they change all the time as new ones are written and old ones can reappear as things seem to have a way of cycling around in this world. They include: "In Florida", about the 2000 election
; "Without DeLay", a song about the former congressman
; "Bobbitt", about John and Lorena Bobbitt
; "Little Bitty Gun", which lampoons Nancy Reagan
; "I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler", about the federal loan guarantee to Chrysler in 1979 (which was rewritten in 2008 as "I Am Changing My Name to Fannie Mae" about the 700 billion dollar "bailout of the U.S. financial system"
); "The Ballad of Spiro Agnew
", and "Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation" (which became "George W. Told the Nation" in 2007).
. It was here that young Paxton began riding horses at the numerous dude ranches around Wickenburg. It was also here that he was first introduced to folk music
, though at the time he did not know what it was called. He also discovered the music of Burl Ives
while in Wickenburg.
In 1948, the family moved to Bristow, Oklahoma
, which Paxton considers to be his hometown. Soon after, his father died from a stroke. Paxton was about fifteen when he received his first stringed instrument, a ukulele. Paxton received a guitar from his aunt when he was sixteen, and he soon began to immerse himself in the music of Burl Ives
and Harry Belafonte
.
In 1955, Paxton enrolled at the University of Oklahoma
, where he studied in the drama school. It was here that he first found other enthusiasts of folk music, and discovered the music of Woody Guthrie
and The Weavers
. Paxton would later note, "Woody was fearless; he'd take on any issue that got him stirred up ... and he became one of my greatest influences." During college, Paxton was in a group known as the Travellers, and they sang in an off-campus coffeehouse
. Paxton's first original song was an Elizabethan murder ballad with the title "Robert".
in 1959 with a BFA
, Paxton acted in summer stock theatre
and briefly tried graduate school before joining the Army
. While attending the Clerk Typist School in Fort Dix, New Jersey
, he began writing songs on his typewriter and spent almost every weekend visiting Greenwich Village
in New York City
during the emerging early 1960s folk revival
.
Shortly after his honorable discharge from the Army, Paxton auditioned for the Chad Mitchell Trio
via publisher Milt Okun
in 1960. He initially received the part, but his voice did not blend well enough with those of the group members. However, after singing his song "The Marvelous Toy" for Okun, he became the first writer signed to Milt's music publishing company, Cherry Lane Music Publishing.
Paxton soon began performing at The Gaslight Cafe
in Greenwich Village, where he became a mainstay. In 1962, he recorded a privately-produced live album at the Gaslight entitled, I'm the Man That Built the Bridges. During his stay in Greenwich Village, Paxton published some of his songs in the folk magazines Broadside
and Sing Out!
, and performed alongside such folksingers as Bob Dylan
, Phil Ochs
, Eric Andersen
, Dave Van Ronk
, and Mississippi John Hurt
. Paxton met his future wife, Midge, at the Gaslight one night in January 1963 after being introduced to her by David Blue.
Pete Seeger
picked up on a few of Tom Paxton's songs in 1963, including "Ramblin' Boy" (which Seeger performed at The Weavers
reunion concert at Carnegie Hall
) and "What Did You Learn in School Today?" Meanwhile, Paxton had increased his profile as a performer, appearing at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival
, which was recorded by Vanguard Records
. A month after Newport in 1963, Paxton married Midge. He began traveling the country on the coffeehouse and small-venue circuit before returning to New York. Paxton became involved with causes that promoted human rights
, civil rights
and labor rights
. In 1963, Paxton and a group of other folk musicians performed and offered moral support
to striking
coal miners
in Hazard, Kentucky
.
After returning to New York, Paxton signed with Elektra Records
in 1964, a label which at that time featured a distinguished roster of folk musicians. He would go on to record seven albums for Elektra. As the folk revival hit its peak, Paxton began getting more work outside of New York City, including benefit concerts and college campus visits. In 1964, he took part in the Freedom Summer
and visited the Deep South
, with other folk musicians, to perform at voter registration drive
s and civil rights rallies
. His civil rights song "Beau John" was written after attending a Freedom Song Workshop in Atlanta, Georgia
, and the song "Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney" was written about the unjust and brutal murders of three civil rights activists
(Andrew Goodman
, Michael Schwerner
and James Chaney
) in the summer of 1964 by members of the Ku Klux Klan
in Mississippi
. Numerous musicians of various musical genres began recording Paxton's songs as the 1960s progressed.
Of the songwriters on the Greenwich Village scene of the 1960s, Dave Van Ronk
said, "Dylan is usually cited as the founder of the new song movement, and he certainly became its most visible standard-bearer, but the person who started the whole thing was Tom Paxton ... he tested his songs in the crucible of live performance, he found that his own stuff was getting more attention than when he was singing traditional songs or stuff by other people... he set himself a training regimen of deliberately writing one song every day. Dylan had not yet showed up when this was happening, and by the time Bobby came on the set, with at most two or three songs he had written, Tom was already singing at least 50 percent his own material. That said, it was Bobby's success that really got the ball rolling. Prior to that, the folk community was very much tied to traditional songs, so much so that songwriters would sometimes palm their own stuff off as traditional."
In 1965, Tom Paxton made his first tour of the United Kingdom
. The tour was the beginning of a still-thriving professional relationship that has included yearly performances there.
In 1967, the rock group Clear Light
recorded a menacing and lengthy psychedelic version of Paxton's song "Mr. Blue" on their only album Clear Light
. Porter Wagoner
and Dolly Parton
's recording of "The Last Thing on My Mind
" reached the top ten on the U.S. country singles charts in December 1967. Then in 1968, Paxton managed to score a Top 10 radio hit when The Fireballs
recorded his song "Bottle of Wine". In the 1960s, Paxton even licensed one of his songs, "My Dog's Bigger than Your Dog", for use in a Ken-L Ration
dog food commercial. Not too fazed by the success of some of his songs, Paxton continued writing and performing. Though some of his songs were becoming hits for other people, he hadn't any huge hits of his own recordings. He was not interested in jumping on the folk rock
(or, as he once joked, "folk rot") bandwagon though, and continued his folk singer-songwriter style on albums like Outward Bound (1966) and Morning Again (1968). On January 20, 1968, three months after the death of Woody Guthrie
, Paxton and a number of other prominent folk musicians performed at the Harold Leventhal
produced "A Tribute to Woody Guthrie" concert at New York City's Carnegie Hall
. Paxton was determined to keep speaking out, writing, and singing songs of social significance. As musical trends changed and people became more experimental with their sound, Paxton decided to try some more elaborate recording techniques, including neo-chamber music with string sections, flutes, horns, piano, various session musicians, as well as his acoustic guitar and vocals, similar to what his labelmate Judy Collins
and his friend Phil Ochs
were experimenting with around this time. Paxton finally broke into the album pop charts with The Things I Notice Now in the summer of 1969, and also charted with Tom Paxton 6 in the spring of the following year. His song "Whose Garden Was This", an environmentalist
anthem written for the first Earth Day
, was later recorded by John Denver
and became the title track of Denver's 1970 album. The diverse "Baroque Folk" experimentation on Paxton's recordings was basically short-lived though, and he tended to think that the music was becoming too overproduced and away from the more natural acoustic roots that he loved best. Regarding this time, he said, "the acoustic guitar has always been what I loved the most ... I know I didn't have that rock mentality or anything. I was still a kid from a small town in Oklahoma. And I just wanted to hear folk songs." Paxton continued to sing and perform his songs on acoustic guitar at his live performances, and it wasn't too long before his albums would once again generally reflect his original traditional-sounding style.
In 1969, Paxton performed at the Isle of Wight Festival
and was very well received by the English audience.
During the time Paxton continued to record for Elektra and perform extensively, he and Midge had two daughters.
for about four years in the early 1970s. After a stay in England due to the professional success and love of the country, Paxton and Midge went on a tour of New Zealand and China, and even appeared on a Chinese talk show. Paxton released How Come the Sun in 1971, and that album gave him his highest chart ranking in the U.S., but it only got up to number 120, and his next album, Peace Will Come (1972), barely even reached the charts. Paxton and his family soon returned to New York
and the Long Island
town of East Hampton
. They eventually moved to the Washington, D.C.
area around 1977. After recording three albums for Reprise Records
and a few for "an English label that didn't pan out well", Paxton signed with Vanguard Records
, with whom he recorded a live album with Steve Goodman
, New Songs From the Briarpatch (1977); which contained some of Paxton's topical song
s of the 1970s, including "Talking Watergate" and "White Bones of Allende", as well as a song dedicated to Mississippi John Hurt
entitled "Did You Hear John Hurt?"
In 1978, Paxton released his album Heroes, which contained a song, "Phil", about his friend Phil Ochs
, who had taken his own life in 1976. The album also includes the song "The Death of Stephen Biko", which details the brutal killing of anti-apartheid
activist Steve Biko
in South Africa
.
Paxton's 1979 album, Up and Up, contains the song "Let the Sunshine", which addresses issues concerning environmentalism
and solar energy. Paxton has also performed at the Clearwater Festival
, an annual event, started by Pete Seeger
, dedicated to environmentalism and cleaning up the Hudson River
. His 1983 album Bulletin includes a song about Woody Guthrie
entitled "They Couldn't Take the Music."
In 1984, Paxton briefly was a member of a trio (along with Bob Gibson
and Anne Hills
) known as the Best of Friends.
After recording for labels like Mountain Railroad and Flying Fish in the 1980s, Paxton started his own label (Pax Records) in 1987.
It was during this time that Paxton continued to suffer from an undiagnosed and deepening depression that affected his work. With some advice from Midge, he began to look for a solution, and he was eventually diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder
, for which he received ongoing treatment.
, recording nine children's albums during the decade. In July 1994, Paxton was invited to perform at a folk festival in Israel
, "Jacob's Ladder", and he played there and a series of concerts around Israel accompanied by folk guitarist and harmonica player Shay Tochner. Paxton recorded a live album in 1996 with his good friend Jim Rooney, and it contained some new comical songs about current events. Eric Weissberg
, John Gorka
, Robin and Linda Williams
, among others, also performed; and the album was titled Live: For the Record. In the mid-1990s, Paxton also began to give more workshops in songwriting.
