Wednesday Coffee House

Note FYI: If you have problems playing the songs, for the past month or so, I often can't get songs or videos to play when I use Firefox as my browser. Up to that point I had no problems with Firefox; music and videos do play OK when I use IE or Opera.

Allow me to introduce you to two of the most breathtaking folk singers I have ever heard: Bob Gibson and Bob Camp.

Singer-song writer Bob Gibson was traveling the United States performing folk songs in his early 20s when he found himself in Chicago in 1956 just as Albert Grossman launched The Gate of Horn, a club specializing in folk music. After an 11-month gig at the Horn, Gibson was famous among folk singers, not only in Chicago, but across the nation. By 1958 he was a leading light in the folk renaissance, had recorded 4 LPs, was appearing as a regular on the Arthur Godfrey show, and been one of the singers who initiated the Hootenanny craze in New York’s Greenwich Village.

Bob (Hamilton) Camp was an actor and comedian as well as a folk singer. Although not seen, millions of folks enjoyed Camp who was the voice of several Smurfs on animated TV series. He was seen on TV as the manic salesman Del on WKRP in Cincinnati,” the insane Boots Miller on M*A*S*H and Mary’s height-impaired date on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Bob Gibson and Bob Camp joined together as a duo in the late 1950s. Both Gibson and Camp stood just a few inches over five feet tall; their mutual friend, Shel Silverstein said that when they were on stage together, Gibson and Camp looked like two crooked English jockeys fixing a race.

The live performance from which the songs in this Wednesday Coffee come, At the Gate of Horn, has been called (by Richie Unterberger) one of the most influential folk albums of the early 1960s, striking a chord with many young musicians with its dual harmonies, verve, and irreverent humor

Chicago Cops:

If you have lived in Chicago or even visited it extensively, the references in this song will be familiar even if the event it describes happened before your (not my) time. The song is introduced with the words: This ballad marks a very historic event in the city of Chicago. A whole bunch of cops got busted.

The Thinking Man/Johnny Has Gone for Soldier

These are two parodies: the first is of the song John Henry and the second is as it is entitled. Be sure to have your laughing face on as you listen.

Old Blue

If you are an animal lover and the only version of Old Blue you have heard is the Peter, Paul, and Mary comedy version, you’ll find this (close to the original) version a very special song.

Betty and Dupree

We will close Gibson and Camp’s performance at Nick’s Bytes Wednesday Coffee House with the song that ends the LP of their performance at the Gate of Horn. Before I heard their version of Betty and Dupree, the song was already part of my music repertoire. After I heard it, my way of playing and singing it was changed for ever. (I really wish I had not been forced to sell my 12-string guitar a couple of years ago to make a mortgage payment!)