Dear Friend;
Sixty years or so ago, our lives were transformed by a combination of youth, enthusiasm, and music that can to be known as the Folk Revival. Here at Folk New England, a community of volunteers and supporters see to it that our musical inheritance is collected, preserved, and made available for posterity. For six decades, we have saved old coffeehouse tapes, live performance recordings, photographs, ephemera, and detailed accents of the lives and times of the living revival through the Club 47 schedules and the pages of Broadside and the Black Sheep Review.
We have joined forces with the Special Collections Department of the University of Massachusetts Library, and have entrusted our collections to the care of those professional colleagues in Amherst. This year, we’ve been pleased to add extensive collections from Jim Kweskin and the late Mel Lyman, to have digitized performance tapes by Dayle Stanley, Eric von Schmidt, the Charles River Valley Boys, Richard Farina, and the Canterbury Country Dance Orchestra, and to have acquired a trove of performance images from photographer Rowland Scherman.
The work of collecting, restoring, digitizing, and cataloging these items carries considerable cost with it and is made possible by financial donations coupled with the dedication of volunteers.
At the harvest time of year, we ask that you consider making a generous contribution in support of this work. You may not be able to give “$10,000 at the drop of a hat,” but we promise to put your gift to good use as we keep the lamps of traditional music trimmed and burning here in New England.
Thank you for your consideration, and best wishes from all of us here at Folk New England.
Please click on the yellow “Donate Button” to help.
Betsy Siggins, Tom Curren, and Brian Quinn