In 2000, Paxton once again began to write more of the topical song
s for which he originally became known. In 2001, he released an album with Anne Hills
entitled Under American Skies, and in 2002, he released an album of all new songs entitled Looking for the Moon (Appleseed Recordings). At the time of its release, Paxton was quoted saying that it might be his best album so far. Looking for the Moon contains the song "The Bravest", which is about the firefighters who gave their lives while trying to save others in New York City on September 11, 2001. Also, around this time, Paxton began writing and releasing his "Short Shelf Life Songs" about current events for free download on his website. The "short shelf life songs", as he calls them, are about politics and things going on in the news. Paxton wrote a number of topical
protest song
s that were critical of the Bush administration's actions. For example, the song "Homeland Security" lampooned exaggerated terror threats
, and "John Ashcroft and The Spirit of Justice" comically mocked John Ashcroft's
prudishness over the Spirit of Justice
statue. In 2007, Paxton rewrote a song of his from 1965 entitled "Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation", about the escalation of the war in Vietnam, and transformed it into "George W. Told The Nation", about the surge in the Iraq war
.
In 2007, Tom Paxton became one of the founding members of the Copyright Alliance, whose purpose is to promote the cultural and economic benefits of copyright
s.
In 2008, Paxton rewrote his song "I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler", about the federal loan guarantee to Chrysler in 1979, as "I Am Changing My Name to Fannie Mae", about the 700 billion dollar "bailout of the U.S. financial system"
.
Paxton continues to perform yearly tours of the United States
and United Kingdom
.
.
Paxton described his political
views
in the following way: "My own politics more or less resembled Will Rogers
's politics. He had said that he belonged to no organized political party — he was a Democrat
... Being young and impassioned almost automatically put me over on the radical side of most issues. Being older, I find myself still more or less there, somewhat to my surprise."
. A few days later, he received three Wammie
s (Washington, DC, Area Music Awards); as Best Male Vocalist in the "traditional folk
" and "children's music
" categories, and for Best Traditional Folk Recording of the Year for Under American Skies (the duo album he made with Anne Hills
in 2001). This was the first Paxton album to receive an award of any kind.
Paxton has been nominated four times for Grammy Award
s in his career, all since 2002. He was first nominated in 2002 for his children's album, Your Shoes, My Shoes. The following year, Looking for the Moon received a 2003 nomination for "Best Contemporary Folk Album". Live In The UK (2005), received a 2006 Grammy nomination in the "Best Traditional Folk Album" category. Most recently, his 2008 album Comedians and Angels received a 2009 nomination, also in the "Best Traditional Folk Album" category. Paxton was honored with a 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award
from the Recording Academy
, and the formal announcement was made during the 51st Annual Grammy Awards
telecast, which aired on February 8, 2009.
In 2004, the Martin Guitar Company
introduced the HD-40LSH Tom Paxton Signature Edition acoustic guitar
in his honor.
In 2005, Tom Paxton received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting at BBC Radio 2's Folk Awards
at London's Brewery Arts Centre.
In 2006, Tom Paxton received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance
.
On January 22, 2007, Paxton was honored with an official Parliamentary tribute at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom at the start of his 2007 United Kingdom
tour.
On May 3, 2008, Paxton was honored with a special lifetime tribute from the World Folk Music Association, and a concert was held at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center at Northern Virginia Community College
, Alexandria Campus, in Alexandria, Virginia
. In addition to Tom Paxton, the performers who appeared in person included: The Chad Mitchell Trio
, Peter Yarrow
and Noel "Paul" Stookey
of Peter, Paul and Mary
, Christine Lavin
, Anne Hills
, The Limeliters
, Carolyn Hester
and Side by Side.
Tom's songs have been featured in the following movies: The Inheritance (1964), A Time for Burning
(1966), Jennifer on My Mind (1971), Demolition Man
(1993), The Family Man
(2000), North Country
(2005), and Spike
(2008).
Paxton's song "Going to the Zoo" was included in an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus
entitled "It's the Arts (or: Intermission)" (Season 1, episode 13; aired January 11, 1970; recorded January 4, 1970). "Going to the Zoo" was also featured on an episode of Sharon, Lois & Bram's Elephant Show
entitled "Zoo" (Season 1, Episode 9; aired, November 5, 1984). Paxton's song "Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation" was included in an episode of American Experience
entitled LBJ (1991). "The Last Thing on My Mind
" was included on Bravo Profiles Dolly Parton: Diamond in a Rhinestone World (aired September 6, 1999). A brief clip of Paxton was shown during the 51st Grammy Awards
telecast on February 8, 2009, which announced his Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
. Paxton contributed original music for the short drama The Price of Art (2007; release date, June 5, 2009).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
singer and singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years. In 2009, Paxton received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the Recording Academy to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording."...
.
Paxton's songs have demonstrated enduring appeal, including modern standards such as "The Last Thing on My Mind
The Last Thing on My Mind
"The Last Thing on My Mind" is a song written by American musician and singer-songwriter Tom Paxton in the early 1960s, which Paxton first recorded in 1964...
", "Bottle of Wine", "Whose Garden Was This", "The Marvelous Toy", and "Ramblin' Boy". Paxton's songs have been recorded by Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
and The Weavers
The Weavers
The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, and selling millions of records at the height of their...
, Judy Collins
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
, Sandy Denny
Sandy Denny
Sandy Denny , born Alexandra Elene Maclean Denny, was an English singer and songwriter, perhaps best known as the lead singer for the folk rock band Fairport Convention...
, Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
, Doc Watson
Doc Watson
Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson is an American guitar player, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. He has won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Watson's flatpicking skills and knowledge of traditional American music are highly regarded...
, Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
, Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary were an American folk-singing trio whose nearly 50-year career began with their rise to become a paradigm for 1960s folk music. The trio was composed of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers...
, Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....
, The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds...
, The Chad Mitchell Trio
Chad Mitchell Trio
The Chad Mitchell Trio were a North American vocal group who became known during the 1960s. They performed folk songs, some of which were traditionally passed down and some of their own compositions. Unlike many fellow folk music groups, none of the trio played instruments...
, John Denver
John Denver
Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. , known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer/songwriter, activist, and humanitarian. After growing up in numerous locations with his military family, Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s. His greatest commercial success...
, Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
and Porter Wagoner
Porter Wagoner
Porter Wayne Wagoner was a popular American country music singer known for his flashy Nudie and Manuel suits and blond pompadour. He introduced the young Dolly Parton near the beginning of her career on his long-running television show, and they were a well-known duet throughout the late 1960s and...
, Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, Flatt & Scruggs, The Move
The Move
The Move, from Birmingham, England, were one of the leading British rock bands of the 1960s. They scored nine Top 20 UK singles in five years, but were among the most popular British bands not to find any success in the United States....
, The Fireballs
The Fireballs
The Fireballs, sometimes billed as Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs, is an American rock and roll group, particularly popular at the end of the 1950s and in the early 1960s...
, and many others (see covers). He has performed thousands of concerts around the world in such places as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, Scandinavia, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland, England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and all over the United States; and his songs have been translated into various languages. Paxton enjoys a strong relationship with fans throughout the world.
Tom Paxton's songs can be emotionally affective and cover a wide range of topics, from the serious and profound to the lighthearted and comical. "What Did You Learn in School Today?" mocks the way children are often taught lies. "Jimmy Newman" is the story of a dying soldier, and "My Son John" is a moving song about a soldier who comes back home and can't even begin to describe what he's been through. "Beau John" is a civil rights era song about taking a stand against racial injustice
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
. "A Thousand Years" tells the chilling tale of Neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....
uprising, and "Train for Auschwitz" is about the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
. "On the Road to Srebrenica" is about Bosnian Muslims
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...
who were killed in a 1995 massacre
Srebrenica massacre
The Srebrenica massacre, also known as the Srebrenica genocide, refers to the July 1995 killing, during the Bosnian War, of more than 8,000 Bosniaks , mainly men and boys, in and around the town of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by units of the Army of Republika Srpska under the command of...
in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
. "The Bravest" is a song about the firefighters who gave their lives while trying to save others on September 11, 2001. Then there are Paxton's "short shelf life songs", which are topical song
Topical song
A topical song is a song that comments on political and/or social events. These types of songs are usually written about current events, but some of these songs remain popular long after the events discussed in them have occurred...
s about current events and things in the news. These songs can be lighthearted and comical, or serious depending on the situation, and they change all the time as new ones are written and old ones can reappear as things seem to have a way of cycling around in this world. They include: "In Florida", about the 2000 election
United States presidential election, 2000
The United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush , and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President....
; "Without DeLay", a song about the former congressman
Tom DeLay
Thomas Dale "Tom" DeLay is a former member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1984 until 2006. He was Republican Party House Majority Leader from 2003 to 2005, when he resigned because of criminal money laundering charges in...
; "Bobbitt", about John and Lorena Bobbitt
John and Lorena Bobbitt
John Wayne Bobbitt and Lorena Bobbitt were an American couple, married on June 18, 1989, whose difficult relationship gained worldwide notoriety for an incident in 1993 when Lorena severed John's penis with a knife...
; "Little Bitty Gun", which lampoons Nancy Reagan
Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989....
; "I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler", about the federal loan guarantee to Chrysler in 1979 (which was rewritten in 2008 as "I Am Changing My Name to Fannie Mae" about the 700 billion dollar "bailout of the U.S. financial system"
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (Division A of , commonly referred to as a bailout of the U.S. financial system, is a law enacted in response to the subprime mortgage crisis...
); "The Ballad of Spiro Agnew
Ballad of Spiro Agnew
"The Ballad of Spiro Agnew" was originally written and performed by Tom Paxton. It has since been covered by John Denver....
", and "Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation" (which became "George W. Told the Nation" in 2007).
Early life
Thomas Richard Paxton was born October 31, 1937, in Chicago, Illinois, to Burt and Esther Paxton. His father was "a chemist, mostly self-educated", and as his health began to fail him, the family moved to Wickenburg, ArizonaWickenburg, Arizona
Wickenburg is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the town is 6,423.-Geography:Wickenburg is located at ....
. It was here that young Paxton began riding horses at the numerous dude ranches around Wickenburg. It was also here that he was first introduced to folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, though at the time he did not know what it was called. He also discovered the music of Burl Ives
Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an American actor, writer and folk music singer. As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theater, television, and motion pictures. Music critic John Rockwell said, "Ives's voice .....
while in Wickenburg.
In 1948, the family moved to Bristow, Oklahoma
Bristow, Oklahoma
Bristow is a city in Creek County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 4,325 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Bristow is located at ....
, which Paxton considers to be his hometown. Soon after, his father died from a stroke. Paxton was about fifteen when he received his first stringed instrument, a ukulele. Paxton received a guitar from his aunt when he was sixteen, and he soon began to immerse himself in the music of Burl Ives
Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an American actor, writer and folk music singer. As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theater, television, and motion pictures. Music critic John Rockwell said, "Ives's voice .....
and Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
.
