DUKES FANS The Early Days pt 2
This is the second installment of a little memoir piece I was moved to
write after several conversations with long time and recent music- making
friends looking back on our early days playing music in Philadelphia. Part 1
was in last week’s newsletter, but if you didn’t see and are interested you can
read it either on our website (www.dukesofdestiny.com) or on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/dukesofdestiny)
Pt 2-The Square, Coffeehouses and
Loving the Music
The
United States was undergoing rapid change on all fronts in the mid-1960’s, and
Philadelphia was no exception. The so-called “generation gap” had hit, and
everything from clothes to music to media to politics and more was changing and
being challenged. The Civil Right Movement and the Anti-Vietnam War movements
brought marches, demonstrations and petition signing into the public. “Hippies”
and longhairs were seemingly coming out of the woodwork with their long hair,
denim jackets, blue jeans, and tee shirts with political and/or rude comments
on them. The Black Power Movement saw many blacks wearing their hair natural
rather than straightening it. Political buttons, peace symbols, drug use, music,
and more clearly marked new social and political delineations in the country.
The clear line of behavior that people thought of as emblematic of the 1950’s
was more and more being challenged and replaced by what many people came to see
as a “movement” toward more freedom loving lifestyle. Movements need their own
places, and they need their own soundtrack. In mid-196o’s Philadelphia, Center
City’s Rittenhouse Square provided some of both.
Located between 18 and 19th Streets and Locust and Walnut Streets,
the Square became the hub of a rising new social and musical scene, a place
where all types of people gathered, from chess players and poets to musicians,
political activists, and pot smokers. It was a place to hang out and talk
politics or art, and most importantly, to play music. Guitarists, flute
players, harp players, and more were there from the late afternoons into the
evening most days. Jamming happened on a regular basis. A truly magical and
vibrant musical scene grew up around the Square, and I was privileged to have
been involved with it. It was here
through the late 1960’s and early 1970’s that I started playing seriously, and
I met some wonderful musicians. Hanging around the Square I got to hang with a
number of great harp players including a young Steve Guyger, Richard Johnson,
later from Philly Gumbo, Dave Lowenstein, Saul Brody, and others There were
also a number of great guitarists I
jammed and traded licks with, and playing with them was how I started to learn
what it meant to play WITH someone and
accompany rather than constantly soloing. The Square, then, was my” training
ground” as well as one of my first “stages.” It put me in touch with an
incredible network of aspiring and established musicians. And I was
continuing to improve.
During these times there were a slew of small
coffeehouses that magically sprang up in different neighborhoods all around the
city. Churches were losing young
congregants, and I think many of them, especially Episcopal churches for some
reason, thought providing coffeehouses could draw some young people back to
church. The Episcopal Church at Lincoln Drive and Carpenter Lane in Mt Airy had
a weekly Saturday night coffeehouse where many young people held mini-concerts,
poetry readings, jams and sing along. St. Mary’s Episcopal in West Philly on
the Penn campus also had a regular coffeehouse where I sat in with other young
musicians on a regular basis.. (That later became the site of the Cherry Tree
Folk Club). Diane Bryman’s carpet store in Chestnut Hill had a coffeehouse on
the second floor, which was where I actually got an early paying gig ($15.00).
These were places where I hung out with and met a lot of musicians, and most
importantly, had countless opportunities to play and jam. Yes, I made a whole
slew of mistakes and errors. But I was playing continually, and that is the
only way to learn music. And it was playing in these venues where I gained a
lot of valuable experience, improved as a player, and learned to be a
performer.
The
other thing I needed in my early days was chances to see real musicians in
action, and Philadelphia provided that. The city had had an established folk
music scene before the 1960’s, and it provided places where I got to hear, see
and even meet some of my musical heroes. The Glided Cage was on 21st
Street. Run by Ed and Esther Halpern, the Cage was a restaurant and coffeehouse
where I got to hear both local musicians and national acts. I got to hear folks
such as Dave Van Ronk, and Buffy St.
Marie, and it was where I first had French Onion soup (smile). It expanded both
my social land musical scenes.
The
2nd Fret was another place that was a staple of the Philadelphia
scene. Located at 1902 Sansom Street and owned and operated by Manny Rubin, it
was a place that featured different types of folk music including plenty of
blues. I saw Sonny Terry and Brownie Mc Ghee there at least twice, and they
even recorded an LP there. I saw Skip James there several times, Lightnin’
Hopkins, Mississippi John Hurt, and James Cotton, who gave me a couple of harp lessons. Around the corner
from the Fret was the Guitar Workshop a great music store and guitar school the
featured legendary Philadelphia guitarist Jerry Ricks among its teachers. If
you knew some of the Workshop folks, you could hang out there and meet several
musicians who were playing the Fret when they came in for supplies and/or just
to hang out. Out in Bryn Mawr was the Main Point, a club that, like the Fret,
included a diverse lineup of performers. I somehow got money together to go to
these places, heard, met and jammed with some of my favorite musicians, and
kept growing as a harp player. They encouraged me, gave me tips, and fed my
insatiable musical appetite. And by the mid 1970’s I thought of myself as a
harp player. Yes, I was a bank teller, a security guard, a broommaker, and
eventually a teacher as well. But through it all, I was also a maker of music;
I was a musician.
I’ve
rarely been a full-time musician-I tried that for two years and decided that I
liked being able to eat and pay rent regularly. But I defined myself as a
musician by the early 1970’s, and I have been one ever since. I am grateful for
the music scene in Philly during the mid-late 1960’s and early 70’s and the
experiences with which it presented me. It was a time of learning,
experimentation, new experiences and growth as both a musician and as a person.
Had I not been at that place a that time, who knows what might have happened??
As it was I had a wonderful first step on what has been a long lasting and
major part of my life. I would not have had it any other way.
(The Philly folk and rock music scene exploded
by the mid-1970’s.There were clubs on Walnut and Sansom Streets by 1968:
Artemis and the 2nd of Autumn on Sansom Street, and The Artist’ Hut
and The Magic Theater on Walnut. Clubs also opened in different neighborhoods
as well with Grendel’s Lair and World Control Studies in Germantown, and the
Trauma and Electric Factory north of Center City. A number of players who later
became nationally known musicians emerged from the area at the time: Jim Croce,
Todd Rungren, Daryll Hall, John Oates, and
Steve Guyger among them. Here are a couple of sites that look back at
that scene:
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