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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9880 Posts |
 Posted - 24/02/2012 : 00:55:22
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MARK SPOELSTRA...anyone else love him? Ok...I'm back in the 60's...shoot me!! 
This guy is amazing!! Believe me, once you start listening, you'll let this youtube loop run to the end! Hypnotic guitar and voice...
Sugar Babe...this will keep playing twenty songs by Mark as you read on...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWyLnYGSKwc&feature=bf_prev&list=AVGxdCwVVULXef41HGwOchHbN78xaGVREh&lf=list_related
Mark Warren Spoelstra (June 30, 1940 – February 25, 2007) was an American singer-songwriter and folk and blues guitarist.
Powerful in his simplicity...just one voice and one guitar.
He was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He began his musical career in Los Angeles in his teens and migrated around to wind up in New York City in time to take part in the folk music revival of the early 1960s. He is best remembered for his activity in the Greenwich Village area. He performed with Bob Dylan soon after Dylan's arrival in New York City, was a contributor to Broadside Magazine and recorded a number of albums for Folkways Records and other labels.
Raised as a Quaker, Spoelstra's career was put on hold from 1963–1965, when he performed alternative service as a conscientious objector in Fresno, California. In the mid 1960s, he frequently performed at the Ash Grove in West Hollywood. He later settled in Northern California, where he lived, primarily near Stockton, until his death. Withdrawing from the touring life to raise a family, Spoelstra and his wife Sherry embraced Christianity.
Retiring from music in the early 1980s, he worked for a number of years as a tour bus driver in Yosemite National Park. Throughout this period in his life, Spoelstra remained in touch with his music. In 2001, he recorded an album entitled, Out Of My Hands for the Origin Jazz Library label; the first record he'd made in 20 years. The album is a mix of new songs written for the album and some of his old favorites. In his later years he returned to the stage to perform on a limited scale. He would perform until the summer of 2006 when illness forced him to stop.
Several of his albums recorded for Elektra Records, long out of print, have been recently reissued. An album of Gospel songs recorded prior to his death is planned for release, according to his website.
Spoelstra died from complications of pancreatic cancer at his home in Pioneer, California on February 25, 2007.
Marl Spoelstra discography
http://www.wirz.de/music/spoelfrm.htm
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We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers-
-thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses.
Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.
-Peter S. Beagle 1973
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Edited by - lemonade kid on 24/02/2012 00:55:59 |
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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9880 Posts |
Posted - 24/02/2012 : 00:59:17
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King of the 12-String Guitar
SEPTEMBER 1995
(links revised 2005)
A tribute to Smithsonian/Folkways Records
and Mark Spoelstra
Dear Friends,
Many, & many a year ago, while attending rural Rhode Island secondary school, with a major in visual defenestration, when this whole brand new guitar / folk music craze was something we'd all learned about from recent TIME magazine articles and the sporadically available issue of SING OUT!, I walked into a tiny music store just off Wickenden St, on a rare excursion to The Big City with my pals, Mike and Jim.
It was ‘first guitar’ time.
Behind the counter was one of those stereotypically lanky, wire-rimmed, smirking, "world’s foremost authorities" that we all love so very much in the arts community. He had a good chuckle when we declared that we were ‘shopping for guitars’ and when we inquired, innocently enough, if he had any twelve-strings, he positively glowed with self-satisfied glee. Asked what we knew about 12-strings, we spoke excitedly, but in reverent tones, of "LEADBELLY-KING OF THE 12-STRING GUITAR".
We were proud to have answered promptly, and confident that our information, straight from a LIFE article about the blossoming folk music craze, was indisputable. "They couldn't print it if it wasn't true" (Ah, me........)
The WFA shook his head and, in a moment of genuine mercy, told an assistant to "Put on some Mark Spoelstra". His disciple smiled approval, reached into the bin, and came up with a mythic FOLKWAYS record! (We had heard about, but never actually seen, FOLKWAYS albums.) Hallelujah! I made a mental note that even insufferable smirking boors may harbor useful information and began a valuable lesson about books and covers.
Oh, what a sound erupted from those ancient speakers as Spoelstra played BUCKDANCERS CHOICE #2 on his mighty B-45-12 Gibson! Could this possibly be the work of one musician? It seemed an impossible feat. I was satisfied that we were listening to more than one guitar and, when assured to the contrary, was instantly immersed in a love affair that would continue for the rest of my ‘ramblin days’.
Years later, after I had ‘mastered’ the basics of popular ragtime, blues, and folk guitar, I would remember that day and wish that I could find a copy of THE SONGS OF MARK SPOELSTRA, but-----no such luck. The world had swung on board the British Invasion by that time and record stores that carried high quality, semi-obscure folk records were not to be found in our little corner of the provinces. I assumed that FOLKWAYS had gone out of business along with THE GASLIGHT in NYC, Boston’s SWORD IN THE STONE, THE MOUTHPIECE in Providence, Cincinnati’s FAMILY OWL and BLIND LEMON, THE Y-NOT in Worcester, Newport’s SALT, FOLK CITY in N.Y. again, and all those fondly remembered watering holes, temples, and sources of spiritual nourishment.
Decades passed and the sound of BUCKDANCERS CHOICE #2 was relegated to the Unrelivable Fond Memories file along with the mental video of my trip to the 1962 Newport Folk Festival with the prettiest girl in Ponaganset High School.
Well, my old friends, I recently acquired the info that FOLKWAYS is still in existence, associated with the Smithsonian, and has NO out-of-print issues! That is to say, every FOLKWAYS album is, and will remain, IN STOCK AND AVAILABLE! Call 1-888-365-5929, fax 202-725-1165, or E-mail at mailorder@folkways.si.edu for information.
This is a rare bird indeed, and one that deserves our support in these "slash the Arts and give the money to Macdonald’s" times. Your reward for supporting this noble venture is a selection of hard-to-find treasures that will, in the words of our good and wise friend Roy Book Binder, ‘tickle your ear’. I strongly encourage you to do so. You’ll be glad to thank me.
I have the Spoelstra album.
Y'all can imagine my surprise when I opened my email recently to find a message from the man himself (since passed away sadly).!! It was in the form of a brief "Thank You" for the story above, and an invite for all of you to visit his new website:
http://markspoelstra.net/index.html
--redwagon.com
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We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers-
-thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses.
Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.
-Peter S. Beagle 1973
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underture
Fifth Love
482 Posts |
Posted - 29/02/2012 : 15:18:34
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Count me as a yes. Just went and relistened to the '64 Blues Project compendium album that Elektra put out. Spoelstra, Danny Kalb and Ian Buchanan were the stand outs. Ian Buchanan didn't do much but I think he was great on the one song he had. Spoelstra had a really solid vocal and guitar output.
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MARK SPOELSTRA-60's lost folk blues legend