In 1955, Paxton enrolled at the University of Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
, where he studied in the drama school. It was here that he first found other enthusiasts of folk music, and discovered the music of Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
and The Weavers
The Weavers
The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, and selling millions of records at the height of their...
. Paxton would later note, "Woody was fearless; he'd take on any issue that got him stirred up ... and he became one of my greatest influences." During college, Paxton was in a group known as the Travellers, and they sang in an off-campus coffeehouse
Coffeehouse
A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
. Paxton's first original song was an Elizabethan murder ballad with the title "Robert".
Early career
Upon graduating from the University of OklahomaUniversity of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
in 1959 with a BFA
Bachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...
, Paxton acted in summer stock theatre
Summer stock theatre
Summer stock theatre is any theatre that presents stage productions only in the summer within the United States. The name combines both the seasonal time of year with the tradition of staging shows by a resident company, reusing stock scenery and costumes...
and briefly tried graduate school before joining the Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. While attending the Clerk Typist School in Fort Dix, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, he began writing songs on his typewriter and spent almost every weekend visiting Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
during the emerging early 1960s folk revival
American folk music revival
The American folk music revival was a phenomenon in the United States that began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Richard Dyer-Bennett, Oscar Brand, Jean Ritchie, John Jacob...
.
Shortly after his honorable discharge from the Army, Paxton auditioned for the Chad Mitchell Trio
Chad Mitchell Trio
The Chad Mitchell Trio were a North American vocal group who became known during the 1960s. They performed folk songs, some of which were traditionally passed down and some of their own compositions. Unlike many fellow folk music groups, none of the trio played instruments...
via publisher Milt Okun
Milt Okun
Milton "Milt" Okun is an American arranger and record producer and founder of Cherry Lane Music Publishing Company, Inc. Okun transformed the careers of a dozen or more major U.S. artists who under Okun's tutelage became some of the most successful musical acts of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s...
in 1960. He initially received the part, but his voice did not blend well enough with those of the group members. However, after singing his song "The Marvelous Toy" for Okun, he became the first writer signed to Milt's music publishing company, Cherry Lane Music Publishing.
Paxton soon began performing at The Gaslight Cafe
The Gaslight Cafe
The Gaslight Cafe was an American coffee house located in the basement of 116 MacDougal Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York...
in Greenwich Village, where he became a mainstay. In 1962, he recorded a privately-produced live album at the Gaslight entitled, I'm the Man That Built the Bridges. During his stay in Greenwich Village, Paxton published some of his songs in the folk magazines Broadside
Broadside Magazine
Broadside Magazine was a small mimeographed publication founded in 1962 by Agnes "Sis" Cunningham and her husband, Gordon Friesen. Hugely influential in the folk-revival, it was often controversial. Issues of what is folk music, what is folk rock, and who is folk were roundly discussed and debated...
and Sing Out!
Sing Out!
Sing Out! is a quarterly journal of folk music and folk songs that has been published since May 1950.-Background:Sing Out! is the primary publication of the tax exempt, not-for-profit, educational corporation of the same name...
, and performed alongside such folksingers as Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
, Eric Andersen
Eric Andersen
Eric Andersen is an American singer-songwriter.-Biography:In the early 1960s, Eric Andersen was part of the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York...
, Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....
, and Mississippi John Hurt
Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt was an American country blues singer and guitarist.Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine...
. Paxton met his future wife, Midge, at the Gaslight one night in January 1963 after being introduced to her by David Blue.
Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
picked up on a few of Tom Paxton's songs in 1963, including "Ramblin' Boy" (which Seeger performed at The Weavers
The Weavers
The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, and selling millions of records at the height of their...
reunion concert at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
) and "What Did You Learn in School Today?" Meanwhile, Paxton had increased his profile as a performer, appearing at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival...
, which was recorded by Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records is a record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York. It started as a classical label, but is perhaps best known for its catalogue of recordings by a number of pivotal folk and blues artists from the 1960s; the Bach Guild was a subsidiary...
. A month after Newport in 1963, Paxton married Midge. He began traveling the country on the coffeehouse and small-venue circuit before returning to New York. Paxton became involved with causes that promoted human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
, civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
and labor rights
Labor rights
Labor rights or workers' rights are a group of legal rights and claimed human rights having to do with labor relations between workers and their employers, usually obtained under labor and employment law. In general, these rights' debates have to do with negotiating workers' pay, benefits, and safe...
. In 1963, Paxton and a group of other folk musicians performed and offered moral support
Moral support
Moral support is a way of giving support to a person or cause, or to one side in a conflict, without making any contribution beyond the emotional or psychological value of the encouragement....
to striking
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
coal miners
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
in Hazard, Kentucky
Hazard, Kentucky
As of the census of 2000, there were 4,806 people, 1,946 households, and 1,266 families residing in the city. The population density was 684.6 people per square mile . There were 2,291 housing units at an average density of 326.4 per square mile...
.
After returning to New York, Paxton signed with Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
in 1964, a label which at that time featured a distinguished roster of folk musicians. He would go on to record seven albums for Elektra. As the folk revival hit its peak, Paxton began getting more work outside of New York City, including benefit concerts and college campus visits. In 1964, he took part in the Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer was a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi which had historically excluded most blacks from voting...
and visited the Deep South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
, with other folk musicians, to perform at voter registration drive
Voter registration drive
A voter registration drive is an effort, often undertaken by a political campaign, political party, or other outside groups , that seeks to register to vote those who are eligible but not registered...
s and civil rights rallies
Demonstration (people)
A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...
. His civil rights song "Beau John" was written after attending a Freedom Song Workshop in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, and the song "Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney" was written about the unjust and brutal murders of three civil rights activists
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
(Andrew Goodman
Andrew Goodman
Andrew Goodman was one of three American civil rights activists murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi, during Freedom Summer in 1964 by members of the Ku Klux Klan.-Early life and education:...
, Michael Schwerner
Michael Schwerner
Michael Henry Schwerner , was one of three Congress of Racial Equality field workers killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by the Ku Klux Klan in response to their civil rights work, which included promoting voting registration among Mississippi African Americans...
and James Chaney
James Chaney
James Earl "J.E." Chaney , from Meridian, Mississippi, was one of three American civil rights workers who were murdered during Freedom Summer by members of the Ku Klux Klan near Philadelphia...
) in the summer of 1964 by members of the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
in Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
. Numerous musicians of various musical genres began recording Paxton's songs as the 1960s progressed.
Of the songwriters on the Greenwich Village scene of the 1960s, Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....
said, "Dylan is usually cited as the founder of the new song movement, and he certainly became its most visible standard-bearer, but the person who started the whole thing was Tom Paxton ... he tested his songs in the crucible of live performance, he found that his own stuff was getting more attention than when he was singing traditional songs or stuff by other people... he set himself a training regimen of deliberately writing one song every day. Dylan had not yet showed up when this was happening, and by the time Bobby came on the set, with at most two or three songs he had written, Tom was already singing at least 50 percent his own material. That said, it was Bobby's success that really got the ball rolling. Prior to that, the folk community was very much tied to traditional songs, so much so that songwriters would sometimes palm their own stuff off as traditional."
In 1965, Tom Paxton made his first tour of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The tour was the beginning of a still-thriving professional relationship that has included yearly performances there.
In 1967, the rock group Clear Light
Clear Light
Clear Light was a psychedelic rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1966.-History:In 1966, The Brain Train formed and was managed by Sunset Strip hipster Bud Mathis. They recorded one single before changing their name to Clear Light and signing to Elektra Records; Doors' on which producer Paul A...
recorded a menacing and lengthy psychedelic version of Paxton's song "Mr. Blue" on their only album Clear Light
Clear Light (album)
Clear Light was the only album released by the 1960s American psychedelic rock band Clear Light. It was released in September 1967 and peaked at number 126 on the Billboard pop albums chart. It combined elements of folk, rock, psychedelic, and classical music...
. Porter Wagoner
Porter Wagoner
Porter Wayne Wagoner was a popular American country music singer known for his flashy Nudie and Manuel suits and blond pompadour. He introduced the young Dolly Parton near the beginning of her career on his long-running television show, and they were a well-known duet throughout the late 1960s and...
and Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
's recording of "The Last Thing on My Mind
The Last Thing on My Mind
"The Last Thing on My Mind" is a song written by American musician and singer-songwriter Tom Paxton in the early 1960s, which Paxton first recorded in 1964...
" reached the top ten on the U.S. country singles charts in December 1967. Then in 1968, Paxton managed to score a Top 10 radio hit when The Fireballs
The Fireballs
The Fireballs, sometimes billed as Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs, is an American rock and roll group, particularly popular at the end of the 1950s and in the early 1960s...
recorded his song "Bottle of Wine". In the 1960s, Paxton even licensed one of his songs, "My Dog's Bigger than Your Dog", for use in a Ken-L Ration
Ken-L Ration
Ken-L Ration is the name of a brand of dog food. The brand offered both canned and dry dog food. Ken-L Ration was owned by Quaker Oats, but the brand was sold to H. J. Heinz Co. in 1995. Since being sold, the brand has faded into obscurity, although vast amounts of Ken-L Ration memorabilia can be...
dog food commercial. Not too fazed by the success of some of his songs, Paxton continued writing and performing. Though some of his songs were becoming hits for other people, he hadn't any huge hits of his own recordings. He was not interested in jumping on the folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
(or, as he once joked, "folk rot") bandwagon though, and continued his folk singer-songwriter style on albums like Outward Bound (1966) and Morning Again (1968). On January 20, 1968, three months after the death of Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
, Paxton and a number of other prominent folk musicians performed at the Harold Leventhal
Harold Leventhal
Harold Leventhal was an American music manager. He died in 2005 at the age of 86. His career began as a song plugger for Irving Berlin...
produced "A Tribute to Woody Guthrie" concert at New York City's Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
. Paxton was determined to keep speaking out, writing, and singing songs of social significance. As musical trends changed and people became more experimental with their sound, Paxton decided to try some more elaborate recording techniques, including neo-chamber music with string sections, flutes, horns, piano, various session musicians, as well as his acoustic guitar and vocals, similar to what his labelmate Judy Collins
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
and his friend Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
were experimenting with around this time. Paxton finally broke into the album pop charts with The Things I Notice Now in the summer of 1969, and also charted with Tom Paxton 6 in the spring of the following year. His song "Whose Garden Was This", an environmentalist
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
anthem written for the first Earth Day
Earth Day
Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. The name and concept of Earth Day was allegedly pioneered by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. The first Proclamation of Earth Day was by San Francisco, the...
