QuarterNotes - AUTUMN 2025

Plank Road Folk Music Society

Autumn - October 2025 www.plankroad.org

In This Issue

Fox Valley Festival . . . Two days of music — and a lot more!
Singing with your kids (or grandkids) . . . it's a good thing!
New Lost City Ramblers . . . Old-time traditional music revisited.
Barn Dance season . . . It's here — mark your calendar!
Remembering . . . Connie Francis, Sonny Curtis.
And more!

Plank Road Events

Please join us for our in-person get togethers — co-sponsored with Two Way Street Coffee House.

Sing-Around

1st & 3rd Saturday. | 2-4 pm

Vocal instrumental jam and sing-along with songbooks and leader.

Country & Western Sing-Around

4th Saturday. | 2-4 pm

Sing along with your favorite C&W songs. Songbooks provided.

Song Circle -- BYOS!

2nd Tuesday. | 7-9 pm

Bring Your Own Song! A monthly opportunity for folks to perform original or cover songs for each other, within a song circle.

Plank Road String Band Practice

2nd Sat. | 2:00-4:00 pm

First Church of Lombard

630-620-0688

An old-time string band practice for intermediate/advanced players, from September to April.

Old-time Barn Dance

November 15 | 700-900 pm

Be sure to check the Plank Road and Two Way Street websites and Facebook pages for details about each event.

President's Message

Autumn 2025

Plank Road has had a very active year so far, considering our regular sessions and special events. Our string band is more active than ever and continues to attract new players and we have a regular flow of new members in our sing-around sessions. We are always happy to see new faces, as we do lose a few people every year. Our membership level has been steady for several years.

Our relationship with Two Way Street has always been a major factor in our success and is as strong as ever, as we help each other as much as possible, promoting each other’s programs and events. Thanks, Dave Humphreys, for your decades of support and also to Joel and Jen, the current directors, for your continuing support.

I hope you have noticed recent changes on our website, as we try to make it more helpful for you and easier to use. Thanks to Dottie Lee for her diligence and dedication to this aspect of our operation.

We had a great turnout of Plank Road members at the recent Fox Valley Folk Festival, in Geneva. We performed onstage both days and jammed for hours at our tent. It was great to see so many PR members there, enjoying the music and beautiful weather. Our hats are off to Cheryl Joyal and the entire Fox Valley group for another great festival.

Bob O'Hanlon

President

Welcome New Members!

We're pleased to announce these folks who recently joined Plank Road Folk Music Society . . .

Christine Buik
Philip Segrest
Jeffrey G Sekiya

Thanks for your support . . . it's all about the music and the camaraderie!

Fox Valley Festival 2025

Concerts, jam sessions, food, music, and of course . . . more music!

Two days of folk concerts, storytelling, workshops and lots of jamming — not to mention food trucks and arts exhibitors! It was all happening at the 49th Annual Fox Valley Folk Music & Storytelling Festival over Labor Day weekend. Like last year, the sprawling event was held at Wheeler Park in Geneva. And the weather was perfect.

Plank Road was well-represented, both at stage presentations each morning, and later at the Plank Road tent, where many folks stopped by to visit and do some jamming.

As always, there were many Plank Road volunteers helping throughout the 2-day event, including these fine folks . . .

· Cheryl Joyal - Director

· Dave Humphreys

· Gary Blankenship

· Jen Shilt

· Kristen Fuller

· Bob Cordova

· Joe Schumacher

· Mimi O’Hanlon

· Christine Buik

· Ann Stang

· Joel Simpson

· Jennifer Ashley

Here’s a gallery of photos from the Festival, provided by Jen Shilt (Official Event Photographer Extraordinaire!), plus Dottie Lee, Jeannine Gilroy and Bill Lemos.

ABOVE: Jen snapping photos of performers on stage.

LEFT: Whole lotta jammin' going on!

Does anybody remember the

New Lost City Ramblers?

"They were so faithful to the old 78s they learned from — you could almost hear the scratches . . .”

During the folk boom of the late '50s and early '60s, the New Lost City Ramblers introduced audiences to the authentic string band sound of the 1920s and '30s. And, in the process, helped educate a generation that had never heard this uniquely American sound of old-time music.

