From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2011 #418 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk Unsubscribe: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe Website: http://jmdl.com JMDL Digest Monday, October 31 2011 Volume 2011 : Number 418 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- RIP David Rea [Steve Dulson ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2011 9:40:38 -0400 From: Steve Dulson Subject: RIP David Rea This from folkie Tom May, regarding the subject of Joni's "Play Little David Play." - --- Many Far West members might know David Rea, who truly lived an incredible life and career in music. >From his work with Gordon Lightfoot, Ian and Sylvia, and others- to his own great songs- he left an impact. He lived in the Bay Area in the 90's and moved to the Pacific Northwest later that decade Goodbye, David...... Terry Currier, from Music Millennium in Portland, and I got to the hospital yesterday just as our old pal, David Rea, passed away. He had been ill much of the summer. I did many, many gigs with him the last years of his life after re-meeting him at the Napa Valley Folk Festival, where we both performed in 1994. I had met him originally in Toronto in the 1970's. He was a character of the first order, with songs and tales to keep you entertained for as long as you cared to listen. He was fortunate in last 10 years to live with Kathleen Stokes in Portland, who he loved dearly and who loved him. So many folks out this way are unaware of his amazing history and importance in American Roots Music. Here is a just a little bit of what David Rea, picker/songwriter extraordinaire, and my good friend, did with his life....... We will do a tribute to the man and his songs in Portland, most probably in early December. This Sunday (October 30th) is my annual appearance at the Horse Brass Pub, with friends accompanying me. David loved coming to that gig and picking and singing, and he will be sorely missed. As I said when my old friend Don Younger, of the Horse Brass Pub, passed away earlier this year; We will not see his like again. Farewell, old pal. Born in Ohio, near Akron, in 1946, David began playing Bach on the piano at age 5. By the age of 12, he was playing banjo and guitar. Smitten by the music of Merle Travis and Robert Johnson in his early teens, David also learned from the blues and bluegrass recordings that came north with the rubber workers in Akron's factories. Late at night, under the covers, he'd listen to rock n' roll records played by legendary DJs, who later became friends: Alan Freed, Mad Daddy, Big Wilson and Murray the K. In 1964, when he was 17, David moved to Toronto, where he had his first commercial success at the center of what was one of the world's hottest acoustic music scenes. David worked with Gordon Lightfoot to create the filigree guitar style on Gordon's debut album, "Lightfoot!" David played some live shows with Lightfoot in the early years (1964/1965), before Lightfoot could afford fulltime sidemen. Having established himself as a topnotch sideman, David appeared with some of the finest artists of the 1960s, including Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Joni Mitchell, Richie Havens, Judy Collins and Tom Rush. At this time, David also played with many old time bluesmen, such as Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, Roosevelt Sykes, Lonnie Johnson, Skip James and Son House. David's complex guitar style was heard again on the landmark Ian & Sylvia albums, "Nashville," "Lovin' Sound," So Much For Dreaming," and "Full Circle." While working with this popular folk/country duo, David's friends, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, urged him to write his own material. Ian & Sylvia soon recorded his songs, "Pilgrimage to Paradise," The Minstrel," and "Ninety Degrees by Ninety Degrees." In the late 1960s, David wrote and recorded songs with Felix Pappalardi, producer of the English band, Cream. This partnership resulted in David's two solo albums on Capitol Records, "Maverick Child," in 1969, and "By the Grace of God," in 1971, which featured members of Pappalardi's band Mountain, with the Young Rascals, Kenny Buttry, Vassar Clements, Tommy Jackson and Norbert Putnam. David also co-wrote several rock classics for Mountain, including, "Mississippi Queen," which earned a Gold Record. The song has a life of its own, and is used frequently in other media, including a recent use in the soundtrack of the 2010 Sylvester Stallone movie, The Expendables. In 1970, David played on "Jesse Winchester" (Jesse's debut album, produced by Robbie Robertson of The Band), and recorded with the Clancy Brothers on "Show Me The Way" and Judy Collins on "Whales and Nightingales." Following Richard Thompson as lead guitarist for Fairport Convention, David joined the group in "The Manor Sessions," in 1972. His third album, "Slewfoot," was recorded in 1973 for Columbia Records with members of the Grateful Dead and New Riders of the Purple Sage. In 1976, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) produced an opera written and composed by David, inspired by the story of San Francisco's eccentric, self-proclaimed "Emperor," Joshua Norton. Its success was followed by several other CBC projects. In 1988, he created "David Rea's Robert Johnson," a three-part series about the famous bluesman, and "Music Don't Mind," a dissertation on the convergence of African and European music as the foundation for American music. David was awarded the 23rd International Gabriel Award for Excellence in Broadcasting for the Robert Johnson series. During much of the 1980s, however, David took time out to raise his three children, playing only short tours and selected festivals and projects. His skills remained in demand, though, as he played on albums by David Maloney and others. David also wrote a wealth of new songs that came out on "Feelin' Good," in 1986, and on "The Brass Ring," in 1993. While on tour with Ramblin' Jack Elliot, in 1995, David fell in love with the Pacific Northwest and moved from California to Bainbridge Island, just west of Seattle. David's 6th album, "Shorty's Ghost," was released in 1997, His seventh album was released in August, 2000 and is aptly titled, "David Rea - Times Seven." With cover art work by his long-time friend Joni Mitchell, the CD provides a sort of retrospective. He was making plans for a new album that he had hoped to start working on soon. *************************************************** Steve Dulson Costa Mesa CA FAR-West (Folk Alliance Region - West) tinkersown@ca.rr.com www.far-west.org ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2011 #418 ***************************** ------- To post messages to the list, send to joni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------