DOWNHOME BIOGRAPHY
The drawing above was done at the Fox Hollow Folk Festival where my
good ole buddy Michael Brown and I did a guest performance at the Foxhollow.
The folk-artist is Robert Froese who hailed at the time from Toronto.Jon
Pederson, who did 3 banjo tracks (frailing) on "West Ho!", says
that the artist still lives in Toronto. That was back in 1973 I believe.
That year I took off a years leave of absense from teaching. I was at Wade
Thomas School in the then San Anselmo School District in San Anselmo, California
in Marin County which is just North of San Francisco. I had just come out
with my recording: THE ECOLOGY SEA IN SONG AND BALLAD
and a songbook with activities that went with the album. The Saturday Review
of Education Magazine had interviewed me so people heard about the record
all over the U.S. Then KRON-TV in San Francisco did a special news show
at the Sausalito beach about "The Ecology Sea" record, asking
my then 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade combination class students from Wade Thomas
School in San Anselmo, CA, how they liked the songs and what they learned
from them. The Marin I.J. reporter of "Marin Living", Don Keown,
interviewed "Griff n' Brown" on October 6, 1973, followed by the
Ross Valley Reporter, the College of Marin Times, and the Pacific Sun. This
was soon followed by the "Griff 'n Brown 'n Moore
'n Williams" touring of the U.S., going to College Campuses, and coffee
houses. It was time for a year off from teaching at Wade Thomas School.
That year off from teaching led to quite a time. Arnie Gorfain, a long-time
friend and one of the best "idea" persons you'll ever meet plus
a counsellor and teacher from San Francisco was organizing and lining up
coffee houses, house concerts, folklore societies and folk festivals in
Connecticut, Virginia, Toronto, Massachusettes, New Jersey, Vermont, Pennsylvania,
Washington D.C., and New York State. We were preparing for a songfest fantasia!
I have scanned a photo of Michael's Chevy Step-van,
it was a knockout! It was painted bright orange and had emblazioned on it
: "The San Francisco Musical Fun Band and Traveling Folk Festival".
Also, an artist painted in full human size a rendition on the side of the
step-van of each of us folk singers going on this great rendevous.That included
yours truly, Michael Brown, Kathy Moore and Rebecca Williams. We left Tam
Valley, California on June of 1973 - our first stop was the Smithsonian
Folk-Life Festival in Washington D.C. By the way, that's where "Country
Roads" was first sung - John Denver's great tune. And it's there at
the Folk-Life Folk Festival we met Jean Ritchie and her son Jon (But that's
another story ).
MICHAEL BROWN & BERNIE GRIFF AT TAM VALLEY. LET'S GO!
(This crazy truck took us all around the USA and we loved that Step
Van. It was our home a large part of the trip! Michael glommed on to a transmission
in Mystic, MA where we did a house concert. And somewhere near St. Mary's,
Ontario, we had another breakdown. What was it Michael that time? I think
an axle.)
PART TWO OF THE TRAVELING FOLK FESTIVAL
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