Recently I did a series of stories called “Folkies.” In it, I talked about folk-rock and its origins in the coffee houses of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The stories were surprisingly well met along with many requests to … Read More
I do my best to keep politics out of my posts on One Toke Tom and Facebook. There is a song Brewer and Shipley wrote that, like some others, could be taken as political. A while back I did a … Read More
The Kansas City Chiefs. Decades of heartache. The discomfort of wearing a bag over one’s head season after season. It seemed I had become like an old Chicago Cubs fan. Hoping for the best but always praying that the team’s … Read More
The time had come to start thinking realistically about my future. I had been looking for a break since I became a musical gypsy after graduation. Where, I wondered, was home. Toronto, Cleveland, Greenwich Village? The folk clubs were starting … Read More
As I continued my tour of coffee houses, folk music was everywhere. The Kingston Trio, Peter Paul and Mary, and The Limelighters were all having hit records. Word would travel the folk circuit that this friend or that was putting … Read More
This is the place where writing gets difficult. Telling my story without being perceived as a “name-dropper” is not an easy task. As I have written before, it was a time everybody was getting to know everybody else. And some … Read More
I’ve never written a “series” piece before but this story takes place in the time between the 1950s and the 2000s, so it is going to take more than a one-week post to tell it. Here goes. It’s a story … Read More
The light had finally dimmed as Jan and I stared at the telephone sitting on the end table. I was preparing to tell Michael that I couldn’t go out on the road anymore. I wasn’t quitting the band but I just … Read More
“If you have any hope at all of having grandchildren you WILL NOT buy me anything tied-dyed.” That was my son Marc’s response when Jan called from the souvenir booth to see if she could get anything for the boys. I … Read More
We have all had it happen. That song you can’t get out of your head no matter how hard you try. It just goes on and on. For me this summer it’s been Little Feat’s“Dixie Chicken”. “If you’ll be my Dixie chicken … Read More