, was later recorded by John Denver
John Denver
Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. , known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer/songwriter, activist, and humanitarian. After growing up in numerous locations with his military family, Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s. His greatest commercial success...
and became the title track of Denver's 1970 album. The diverse "Baroque Folk" experimentation on Paxton's recordings was basically short-lived though, and he tended to think that the music was becoming too overproduced and away from the more natural acoustic roots that he loved best. Regarding this time, he said, "the acoustic guitar has always been what I loved the most ... I know I didn't have that rock mentality or anything. I was still a kid from a small town in Oklahoma. And I just wanted to hear folk songs." Paxton continued to sing and perform his songs on acoustic guitar at his live performances, and it wasn't too long before his albums would once again generally reflect his original traditional-sounding style.
In 1969, Paxton performed at the Isle of Wight Festival
Isle of Wight Festival
The Isle of Wight Festival is a music festival which takes place every year on the Isle of Wight in England. It was originally held from 1968 to 1970. These original events were promoted and organised by the Foulk brothers under the banner of their company Fiery Creations Limited...
and was very well received by the English audience.
During the time Paxton continued to record for Elektra and perform extensively, he and Midge had two daughters.
Middle career
Tom Paxton and his family lived in Holland Park, LondonHolland Park
Holland Park is a district and a public park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London, England.Holland Park has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive large Victorian townhouses, and high-class shopping and restaurants...
for about four years in the early 1970s. After a stay in England due to the professional success and love of the country, Paxton and Midge went on a tour of New Zealand and China, and even appeared on a Chinese talk show. Paxton released How Come the Sun in 1971, and that album gave him his highest chart ranking in the U.S., but it only got up to number 120, and his next album, Peace Will Come (1972), barely even reached the charts. Paxton and his family soon returned to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and the Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
town of East Hampton
East Hampton (town), New York
The Town of East Hampton is located in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, at the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. It is the easternmost town in the state of New York...
. They eventually moved to the Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
area around 1977. After recording three albums for Reprise Records
Reprise Records
Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...
and a few for "an English label that didn't pan out well", Paxton signed with Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records is a record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York. It started as a classical label, but is perhaps best known for its catalogue of recordings by a number of pivotal folk and blues artists from the 1960s; the Bach Guild was a subsidiary...
, with whom he recorded a live album with Steve Goodman
Steve Goodman
Steve Goodman was an American folk music singer-songwriter from Chicago, Illinois. The writer of "City of New Orleans", made popular by Arlo Guthrie, Goodman won two Grammy Awards.-Personal life:...
, New Songs From the Briarpatch (1977); which contained some of Paxton's topical song
Topical song
A topical song is a song that comments on political and/or social events. These types of songs are usually written about current events, but some of these songs remain popular long after the events discussed in them have occurred...
s of the 1970s, including "Talking Watergate" and "White Bones of Allende", as well as a song dedicated to Mississippi John Hurt
Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt was an American country blues singer and guitarist.Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine...
entitled "Did You Hear John Hurt?"
In 1978, Paxton released his album Heroes, which contained a song, "Phil", about his friend Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
, who had taken his own life in 1976. The album also includes the song "The Death of Stephen Biko", which details the brutal killing of anti-apartheid
History of South Africa in the apartheid era
Apartheid was a system of racial segregation enforced by the National Party governments of South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority 'non-white' inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and white supremacy and Afrikaner minority rule was maintained...
activist Steve Biko
Steve Biko
Stephen Biko was a noted anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Since his death in police custody, he has been called a martyr of the...
in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
Paxton's 1979 album, Up and Up, contains the song "Let the Sunshine", which addresses issues concerning environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
and solar energy. Paxton has also performed at the Clearwater Festival
Clearwater Festival
The Clearwater Festival is a music and environmental summer festival and America’s oldest and largest annual festival of its kind. This unique event has hosted over 15,000 people on a weekend in June for more than three decades...
, an annual event, started by Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
, dedicated to environmentalism and cleaning up the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
. His 1983 album Bulletin includes a song about Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
entitled "They Couldn't Take the Music."
In 1984, Paxton briefly was a member of a trio (along with Bob Gibson
Bob Gibson (musician)
Samuel Robert Gibson was a folk singer who led a folk music revival in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was known for playing both the banjo and the 12-string guitar. He introduced a then largely unknown Joan Baez at the Newport Folk Festival of 1959. He produced a number of LPs in the decade...
and Anne Hills
Anne Hills
Anne Hills is an American folk singer-songwriter.Hills was born in October, 1953, to a family of missionaries in India and grew up in Michigan. She studied at Interlochen, where she played in a band with Chris Brubeck and Peter Erskine. In 1976, she moved to Chicago and was a co-founder of the...
) known as the Best of Friends.
After recording for labels like Mountain Railroad and Flying Fish in the 1980s, Paxton started his own label (Pax Records) in 1987.
It was during this time that Paxton continued to suffer from an undiagnosed and deepening depression that affected his work. With some advice from Midge, he began to look for a solution, and he was eventually diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a developmental disorder. It is primarily characterized by "the co-existence of attentional problems and hyperactivity, with each behavior occurring infrequently alone" and symptoms starting before seven years of age.ADHD is the most commonly studied and...
, for which he received ongoing treatment.
Recent career
As the 1990s rolled around, Paxton began delving deeply into children's musicChildren's music
Children's music is used here to refer to music composed and performed for children by adults. In European influenced contexts this means music, usually songs, written specifically for a juvenile audience. The composers are usually adults. Children's music has historically held both entertainment...
, recording nine children's albums during the decade. In July 1994, Paxton was invited to perform at a folk festival in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, "Jacob's Ladder", and he played there and a series of concerts around Israel accompanied by folk guitarist and harmonica player Shay Tochner. Paxton recorded a live album in 1996 with his good friend Jim Rooney, and it contained some new comical songs about current events. Eric Weissberg
Eric Weissberg
Eric Weissberg is an American banjo player, best known for the theme from the movie Deliverance.-Biography:Eric Weissberg went to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, then the Juilliard School of Music. He joined an early version of the Greenbriar Boys , but left before they made any recordings....
, John Gorka
John Gorka
John Gorka is a contemporary American folk musician. In 1991, Rolling Stone magazine called him "the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what has been dubbed the New Folk Movement."-Biography:...
, Robin and Linda Williams
Robin and Linda Williams
Robin and Linda Williams are a husband-and-wife singer-songwriter folk music duo from Virginia. They began their musical association in Nashville, TN in 1971, performing in local clubs....
, among others, also performed; and the album was titled Live: For the Record. In the mid-1990s, Paxton also began to give more workshops in songwriting.
In 2000, Paxton once again began to write more of the topical song
Topical song
A topical song is a song that comments on political and/or social events. These types of songs are usually written about current events, but some of these songs remain popular long after the events discussed in them have occurred...
s for which he originally became known. In 2001, he released an album with Anne Hills
Anne Hills
Anne Hills is an American folk singer-songwriter.Hills was born in October, 1953, to a family of missionaries in India and grew up in Michigan. She studied at Interlochen, where she played in a band with Chris Brubeck and Peter Erskine. In 1976, she moved to Chicago and was a co-founder of the...
entitled Under American Skies, and in 2002, he released an album of all new songs entitled Looking for the Moon (Appleseed Recordings). At the time of its release, Paxton was quoted saying that it might be his best album so far. Looking for the Moon contains the song "The Bravest", which is about the firefighters who gave their lives while trying to save others in New York City on September 11, 2001. Also, around this time, Paxton began writing and releasing his "Short Shelf Life Songs" about current events for free download on his website. The "short shelf life songs", as he calls them, are about politics and things going on in the news. Paxton wrote a number of topical
Topical song
A topical song is a song that comments on political and/or social events. These types of songs are usually written about current events, but some of these songs remain popular long after the events discussed in them have occurred...
protest song
Protest song
A protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs . It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre...
s that were critical of the Bush administration's actions. For example, the song "Homeland Security" lampooned exaggerated terror threats
Homeland Security Advisory System
In the United States, the Homeland Security Advisory System was a color-coded terrorism threat advisory scale. The different levels trigger specific actions by federal agencies and state and local governments, and they affect the level of security at some airports and other public facilities. It...
, and "John Ashcroft and The Spirit of Justice" comically mocked John Ashcroft's
John Ashcroft
John David Ashcroft is a United States politician who served as the 79th United States Attorney General, from 2001 until 2005, appointed by President George W. Bush. Ashcroft previously served as the 50th Governor of Missouri and a U.S...
prudishness over the Spirit of Justice
Spirit of Justice
Spirit of Justice is a cast aluminum statue depicting Lady Justice that stands on display along with its male counterpart Majesty of Law in the Great Hall of the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building building in Washington, D.C., the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Justice...
statue. In 2007, Paxton rewrote a song of his from 1965 entitled "Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation", about the escalation of the war in Vietnam, and transformed it into "George W. Told The Nation", about the surge in the Iraq war
Iraq War troop surge of 2007
In the context of the Iraq War, the surge refers to United States President George W. Bush's 2007 increase in the number of American troops in order to provide security to Baghdad and Al Anbar Province....
.
In 2007, Tom Paxton became one of the founding members of the Copyright Alliance, whose purpose is to promote the cultural and economic benefits of copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
s.
In 2008, Paxton rewrote his song "I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler", about the federal loan guarantee to Chrysler in 1979, as "I Am Changing My Name to Fannie Mae", about the 700 billion dollar "bailout of the U.S. financial system"
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (Division A of , commonly referred to as a bailout of the U.S. financial system, is a law enacted in response to the subprime mortgage crisis...
.
Paxton continues to perform yearly tours of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Personal life
Tom Paxton married his wife Midge in 1963. They have two daughters, Jennifer and Kate, and three grandsons, Christopher, Sean, and Peter. All have been sources of inspiration for Paxton's songs. Tom and Midge Paxton currently reside in Alexandria, VirginiaAlexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
.
Paxton described his political
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
views
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
in the following way: "My own politics more or less resembled Will Rogers
Will Rogers
William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....
's politics. He had said that he belonged to no organized political party — he was a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
... Being young and impassioned almost automatically put me over on the radical side of most issues. Being older, I find myself still more or less there, somewhat to my surprise."
Awards, honors, and nominations
In February 2002, Tom Paxton was honored with the ASCAP Lifetime Achievement Award in Folk MusicFolk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
. A few days later, he received three Wammie
Washington Area Music Awards
The Washington Area Music Awards are a music award for Washington, D.C. area performers, issued by the Washington Area Music Association . The awards are issued at an annual awards program....
s (Washington, DC, Area Music Awards); as Best Male Vocalist in the "traditional folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
" and "children's music
Children's music
Children's music is used here to refer to music composed and performed for children by adults. In European influenced contexts this means music, usually songs, written specifically for a juvenile audience. The composers are usually adults. Children's music has historically held both entertainment...
