A treasure trove of Chicago music history has been cracked open this week by Old Town School of Folk Music.
The sonic stewards of Old Town have assembled a 4–CD box set of archived live recordings gathered from the last five decades.
Colby Maddox is the librarian/archivist and teacher from the Old Town School who spearheaded the project.
He said he and his staff poured over more than 10,000 songs from archived tapes, before finally settling on the 127 tracks comprising this impressive collection, released independently on Tuesday via Old Town Recordings and aptly titled "Live From The Old Town School."
"We transferred thousands of hours of music," he said. "There was just so much good stuff."
Once the best and highest quality tracks were chosen, Maddox said they had to get the rights to release the individual recordings. That process took months, as many of the older artists and songwriters have long been off the radar and were difficult to track down.
Once clearances were obtained, the songs were placed in four distinct volumes — "Vol. One: Family Music," "Vol. Two: New Folk," "Vol. Three: Traditional Folk" and "Vol. Four: World Music" — with each track annotated with its recording date.
Founded in 1957, during the height of the folk revival heyday, the original Old Town School of Folk Music, located at 4544 N. Lincoln Avenue, became the hub of the sub–culture and the scene during the 1960s.
Today the School — which opened a second Lincoln Square location in 1988 — still provides a wide range of music, dance, theater and visual arts courses to people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds, offering more than 700 accredited classes and workshops.
Most of the proceeds from the box set will benefit the Old Town School's educational work.
Among the Who's Who of iconic troubadours and groups featured within this four-volume set of songs are Joan Baez, Doc Watson, Taj Mahal, Rory Block, Big Bill Broonzy, Steve Goodman, Pete Seeger, Steve Earle, and even latter day favorites like Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, Robbie Fulks, and still "on the–rise" Mexican–American folk singer Lila Downs.
Many of the artists can be heard performing songs never recorded anywhere else, making these true gems for dyed–in–the–wool fans of the folk genre. Examples being John Hartford doing "Wrong Road Again," Odetta's powerful take in 1970 on the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" and Tweedy's enjoyable cover of "Three Is The Magic Number" from the "Schoolhouse Rock" children's show.
Jon Langford of the alt–country group The Mekons has many great memories of performing over the years at Old Town School.
"We once did a show with Robbie Fulks and Cowboy Jack Clement, the rockabilly producer from Sun Studios in Memphis who wrote, 'I Guess Things Happen That Way' for Johnny Cash," he said.
Langford is featured on the "Live From..." collection doing an unlikely cover of the old Procol Harum song "Homburg" from a performance in November 1998.
Some of the most valued moments are found in performances from beloved artists no longer living — Mahalia Jackson (captured in 1956), Dave Von Ronk (a 2000 performance of "Saint James Infirmary") and Chicago's most famous Cubs fan Steve Goodman doing "The 20th Century is Almost Over" while playing live on air at the WFMT studios in 1992.
One of the most historic moments is the pairing of Pete Seeger of The Weavers and blues icon Big Bill Broonzy belting out "The Midnight Special" from an Oct. 25, 1956, performance at Northwestern University.
Regardless of which tracks you like best, what shines brightly as you move from song to song through the collection is that each of these artists were performing from the heart and connecting with their audience while the tapes were rolling. These are wonderful snapshots of the artists at their best.
"These are all performers who know how to communicate with the audience in a very personal way," agreed Maddox. "They don't need that distance, that huge arena. You can feel the immense energy in the concerts and what we are presenting (here)."
