Odetta, the fabled, fabulous folk-singer who was a fixture of the NYC folk scene beginning in the late 1950's and 1960's died at 77 of heart failure after long illness. Long associated with the Civil Rights Movement by those of us of a certain age(She sang, among other places at the 1963 march on Washington), as well as with Art D'Lugoff's Village Gate where she often performed. Links to obits, bio and four excellent youtubes, post jump.

Obituaries from the Washington Post and the New York Times remembered her as a voice of the civil rights movement. (The Times obit has a link to a interesting video clip.) See also the LA Times and Huffpost .

I am sorry to report, as my first post post-vacating, the death of Folk, Jazz legend Artie Traum from metastatic liver cancer at age 65. He and his older brother Happy had been scheduled to sing a set at Clearwater in June – but Artie’s advancing illness barred the appearance. See the family announcement here He and his brother Happy were constant figures on the NYC music scene since the late 1950's and 1960's long before their breakout success in the late 1960's.

For more, read the somewhat derivative NY Times Obit , the Wikipedia entry , Artie Traum’s largely abandoned My Space page (with some great audio files) and the The Guardian . If you’re committed to much, much more try here

In my opinion, however, the best way to remember Artie Traum is through his music. Try, for example, this wonderful You Tube performance with links to others.

If you're, as I am, a fan of folk music, a devotee of progressive movements past and present, and/or a Pete Seeger worshiper, you may have already seen this movie during its theatrical release. In NYC it was at IFC; for an ok review click here. The PBS page on the movie is here.

If you haven't seen the movie or if you need another Seeger fix, this is your chance: it will be broadcast on Channel 13 on Wednesday February 27, at 9:00PM. (It's not on 21).

In my view, it's a wonderful movie for a variety of reasons: lots of music, a fair history of Seeger's musical and political roles, a chance for Seeger and his family to speak about their remarkable experience. There are those who loathe folk music and are bored with stories of old times. If that's you, you should probably watch something else. I'm watching Channel 13.

One reason I like folk festivals like the Clearwater Hudson River Revival (June 21-22, 2008), is the chance to hear new groups. My 2007 Clearwater favorite was three women singing as Red Molly. By chance, biking through central New York, I heard them again. They’re very good singers and instrumentalists with great songs and – in the time-honored-folk-tradition – a corny patter. They seemed to never play NYC until now. . Your one chance to hear them is Feb. 1 at 9PM at The Living Room at 154 Ludlow Street on NYC's Lower East Side: No Cover, One Drink Minimum. One 50 minute set. They’re playing for tips and may get to hawk their CDs. I don’t know if they need a geezer-rock following, but I plan to go. If you want to check them out without leaving your keyboard, listen to a clip or two here .

SiCKO, the Michael Moore documentary on health care and health insurance opens Friday to a chorus of articles, publicity, and policy debates. Shamelessly building Harvy Weinstein's movie promotion, I called the offices of four fairly progressive New York Congress Members: Joe Crowely, John Hall, Nita Lowey and Nydia Velazquez. None of them are co-sponsors of HR 676 -- the bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers. (For a description of the bill click here, for a list of current co-sponsors click here "Why doesn't the Congress Member support HR 676?" I've received answers which I plan to post tomorrow. In the meanwhile, check out these SiCKO assessments from The Nation and from Truthdig. Then, go see SiCKO and call your Congress Member in the morning. Or, more immediately, click here to sign onto the AFL-CIO campaign to improve health care.

Last night, at Judson Memorial Church, I went to a party thrown by Progressive Source Communications

Is music important to you? I went to two full days of music and dancing at Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival in Croton Point Park last weekend about which I will write later. The chatter, the buzz, at Clearwater was about another festival, Make Music New York this Thursday June 21, 2007 and you can go for free. All day, all over NY on almost every street corner, park, band shell and café, musicians will welcome the solstice, the first day of summer with countless concerts.

You can get the idea of the program by looking at the website of
Make Music New York but to understand the enormity of the project, click on the schedule which is hosted by Time Out New York . There is, it seems to me, no limit to Thursday’s music. You don’t like folk? How about hip-hop? Opera? Reggae?

Tuvan Throat Singing will be at the Rubin Museum 150 West 17th Street from 12-1; Have you never heard it? Go! Never heard of Tuva (I hadn't)? Try wiki. Alash, the throat singers, will be around NY other times for the next week or so. Their schedule is here They’ll be at a “donations accepted” concert at Judson Memorial Church next Thursday, June 28th.

Folk Music Weekend with Pete Seeger and many others. This weekend coming, June 16th & 17th , I plan to bike to the Clearwater Hudson River Revival Festival at Croton Point Park, Croton-on-Hudson. John Hall, now Congress Member, sang last year while trolling for volunteers and supporters. Featured performers include: Cowboy Junkies, Buffy Sainte-Marie. Bruce Cockburn, Leo Kottke, Paul Winter, Bruce Molsky Band w/ Tony Trischka. You can also (for more money) sail on the sloop Clearwater or (for no money at all) swim in the Hudson. There's dancing & schmoozing,too. Metro-North brings people to free shuttle buses from the station. I’ll be at the volunteer tent in the morning. Come say “hi!”

Hate Folkies? Try Ulysses If folk music is not appealing, go to