" categories, and for Best Traditional Folk Recording of the Year for Under American Skies (the duo album he made with Anne Hills
Anne Hills
Anne Hills is an American folk singer-songwriter.Hills was born in October, 1953, to a family of missionaries in India and grew up in Michigan. She studied at Interlochen, where she played in a band with Chris Brubeck and Peter Erskine. In 1976, she moved to Chicago and was a co-founder of the...
in 2001). This was the first Paxton album to receive an award of any kind.
Paxton has been nominated four times for Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s in his career, all since 2002. He was first nominated in 2002 for his children's album, Your Shoes, My Shoes. The following year, Looking for the Moon received a 2003 nomination for "Best Contemporary Folk Album". Live In The UK (2005), received a 2006 Grammy nomination in the "Best Traditional Folk Album" category. Most recently, his 2008 album Comedians and Angels received a 2009 nomination, also in the "Best Traditional Folk Album" category. Paxton was honored with a 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the Recording Academy to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording."...
from the Recording Academy
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc., known variously as The Recording Academy or NARAS, is a U.S. organization of musicians, producers, recording engineers and other recording professionals dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for music and its...
, and the formal announcement was made during the 51st Annual Grammy Awards
51st Grammy Awards
The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA on February 8, 2009. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the biggest winners of the night, jointly winning five awards including Album of the Year and Record of the Year...
telecast, which aired on February 8, 2009.
In 2004, the Martin Guitar Company
C. F. Martin & Company
C.F. Martin & Company is a US guitar manufacturer established in 1833 by Christian Frederick Martin. Martin is highly regarded for its steel-string guitars, and is a leading mass manufacturer of flattop acoustics with models that retail for thousands of dollars and vintage instruments that often...
introduced the HD-40LSH Tom Paxton Signature Edition acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
in his honor.
In 2005, Tom Paxton received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting at BBC Radio 2's Folk Awards
BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards
The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards celebrate outstanding achievement during the previous year within the field of folk music. The awards have been given annually since 2000 by British radio station BBC Radio 2....
at London's Brewery Arts Centre.
In 2006, Tom Paxton received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance
North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance
The North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance is a non-profit organization that sponsors an annual conference that is an industry focal point for folk music and dance...
.
On January 22, 2007, Paxton was honored with an official Parliamentary tribute at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom at the start of his 2007 United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
tour.
On May 3, 2008, Paxton was honored with a special lifetime tribute from the World Folk Music Association, and a concert was held at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center at Northern Virginia Community College
Northern Virginia Community College
Northern Virginia Community College, often abbreviated NVCC and colloquially as NOVA, comprises several locations in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., and is both the second largest multi-campus community college in the United States and the largest educational institution in the...
, Alexandria Campus, in Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
. In addition to Tom Paxton, the performers who appeared in person included: The Chad Mitchell Trio
Chad Mitchell Trio
The Chad Mitchell Trio were a North American vocal group who became known during the 1960s. They performed folk songs, some of which were traditionally passed down and some of their own compositions. Unlike many fellow folk music groups, none of the trio played instruments...
, Peter Yarrow
Peter Yarrow
Peter Yarrow is an American singer who found fame with the 1960s folk music trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Yarrow co-wrote one of the group's most famous songs, "Puff, the Magic Dragon"...
and Noel "Paul" Stookey
Noel Stookey
Noel Paul Stookey is a singer-songwriter best known as "Paul" in the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. He took the stage name "Paul" as part of the trio Peter, Paul and Mary, but he has been known as Noel otherwise, throughout his life...
of Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary were an American folk-singing trio whose nearly 50-year career began with their rise to become a paradigm for 1960s folk music. The trio was composed of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers...
, Christine Lavin
Christine Lavin
Christine Lavin is a New York City-based singer-songwriter and promoter of contemporary folk music. She has recorded numerous solo albums, and has also recorded with other female folk artists under the name Four Bitchin' Babes...
, Anne Hills
Anne Hills
Anne Hills is an American folk singer-songwriter.Hills was born in October, 1953, to a family of missionaries in India and grew up in Michigan. She studied at Interlochen, where she played in a band with Chris Brubeck and Peter Erskine. In 1976, she moved to Chicago and was a co-founder of the...
, The Limeliters
The Limeliters
The Limeliters are an American folk music group, formed in July 1959 by Lou Gottlieb , Alex Hassilev , and Glenn Yarbrough . The group was active from 1959 until 1965, when they disbanded. After a hiatus of sixteen years Yarbrough, Hassilev, and Gottlieb reunited and began performing as...
, Carolyn Hester
Carolyn Hester
Carolyn Hester is an American folk singer and songwriter. She was a figure in the early 1960s folk music revival.-Biography:...
and Side by Side.
Covers
Tom Paxton's songs have been recorded by (among others):- Pete SeegerPete SeegerPeter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
- Trevor Knight
- The WeaversThe WeaversThe Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, and selling millions of records at the height of their...
- Judy CollinsJudy CollinsJudith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
- Joan BaezJoan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
- The Carter Family
- Johnny CashJohnny CashJohn R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
(with Diana TraskDiana TraskDiana Trask is an Australian and American country and pop singer born in Melbourne, Australia. She was a popular country singer during the 1970s in the United States and also was a popular star in her native Australia...
) - Doc WatsonDoc WatsonArthel Lane "Doc" Watson is an American guitar player, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. He has won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Watson's flatpicking skills and knowledge of traditional American music are highly regarded...
- Harry BelafonteHarry BelafonteHarold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
- Dave Van RonkDave Van RonkDave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....
- Simon & Garfunkel
- Eric AndersenEric AndersenEric Andersen is an American singer-songwriter.-Biography:In the early 1960s, Eric Andersen was part of the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York...
- José FelicianoJosé FelicianoJosé Feliciano is a Puerto Rican singer, virtuoso guitarist and composer known for many international hits including the 1970 holiday single "Feliz Navidad".-Childhood:...
- Peter, Paul and MaryPeter, Paul and MaryPeter, Paul and Mary were an American folk-singing trio whose nearly 50-year career began with their rise to become a paradigm for 1960s folk music. The trio was composed of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers...
- The Kingston TrioThe Kingston TrioThe Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds...
- The Chad Mitchell Trio
- Bob GibsonBob Gibson (musician)Samuel Robert Gibson was a folk singer who led a folk music revival in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was known for playing both the banjo and the 12-string guitar. He introduced a then largely unknown Joan Baez at the Newport Folk Festival of 1959. He produced a number of LPs in the decade...
- Plácido DomingoPlácido DomingoPlácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
- John DenverJohn DenverHenry John Deutschendorf, Jr. , known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer/songwriter, activist, and humanitarian. After growing up in numerous locations with his military family, Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s. His greatest commercial success...
- Arlo GuthrieArlo GuthrieArlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
- Carolyn HesterCarolyn HesterCarolyn Hester is an American folk singer and songwriter. She was a figure in the early 1960s folk music revival.-Biography:...
- Nanci GriffithNanci GriffithNanci Griffith, is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter from Austin, Texas.-Biography:...
- Sandy DennySandy DennySandy Denny , born Alexandra Elene Maclean Denny, was an English singer and songwriter, perhaps best known as the lead singer for the folk rock band Fairport Convention...
- Marianne FaithfullMarianne FaithfullMarianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....
- Dolly PartonDolly PartonDolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
and Porter WagonerPorter WagonerPorter Wayne Wagoner was a popular American country music singer known for his flashy Nudie and Manuel suits and blond pompadour. He introduced the young Dolly Parton near the beginning of her career on his long-running television show, and they were a well-known duet throughout the late 1960s and... - Willie NelsonWillie NelsonWillie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
- Flatt & Scruggs
- J. D. CroweJ. D. CroweJames Dee Crowe is an American banjo player and bluegrass band leader. He first became known during his four year stint with Jimmy Martin in the 1950s.-Biography:...
- The DillardsThe DillardsThe Dillards are an American bluegrass band from Salem, Missouri, consisting of Douglas Flint "Doug" Dillard The Dillards are an American bluegrass band from Salem, Missouri, consisting of Douglas Flint "Doug" Dillard The Dillards are an American bluegrass band from Salem, Missouri, consisting of...
- Hank SnowHank SnowClarence Eugene "Hank" Snow was a Canadian-American country music artist. He charted more than 70 singles on the Billboard country charts from 1950 until 1980...
- Charley PrideCharley PrideCharley Frank Pride is an American country music singer. His smooth baritone voice was featured on thirty-nine number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. His greatest success came in the early- to mid-1970s, when he became the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis...
- Hank LocklinHank LocklinLawrence Hankins Locklin , better known as Hank Locklin, was an American country music singer-songwriter...
- Jean ShepardJean ShepardOllie Imogene Shepard , better known as Jean Shepard, is an American honky tonk singer-songwriter who was a pioneer for women in country music. Shepard released a total of 73 singles to the Hot Country Songs chart, one of which reached the #1 spot...
- Bill AndersonBill Anderson (country music)James William Anderson III , better known as Bill Anderson, is an American country music singer, songwriter and television personality. He has released more than 40 studio albums and has reached No...
- Chet AtkinsChet AtkinsChester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...
- Glen CampbellGlen CampbellGlen Travis Campbell is an American country music singer, guitarist, television host and occasional actor. He is best known for a series of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as for hosting a variety show called The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television.During his 50 years in show...
- Tony RiceTony RiceTony Rice is an American acoustic guitarist and bluegrass musician. He is considered one of the most influential acoustic guitar players in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass and acoustic jazz.Rice spans the range of acoustic music, from traditional bluegrass to jazz-influenced New...
- Herb PedersenHerb PedersenHerb Pedersen is an American musician, guitarist, banjo player, and singer-songwriter who has played a variety of musical styles over the past forty years including country, bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, folk, folk rock, country rock, and has worked with numerous musicians in many different...
- Neil DiamondNeil DiamondNeil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
- Mel TorméMel TorméMelvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
- Anne MurrayAnne MurrayMorna Anne Murray CC, ONS is a Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary styles whose albums have sold over 54 million copies....
- Dion DiMucciDion DiMucciDion Francis DiMucci , better known as Dion, is an American singer-songwriter whose work has incorporated elements of doo-wop, pop oldies music, rock and R&B styles....
