Folk Singers Never Age

This evening we went out to McCabes to see Tom Paxton. Tom has been writing and playing folk music since 1960s (he wrote Marvelous Toy in the summer of 1960), meaning he is approaching 50 years of being a folk singer, but is ever young. Each of his shows has a distinct character: some are more political, some are downers, and some are just family affairs. This evening was a family affair: there were lots of sing-a-longs, and lots of Tom’s friends in the audience, including Milt Okun (his publisher), the person who signed him to Elecktra records, and Joe Frazier of the Chad Mitchell Trio. Tom was accompanied in his performance by Fred Sokolow. The songs sang during the show were (“^?” indicates I’m unsure about the song name; “^*” indicates songs where Joe Frazier from the Chad Mitchell Trio sang with Tom):

How Beautiful Upon The Mountain
I’m Changing My Name to Fannie Mae
There Goes The Mountain
Whose Garden Was This
Out on the Ocean
What a Friend^?
She’s My Reason To Be^?
And If It’s Not True
The Marvelous Toy
I Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound^*
Bottle of Wine^*

Did You Hear John Hurt?
Anytime
I Took Another Way^?
Jennifer’s Rabbit
Katie, Little Katie
Jennifer and Kate
Marry Me Again
The Last Thing On My Mind
The Last Thing On My Mind (Parody)
Rambling Boy

The Bravest
Comedians and Angels

All in all, it was a delightful show. Tom always does great folk music. One other note: During the intermission, Tom was out signing copies of his new book, The Marvelous Toy (signing activates the full color), as well as CDs (it activates the full sonic quality). I indicated I thought about having him sign my iPod to activate the full sound quality of his songs there. He didn’t think it would help. 🙂