The Wheres and Whys Of Boston Folk Music

If Boston has an entertainment specialty, folk music is it. Here you can choose between ragtime and blue-grass, country music and urban blues. Whatever your taste, temperment, or politics you'll find something to like.

The approach that probably appeals to most Harvard students flourishes at Club Mount Auburn 47, which has far more than geography to commend it. Shying wisely away from long bookings, the Club provides folk music of generally high quality and variety by both local and out-of-town performers. For a basic door charge of $1.00 you can listen to good music without being pestered to buy expensive food and drink.

Regular performers there range from two fine bluegrass bands--the Charles River Valley Boys and Jim Rooney's group which periodically includes banjo wizard Bill Keith--to white blues singers Jim Kweskin, Geoff Muldaur, Tom Rush and Mitch Greenhill, to balladeers like Baezish Dayle Stanley and the amusing, talented but occasionally dull Jackie Washington. Unfortunately, Eric VonSchmidt has temporarily withdrawn from the local coffe-house scene. An added attraction is the Club 47's house bass player Fritz Richmond who gets more music out of a washtup than most bass-men do out of a string bass. It is well worth a trip just to hear Richmond.

The Club occasionally features big name out-of-town performers like Doc Watson, Ralph Rinzler and John Herald of the Greenbriar Boys, Jesse Fuller, Reverend Gary Davis and Mike Seeger of the New Lost City Ramblers.

Over the River and Through the MTA

Despite this plethora of talent and quality in Harvard's back yard, a trip across the Charles is frequently worthwhile. The Cafe Yana, on Brookline St. just over the railroad bridge from Kenmore Square, seems to have recovered from a severe case of amateurism. Bolstered by a recent folding green transfusion, it specializes in importing the best of New York folk singers who, however, seldom equal their Boston counterparts. Several coups of the Cafe Yana include a week of Gary Davis, an upcoming three weeks of Rolf Cahn and reported future bookings of Big Joe Williams and Sleepy John Estes. The Yana has a moderate cover charge of seventy-five cents.

The most picturesque coffee house in town is the Unicorn, nestled in a basement opposite the new Prudential Center on Boylston St. Unfortunately, the entertainment here is not as high in quality as the pine-paneling or the interior decorating. Undoubtedly it is the most professional of Boston's coffee-houses. It has the highest cover charge--$2.00 on weekends and $1.50 on week nights. Often it gets outstanding acts like the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, but all too often the acts are slick folkum and just plain don't swing.

One other forum for folk music is the concert halls of Boston and Cambridge. Following a nation-wide trend that is taking folk music out of the concert halls and into the coffee houses, Boston's concerts are not only becoming fewer and farther between but less interesting to boot. In general, coffee-house performances are better (and usually cheaper) than the concerts. Occassionally, though, the price of the ticket will be justified by an artist not usually seen in these parts or an outstanding combination of artists like Eric Von Schmidt, Doc Watson and the Greenbriar Boys in their Feb. 9 concert at Jordan Hall.

Recommendations for the next fortnight:

Tonight: Geoff Muldaur and Jim Kweskin at Club 47

Thursday: Tom Rush return concert at Community Church Center, Copley Square.

Saturday March 2: Freedom Singers at Club 47

Nightly starting Friday: Rolf Cahn at Cafe Yana

Thursdays: Rooney, Val, Applin and sometimes Keith at Club 47