- Tiny TimTiny Tim (musician)Tiny Tim , , born in Manhattan, was an American singer and ukulele player. He was most famous for his rendition of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" sung in a distinctive high falsetto/vibrato voice.-Rise to fame:Born to Lebanese parents in 1932, Khaury displayed musical talent at a very young age...
- Pat BoonePat BooneCharles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an American singer, actor and writer who has been a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He covered black artists' songs and sold more copies than his black counterparts...
- Bobby DarinBobby DarinBobby Darin , born Walden Robert Cassotto, was an American singer, actor and musician.Darin performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk and country...
- Au Go-Go Singers (featuring Stephen StillsStephen StillsStephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...
and Richie FurayRichie FurayRichie Furay is an American singer, songwriter, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member who is best known for forming the bands Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, and Dewey Martin, and Poco with Jim Messina, Rusty Young, George Grantham and Randy Meisner...
) - Gene ClarkGene ClarkGene Clark, born Harold Eugene Clark was an American singer-songwriter, and one of the founding members of the folk-rock group The Byrds....
- Gram ParsonsGram ParsonsGram Parsons was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Parsons is best known for his work within the country genre; he also mixed blues, folk, and rock to create what he called "Cosmic American Music"...
- Clarence WhiteClarence WhiteClarence White was a guitar player for Nashville West, The Byrds, Muleskinner, and the Kentucky Colonels. His parents were Acadians from New Brunswick, Canada...
- Rick DankoRick DankoRichard Clare "Rick" Danko was a Canadian musician and singer, best known as a member of The Band.-Early years :...
- Hoyt AxtonHoyt AxtonHoyt Wayne Axton was an American country music singer-songwriter, and a film and television actor. He became prominent in the early 1960s, establishing himself on the West Coast as a folk singer with an earthy style and powerful voice. As he matured, some of his songwriting efforts became well...
- Mary HopkinMary HopkinMary Hopkin , credited on some recordings as Mary Visconti, is a Welsh folk singer best known for her 1968 UK number one single "Those Were The Days". She was one of the first musicians to sign to The Beatles' Apple label....
- Marie FredrikssonMarie Fredrikssonis a Swedish pop singer-songwriter and pianist, best known for forming one half of the pop duo Roxette, which she created together with Per Gessle in 1986...
- Anne HillsAnne HillsAnne Hills is an American folk singer-songwriter.Hills was born in October, 1953, to a family of missionaries in India and grew up in Michigan. She studied at Interlochen, where she played in a band with Chris Brubeck and Peter Erskine. In 1976, she moved to Chicago and was a co-founder of the...
- Cathy Fink & Marcy MarxerCathy Fink & Marcy MarxerCathy Fink and Marcy Marxer perform together as a folk music duo. They have been musical partners for more than 20 years...
- Vera LynnVera LynnDame Vera Lynn, DBE is an English singer-songwriter and actress whose musical recordings and performances were enormously popular during World War II. During the war she toured Egypt, India and Burma, giving outdoor concerts for the troops...
- Jim and JeanJim and JeanJim and Jean, composed of Jim Glover and Jean Ray were an American folk music duo, who performed and recorded music from the early to the late 1960s....
- Glenn YarbroughGlenn YarbroughGlenn Yarbrough is an American folk singer. He was the lead singer with The Limeliters between 1959 and 1963, and had a prolific solo career, recording on various labels.-Biography:...
- The HighwaymenThe Highwaymen (folk band)The Highwaymen were a circa 1960 "collegiate folk" group, which originated at Wesleyan University and had a Billboard number-one hit in 1961 with "Michael" and another Top 20 hit in 1962 with "Cottonfields"...
- Wally WhytonWally WhytonWallace Victor "Wally" Whyton was a British musician, songwriter and radio and TV personality.Born in London, England, Whyton grew up listening to jazz, blues and folk music, and learned to play first the piano, then trombone, and finally guitar...
- Cry, Cry, CryCry Cry Cry (band)Cry Cry Cry was a folk supergroup, consisting of Richard Shindell, Lucy Kaplansky, and Dar Williams. The band released a single eponymous album of cover songs on October 13, 1998.- Tour :...
- Dennis BrownDennis BrownDennis Emmanuel Brown was a Jamaican reggae singer. During his prolific career, which began in the late 1960s when he was aged eleven, he recorded more than 75 albums and was one of the major stars of lovers rock, a sub-genre of reggae...
- Nana MouskouriNana MouskouriNana Mouskouri , born Ioánna Moúschouri on October 13, 1934, in Chania, Crete, Greece, is a Greek singer who has sold about 300 million records worldwide in a career spanning over five decades, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. She was known as Nána to her friends and...
- Fred ÅkerströmFred ÅkerströmFred Åkerström was a Swedish folk guitarist and singer particularly noted for his interpretations of Bellman's music, and his own work of the typically Swedish song segment named visa. These songs, visor, are traditionally very narrative and the performance is "acted" to some degree. The singer is...
- Joe DassinJoe DassinJoseph Ira Dassin , more commonly known as Joe Dassin, was an American singer-songwriter best known for his French songs of the 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:...
- The PoguesThe PoguesThe Pogues are a Celtic punk band, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. The band reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to drinking problems but the band continued first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals before...
- The FureysThe FureysThe Fureys are an Irish male folk band of four brothers - Eddie, Finbar, Paul and George, from Ballyfermot, Dublin. They have also been credited as The Fureys and Davey Arthur.The group formed in 1978 and consisted initially of four brothers....
- The RoversThe Irish RoversThe Irish Rovers is a Canadian Irish folk group created in 1963 and named after the traditional song "The Irish Rover". The group is best known for their international television series, and renditions of traditional Irish drinking songs, as well as early hits, Shel Silverstein's "The Unicorn",...
- Delroy WilsonDelroy WilsonDelroy Wilson was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer.-Biography:Wilson released his first single "Emy Lou" in 1961 for record producer, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, at the age of thirteen...
- Noel HarrisonNoel HarrisonNoel Harrison is an English Olympic athlete, actor and singer. He is the son of British actor Sir Rex Harrison.-Early life:...
- The SpinnersThe Spinners (UK band)The Spinners were a 1960s folk group from Liverpool, England formed in September 1958. They consisted of:* Hughie Jones...
- Daniel O'DonnellDaniel O'Donnell (Irish singer)Daniel Francis Noel O'Donnell is an Irish singer, television presenter and philanthropist. O'Donnell came to public attention in 1983 and has since become a household name in Ireland and the UK. He has also had considerable success in the US. He is known for his close relationship with his...
- Val DoonicanVal DoonicanVal Doonican is an Irish singer. From 1965 to 1986 he was a regular fixture on the BBC Television's schedule with The Val Doonican Show, which featured his own singing performances and a variety of guest artists...
- Sharon, Lois & BramSharon, Lois & BramSharon, Lois & Bram is the name of a Canadian children's musical trio composed of Sharon Hampson , Lois Ada Lilienstein , and Bramwell "Bram" Morrison .-Group formation:Sharon Hampson, Lois Lillenstein, and Bram Morrison began their singing...
- Larry GroceLarry GroceLarry Groce is an American singer-songwriter and radio host. Since 1983, Groce has served as the host and artistic director of Mountain Stage, a two-hour live music program produced by West Virginia Public Radio and distributed by NPR. He first entered the national spotlight in 1976 when his...
- Chris de BurghChris de BurghChris de Burgh is a British/Irish singer-songwriter. He is most famous for his 1986 love song "The Lady in Red".-Early life:...
- The VejtablesThe VejtablesThe Vejtables were a mid-1960s rock group from Millbrae, California. They recorded for the Autumn label and found limited success with such songs as "I Still Love You" and a cover version of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing on My Mind"...
- The MoveThe MoveThe Move, from Birmingham, England, were one of the leading British rock bands of the 1960s. They scored nine Top 20 UK singles in five years, but were among the most popular British bands not to find any success in the United States....
- The SeekersThe SeekersThe Seekers are an Australian folk-influenced pop music group which were originally formed in 1962. They were the first Australian popular music group to achieve major chart and sales success in the United Kingdom and the United States...
- The FireballsThe FireballsThe Fireballs, sometimes billed as Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs, is an American rock and roll group, particularly popular at the end of the 1950s and in the early 1960s...
- Clear LightClear LightClear Light was a psychedelic rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1966.-History:In 1966, The Brain Train formed and was managed by Sunset Strip hipster Bud Mathis. They recorded one single before changing their name to Clear Light and signing to Elektra Records; Doors' on which producer Paul A...
- The Irish RoversThe Irish RoversThe Irish Rovers is a Canadian Irish folk group created in 1963 and named after the traditional song "The Irish Rover". The group is best known for their international television series, and renditions of traditional Irish drinking songs, as well as early hits, Shel Silverstein's "The Unicorn",...
- Paddy ReillyPaddy ReillyPatrick 'Paddy' Reilly is an Irish folk singer and guitarist. He is one of Ireland's most famous balladeers and is best known for his renditions of "The Fields of Athenry" and "The Town I Loved So Well"....
with The DublinersThe DublinersThe Dubliners are an Irish folk band founded in 1962.-Formation and history:The Dubliners, initially known as "The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group", formed in 1962 and made a name for themselves playing regularly in O'Donoghue's Pub in Dublin... - Danny DoyleDanny DoyleDanny Doyle is a solo Irish folk singer.- Background :Reportedly, the songs on which Doyle was raised came from his mother and great-grandmother and from the last of Dublin's street singers and from some of Dublin's contemporary writers, such as poet Patrick Kavanagh and playwright Brendan Behan,...
- Bobby VintonBobby VintonBobby Vinton is an American pop music singer of Polish origin. In pop music circles, he became known as "The Polish Prince".-Early life:...
- Kate WolfKate WolfKate Wolf was an American folk singer and songwriter. Though her career was relatively short, she had a significant impact on the folk music scene, and many musicians continue to cover her songs...
- Schooner FareSchooner FareSchooner Fare is a local Maine folk band, consisting of the late Tom Rowe , Steve Romanoff , and Chuck Romanoff . Schooner Fare plays primarily original maritime, socially conscious, and traditional folk music...
Discography
- I'm the Man That Built the Bridges [live] (Gaslight, 1962)
- Ramblin' BoyRamblin' BoyRamblin' Boy is the debut album by American folk singer-songwriter Tom Paxton, released in 1964.Three songs from Ramblin' Boy were frequently covered by other artists – the title song, "I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound" and "The Last Thing on My Mind"...
(Elektra, 1964) - Ain't That News! (Elektra, 1965)
- Outward Bound (Elektra, 1966)
- Morning Again (Elektra, 1968)
- The Things I Notice Now (Elektra, 1969)
- Tom Paxton 6 (Elektra, 1970)
- The Compleat Tom Paxton [live] (Elektra, 1971)
- How Come the Sun (Reprise, 1971)
- Peace Will Come (Reprise, 1972)
- New Songs for Old Friends [live] (Reprise, 1973)
- Children's Song Book (Bradleys, 1974)
- Something in My Life (Private Stock, 1975)
- Saturday Night (MAM, 1976)
- New Songs from the Briarpatch [live] (Vanguard, 1977)
- Heroes (Vanguard, 1978)
- Up and Up (Mountain Railroad, 1979)
- The Paxton Report (Mountain Railroad, 1980)
- Bulletin (Hogeye, 1983)
- Even a Gray Day (Flying Fish, 1983)
- The Marvelous Toy and Other Gallimaufry (Flying Fish, 1984)
- One Million Lawyers and Other Disasters (Flying Fish, 1985)
- A Paxton Primer (Pax, 1986)
- Folksong Festival 1986 (Pax, 1986)
- And Loving You (Flying Fish, 1986)
- Balloon-alloon-alloon (Sony Kids' Music, 1987)
- Politics Live (Flying Fish, 1988)
- The Very Best of Tom Paxton (Flying Fish, 1988)
- In The Orchard [live] (Sundown Records, 1988)
- Storyteller (Start Records Ltd, 1989)
- It Ain't Easy (Flying Fish, 1991)
- A Child's Christmas (Sony Kids' Music, 1992)
- Peanut Butter Pie (Sony Kids' Music, 1992)
- Suzy Is a Rocker (Sony Kids' Music, 1992)
- Wearing the Time (Sugar Hill, 1994)
- Live: For the Record (Sugar Hill, 1996)
- A Child's Christmas/Marvelous Toy and Other Gallimaufry (Delta, 1996)
- A Car Full of Songs (Sony Kids' Music, 1997)
- Goin' to the Zoo (Rounder, 1997)
- I've Got a Yo-Yo (Rounder, 1997)
- The Best of Tom Paxton (Hallmark, 1997)
- Live In Concert (Strange Fruit, 1998)
- Fun Animal Songs (Delta, 1999)
- Fun Food Songs (Delta, 1999)
- A Car Full of Fun Songs (Delta, 1999)
- I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound: The Best of Tom Paxton (Rhino, 1999)
- Best of the Vanguard Years (Vanguard, 2000)
- Stars in Their Eyes (Cub Creek Records, 2000), duet with Mark ElliottMark Elliott (musician)Mark Elliott is a bluegrass and folk guitarist whose career started in Washington, D.C. and later took him to Nashville. As a songwriter Elliott has penned hits which reached the Billboard Top Forty charts, notably "Every Man for Himself" for Neal McCoy....
- Live From Mountain Stage (Blue Plate, 2001)
- Under American Skies (Appleseed and Koch International, 2001)
- Ramblin' Boy/Ain't That News! (Warner Strategic Marketing, 2002)
- Your Shoes, My Shoes (Red House, 2002)
- Looking For The Moon (Appleseed, 2002)
- American Troubadour (Music Club, 2003)
- Best of Friends [live] (Appleseed Recordings, 2004)
- The Compleat Tom Paxton (Even Compleater) [live] (Rhino Handmade, 2004)
- Outward Bound/Morning Again (Wea/Rhino, 2004)
- Live in the UK (Pax, 2005)
- Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop (Shout Factory, 2006)
- Comedians and Angels (Appleseed, 2008)
Compilations and other recordings
- 1963 Newport Broadside [Compilation][Live] (Vanguard, 1964)
- Broadside Ballads, Vol. 3: The Broadside Singers (Folkways, 1964)
- The Folk Box: Various Artists (Elektra, 1964)
- Folksong '65 Elektra 15th Anniversary Commemorative Album (Elektra, 1965)
- Tom Paxton: Tom Paxton (7-inch EP released in the UK)(EPK 802) (Elektra, 1967)
- Alive! Chad Mitchell TrioChad Mitchell TrioThe Chad Mitchell Trio were a North American vocal group who became known during the 1960s. They performed folk songs, some of which were traditionally passed down and some of their own compositions. Unlike many fellow folk music groups, none of the trio played instruments...
album (Reprise, 1967) - Fantastic Folk: Various Artists (Elektra, 1968)
- Select Elektra: Various Artists (Elektra, 1968)
- Elektra's Best: Volume 1, 1966 through 1968: Various Artists (Elektra, 1968)
- Begin Here: Various Artists (Elektra, 1969)
- First Family of New Rock Various Artists (Warner Bros., 1969)
- 4/71: Various Artists: Elektra EK-PROMO 3 (Elektra, 1971)
- A Tribute to Woody Guthrie Part One [Live 1968] (CBS, 1972)
- A Tribute to Woody Guthrie Part Two [Live 1968] (Warner Bros., 1972)
- Broadside Ballads, Vol. 6: Broadside Reunion (Folkways, 1972)
- Greatest Folksingers of the '60s (Vanguard, 1972)
- Garden of Delights: Various Artists (Elektra, 1972)
- Philadelphia Folk FestivalPhiladelphia Folk FestivalThe Philadelphia Folk Festival is an annual folk music festival near Schwenksville, Pennsylvania in the vicinity of Philadelphia. Begun in 1962, the four-day festival is sponsored by the non-profit Philadelphia Folksong Society. The event hosts contemporary and traditional artists in genres...
[Live 1977] (Flying Fish, 1978) - Bread & Roses Festival 1977 [Live] (Fantasy, 1979)
- The Perfect High Bob GibsonBob Gibson (musician)Samuel Robert Gibson was a folk singer who led a folk music revival in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was known for playing both the banjo and the 12-string guitar. He introduced a then largely unknown Joan Baez at the Newport Folk Festival of 1959. He produced a number of LPs in the decade...
album (Drive Archive, 1980) - CooP - Fast Folk Musical MagazineFast FolkFast Folk Musical Magazine , was a combination magazine and record album published from February 1982 to 1997...
(Vol. 2, No. 1) First Anniversary (Folkways, 1983) - Bleecker and MacDougal: The Folk Scene of the 1960s (Elektra, 1984)
- Fast Folk Musical Magazine (Vol. 2, No. 10) (Folkways, 1985)
- Storytellers: Singers & Songwriters (Warner Bros., 1987)
- A Tribute to Woody Guthrie (Warner Bros., 1989)
- Folked Again (Mountain Railroad, 1989)
- Ben & Jerry's Newport Folk Festival 88 (Alcazar, 1989)
- All-Ears Review, Volume 7: Still Amazing After All These Years (ROM, 1989)
- The Greenwich Village Folk Festival 1989-90 (Gadfly, 1990)
- Ben & Jerry's Newport Folk Festival, Vol. 2 (Alcazar, 1990)
- Newport Folk Festival (Vanguard, 1991)
- Smithsonian Collection of Folk Song America, Vol. 3 (Smithsonian, 1991)
- Troubadours of the Folk EraTroubadours of FolkTroubadours of Folk is a five volume series of compact discs released by Rhino Records in 1992. The series documents several decades worth of "contemporary" folk music. The first three volumes focus on the American "folk revival" of the 1960s while the final two volumes focus on...
, Vol. 2 (Rhino, 1992) - American Folk Legends (Laserlight, 1993)
- Put on Your Green Shoes (CBS, 1993)
- Animal Tales Bill Shontz album (Lightyear, 1993)
- Freedom Is a Constant Struggle (Songs of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement) (Folk Era, 1994)
- Folk Song America, Vol. 3 (Smithsonian Folkways, 1994)
- Folk [Friedman] (Friedman/Fairfax, 1994)
- To All My Friends in Far-Flung Places Dave Van RonkDave Van RonkDave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....
album (Gazell, 1994) - Never Grow Old Anne HillsAnne HillsAnne Hills is an American folk singer-songwriter.Hills was born in October, 1953, to a family of missionaries in India and grew up in Michigan. She studied at Interlochen, where she played in a band with Chris Brubeck and Peter Erskine. In 1976, she moved to Chicago and was a co-founder of the...
and Cindy Mangsen album (Flying Fish, 1994) - Christine Lavin Presents: Follow That Road: 2nd Annual Vineyard Retreat (Philo, 1994)
- A Child's Holiday (Alacazam!/Alcazar, 1994)
- The SilverWolf Homeless Project (Silverwolf/IODA, 1995)
- LifeLines Peter, Paul and MaryPeter, Paul and MaryPeter, Paul and Mary were an American folk-singing trio whose nearly 50-year career began with their rise to become a paradigm for 1960s folk music. The trio was composed of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers...
album (Warner Bros., 1995) - Makin' a Mess: Bob Gibson Sings Shel Silverstein Bob GibsonBob Gibson (musician)Samuel Robert Gibson was a folk singer who led a folk music revival in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was known for playing both the banjo and the 12-string guitar. He introduced a then largely unknown Joan Baez at the Newport Folk Festival of 1959. He produced a number of LPs in the decade...
album (Asylum, 1995) - One More Song: An Album for Club Passim (Philo, 1996)
- Christine Lavin Presents: Laugh Tracks Vol.2 (Shanachie, 1996)
- Treestar Revue (Beacon, 1996)
- A Child's Celebration of Song, Vol. 2 (Rhino, 1996)
- A Very Cherry Christmas [Box Set] (Delta, 1996)
- Kid Songs Roth & Paxton & Young (Sony Special Products, 1996)
- Dog Songs (Disney, 1996)
- Vanguard Folk Sampler (Vanguard, 1996)
- Vanguard Collector's Edition [Box Set] (Vanguard, 1997)
- Christmas Treasures, Vol. 3 (Delta, 1997)
- Christmas Treasures [Box Set] (Laserlight, 1997)
- Christmas for Kids (Laserlight, 1997)
- Legendary Folk Singers (Vanguard, 1997)
- What's That I Hear? The Songs of Phil Ochs (Sliced Bread, 1998)
- Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger (Appleseed, 1998)
- Kerrville Folk FestivalKerrville Folk FestivalThe Kerrville Folk Festival is a music festival held for 18 consecutive days in the late spring/early summer at Quiet Valley Ranch near Kerrville, Texas. The event has run on a yearly basis since 1972. In November 2008, the Kerrville Folk Festival and Kerrville Wine & Music Festival were acquired...
- 25th Anniversary Album (Silverwolf/IODA, 1998) - Kerrville Folk Festival: Early Years 1972-1981 [Live][Box Set] (Silverwolf, 1998)
- Generations of Folk, Vol. 2: Protest & Politics (Vanguard, 1998)
- Diamond Cuts (Hungry for Music, 1998)
- American Pie [Various Artists] (ZYX, 1998)
- Around the Campfire Peter, Paul and MaryPeter, Paul and MaryPeter, Paul and Mary were an American folk-singing trio whose nearly 50-year career began with their rise to become a paradigm for 1960s folk music. The trio was composed of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers...
album (Warner Bros., 1998) - A Child's Christmas List (Delta, 1999)
- Sweet Dreams of Home Mae Robertson album (Lyric Partners, 1999)
- Best of Broadside 1962-1988 [Box Set] (Folkways, 2000)
- Follow the Music: Various (Elektra, 2000)
- Kerrville Folk Festival (Silverwolf, 2000)
- Soup Happens Hot Soup album (Souper, 2000)
- Philadelphia Folk Festival - 40th Anniversary [Live][Box Set] (Sliced Bread, 2001)
- Vietnam: Songs from a Divided House (Q. Records, 2001)
- Kids, Cars and Campfires (Red House, 2001)
- Washington Square Memoirs: The Great Urban Folk Boom, 1950-1970 [Box Set] (Rhino, 2001)
- Radio Shows: Greatest Mysteries (Radio Spirits, 2001)
- Vanguard: Roots of Folk (Vanguard, 2002)
- Kerrville Folk Festival: The Silverwolf Years [Box Set] (Silverwolf, 2002)
- Celebration: Philadelphia Folk Festival 40th Festival (Sliced Bread, 2002)
- This Land Is Your Land: Songs of Unity (Music for Little People, 2002)
- Seeds: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Vol. 3 (Appleseed, 2003)
- A Beachwood Christmas (Beachwood, 2003)
- Bon Appétit! Musical Food Fun Cathy Fink & Marcy MarxerCathy Fink & Marcy MarxerCathy Fink and Marcy Marxer perform together as a folk music duo. They have been musical partners for more than 20 years...
album (Rounder, 2003) - cELLAbration: A Tribute to Ella Jenkins (Folkways, 2004)
- Hail to the Thief II: Songs to Send Bush Packing (2004)
- Missing Persians File: Guide Cats Blind, Vol. 2 (Osmosys, 2005)
- Pop Masters: Early Mornin' Rain (Carinco AG/Digital Music Works, 2005)
- Christine Lavin Presents: One Meat Ball (Appleseed, 2006)
- Forever Changing: The Golden Age Of Elektra Records 1963-1973 (Rhino/Wea, 2006)
- Sowing the Seeds: The 10th Anniversary (Appleseed Recordings, 2007)
-
- Carolyn HesterCarolyn HesterCarolyn Hester is an American folk singer and songwriter. She was a figure in the early 1960s folk music revival.-Biography:...
released an album entitled Tom Paxton Tribute (Road Goes On Forever, 1999)
- Carolyn Hester
Music books
- Ramblin' Boy and Other Songs by Tom Paxton (music book) (Oak Publications, 1965)
- Tom Paxton Anthology (music book) (United Artists Music Co., 1971)
- Tom Paxton Folio of Songs (music book) (United Artists Music Co., 1972)
- Tom Paxton Easy Guitar (music book) (United Artists Music Co., 1975)
- Politics (music book) (Cherry Lane Music, 1989)
- I Can Read Now (sheet music) (Pax Records / Cherry Lane Music, 1989)
- The Authentic Guitar Style of Tom Paxton (music book) (Cherry Lane Music, 1989)
- Tom Paxton's Children's Songbook (music book) (Cherry Lane Music, 1990)
- A Car Full of Songs (music Book) (Cherry Lane Music, 1991)
- Wearing the Time (music book) (Cherry Lane Music, 1994)
- Ramblin' Boy and Other Songs (Music Sales Corporation, 1997)
- The Honor of Your Company (music book) (Cherry Lane Music, 2000)
Non-music books
- Aesop's Fables (William Morrow & Co, 1988)
- Belling the Cat and Other Aesop's Fables (William Morrow & Co, 1990)
- Engelbert the Elephant (William Morrow & Co, 1990)
- Androcles and the Lion: And Other Aesop's Fables (William Morrow & Co, 1991)
- Birds of a Feather and Other Aesop's Fables (William Morrow & Co, 1993)
- The Animals' Lullaby (Let Me Read, Level 3) (William Morrow & Co, 1993)
- Where's the Baby? (HarperCollins, 1993)
- Engelbert Moves the House (Let Me Read, Level 3) (Good Year Books, 1995)
- The Story of Santa Claus (HarperCollins, 1995)
- The Story of the Tooth Fairy (William Morrow & Company, 1996)
- Going to the Zoo (William Morrow & Company, 1996)
- Meet Tom Paxton - An Interview With Tom Paxton: Level 3 Reader (Good Year Books, 1996)
- Engelbert Joins the Circus (HarperCollins, 1997)
- The Jungle Baseball Game (Morrow Junior, 1999)
- Jennifer's Rabbit (HarperCollins, 2001)
Videos
- Tom Paxton In Concert (video) (Shanachie Records, 1992)
-
- Other appearances:
- Pete SeegerPete SeegerPeter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
's Rainbow QuestRainbow QuestRainbow Quest was a U.S. television series devoted to folk music and hosted by Pete Seeger. It was videotaped in black-and-white and featured musicians playing in traditional American music genres such as traditional folk music, old-time music, bluegrass and blues...
(TV show) (1965) - BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Tonight In Person (TV show) (1966) - Once More with Felix – aka "The Julie FelixJulie FelixJulie Ann Felix is a folk rock recording artist, who was notably produced by Mickie Most on his RAK Records label.-Career:...
Show" (Dec. 30, 1967) - BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's In Concert (TV show) (1970) - The Mike Douglas ShowThe Mike Douglas ShowThe Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that aired in syndication from 1961 to 1982, distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting and for much of its run, originated from studios of two of the company's TV stations.The program featured light banter with...
(June 3, 1970) - The Val DoonicanVal DoonicanVal Doonican is an Irish singer. From 1965 to 1986 he was a regular fixture on the BBC Television's schedule with The Val Doonican Show, which featured his own singing performances and a variety of guest artists...
Show (July 3, 1971) - Tom JonesTom Jones (singer)Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
Variety Special #5 (July 15, 1971) - Beat-ClubBeat-ClubBeat-Club was a German music program that ran from September 1965 to December 1972. It was broadcast from Bremen, Germany on Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen, the national public TV channel of the ARD, and produced by one of its members, Radio Bremen, later co-produced by WDR following the 38th episode...
episode #1.64 (1971) - Soundstage: Just Folks with Odetta, Josh White, Jr. and Bob Gibson (1980)
- Chords of Fame (1984)
- Folk City: 25th Anniversary Concert with Odetta, Joan Baez, Eric Andersen, Arlo Guthrie (1987)
- The Folk Music Reunion (1988)
- The Story of the Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem (1991)
- Peter, Paul and Mary: Lifelines (1996)
- This Land Is Our Land: The Folk Rock Years II (2003)
- Get Up, Stand Up: The Story of Pop and ProtestGet Up, Stand Up: The Story of Pop and ProtestGet Up, Stand Up: The Story of Pop and Politics is a 6x60 minutes documentary TV-series about the relationship between singers and politics in the USA, the UK, Germany and France from the 1960s until 2003. It was made in 2003 by Rudi Dolezal, Hannes Rossacher and Simon Witter as a joint production...
(2003) - Peter, Paul and Mary: Carry It On – A Musical Legacy (2004)
- The Ballad of Greenwich Village (2005)
- Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (2007)
- Let's Get Together: Highlights of the 20th Annual World Folk Music Association Benefit Weekend Concert (2008)
Tom's songs have been featured in the following movies: The Inheritance (1964), A Time for Burning
A Time for Burning
A Time for Burning is a 1966 American documentary film which explores the attempts of the minister of Augustana Lutheran Church in Omaha, Nebraska, to persuade his all-white congregation to reach out to "negro" Lutherans in the city's north side. The film was directed by San Francisco filmmaker...
(1966), Jennifer on My Mind (1971), Demolition Man
Demolition Man (film)
Demolition Man is a 1993 American, science fiction action film directed by Marco Brambilla, and starring Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes. Sandra Bullock, Nigel Hawthorne, and Denis Leary co-star....
(1993), The Family Man
The Family Man
The Family Man is a 2000 drama film directed by Brett Ratner and starring Nicolas Cage and Téa Leoni. Cage's production company, Saturn Films, helped produce the film....
(2000), North Country
North Country (film)
North Country is a 2005 American drama film directed by Niki Caro. The screenplay by Michael Seitzman was inspired by the 2002 book Class Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler, which chronicled the case of...
(2005), and Spike
Spike (2008 film)
Spike is a 2008 horror-romance directed by Robert Beaucage, produced by String And A Can Productions, and starring Edward Gusts, Sarah Livingston Evans, Anna-Marie Wayne, Nancy P...
(2008).
Paxton's song "Going to the Zoo" was included in an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...
entitled "It's the Arts (or: Intermission)" (Season 1, episode 13; aired January 11, 1970; recorded January 4, 1970). "Going to the Zoo" was also featured on an episode of Sharon, Lois & Bram's Elephant Show
The Elephant Show
The Elephant Show is a Canadian children's television show from 1984 until 1988.-Summary and Highlights:...
entitled "Zoo" (Season 1, Episode 9; aired, November 5, 1984). Paxton's song "Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation" was included in an episode of American Experience
American Experience
American Experience is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service Public television stations in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American history...
entitled LBJ (1991). "The Last Thing on My Mind
The Last Thing on My Mind
"The Last Thing on My Mind" is a song written by American musician and singer-songwriter Tom Paxton in the early 1960s, which Paxton first recorded in 1964...
" was included on Bravo Profiles Dolly Parton: Diamond in a Rhinestone World (aired September 6, 1999). A brief clip of Paxton was shown during the 51st Grammy Awards
51st Grammy Awards
The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA on February 8, 2009. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the biggest winners of the night, jointly winning five awards including Album of the Year and Record of the Year...
telecast on February 8, 2009, which announced his Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the Recording Academy to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording."...
. Paxton contributed original music for the short drama The Price of Art (2007; release date, June 5, 2009).
Further reading
- The Honor of Your Company by Tom Paxton — ISBN 1-57560-144-3 (New York, NY: Cherry Lane Music Company, 2000)