The New Lost City Ramblers — or NLCR, or simply the Ramblers — distinguished themselves by focusing on the traditional playing styles they heard on old 78rpm records of musicians recorded way back in the day. One reviewer says, “they added guts and reality to the folk movement, performing with humor and obvious reverence for the music,” and directly influenced countless musicians.

They refused to "sanitize" these southern sounds as did other folk groups of the time, instead, striving for an authentic sound.

The original group was formed in 1958 in New York City by Mike Seeger, John Cohen and Tom Paley. The band toured whenever they could and recorded frequently for Folkways. Their shows are legendary for their onstage banter.

And the group’s name?

It’s a good guess that the New York City Ramblers would not have worked — they needed a more “intriguing” name. So they named themselves based on three influences: (1) An old tune called "New Lost Train Blues,” (2) A favorite old-time group, the North Carolina Ramblers, and (3) A reference to the urban settings in which they played.

After some informal playing and swapping of repertoire, the band burst onto the New York folk scene with an album for Folkways Records in 1959. It was an immediate sensation, “selling hundreds of copies” — which doesn’t sound like much, but actually wasn’t bad for this kind of music back then. Many folk fans were astonished to hear rare old records come to life, both on vinyl and in concerts.

Their popularity grows . . .

They recorded five albums of traditional music in the early ‘60s, making the Ramblers famous (at least to folk enthusiasts) and leading to TV appearances, successful tours, and performances at the Newport Folk Festival. They brought authentic folk music to a huge audience, were highly entertaining, and led their audience to rediscover the original music on which they based their band.

But they weren't making a lot of money. Seeger had a job with the Smithsonian, Cohen made industrial films, and in 1962, Paley got an offer from Cambridge University and moved to England. Apparently there were “other issues” as well — when Paley refused to sign statements about his political allegiances.

When Tracy Schwarz joined Seeger and Cohen, the Ramblers' focus changed slightly. Schwarz knew his way around country music, including a genre regarded with some suspicion by folkies . . . bluegrass, which many purists thought was “too commercial.” But to the Ramblers, the continuity between their old-style music and bluegrass was obvious. Without abandoning the older material, they now had a rich new genre to explore.

"A one-stop tour of America’s old-time musical traditions, performed with skill, perfection, and humor." - Sing Out! Magazine

NLCR - Personal Memories

The musicians . . .

Mike Seeger — He was surrounded by family members steeped in folk music. His father was a folklorist and his mother was a composer who would transcribe her husband’s field recordings. His older half-brother Pete, his sister Peggy and her husband Ewan MacCall were all well-known folk performers. Even his sister Penny got in on the act, marrying NLCR’s member John Cohen.

Before long Seeger was exploring the techniques of traditional musicians, eventually meeting others who had the same interests — including . . .

John Cohen — A photographer and film maker who'd been introduced to folk music by his family. He performed and documented the traditional music of the rural South and played a major role in the folk revival. He made expeditions to Peru to film and record the indigenous culture. Cohen was also a professor of visual arts at SUNY (State University of New York) Purchase College for 25 years. Cohen is said to have inspired “John” of the Grateful Dead’s song “Uncle John’s Band.”

Tom Paley — A Yale-trained mathematician and banjo wizard, who once said, “When we formed The New Lost City Ramblers it was the kind of thing I'd been doing for quite a few years . . . It didn't feel particularly revolutionary to me but I understood we had quite an impact on young people like Dylan and the Grateful Dead.” He left the band in 1962 when Cohen and Seeger wanted the group to become more professional. He was replaced by . . .

Tracy Schwarz — A multi-instrumentalist (fiddle, guitar, banjo, accordion, and more), he is regarded as one of the great musicians of traditional American roots music. His recorded work includes three Grammy Award nominations. The Ramblers soon absorbed the bluegrass, folk and Cajun influences that Schwarz brought to the band — which soon became one of the mainstays of Folkways Records, recording nine albums between 1964 and 2009. (Schwarz died in March of this year. See his obituary in the July issue of QuarterNotes.)

Time goes by . . .

By the 1980s, the three Ramblers had substantial careers and families, and, one hears, weren't getting along too well. But they did realize one thing: Their final album, recorded during a 1997 reunion, was called There Ain't No Way Out.

“Everything about them appealed to me—their style, their singing, their sound. I liked the way they looked, the way they dressed and I especially liked their name. Their songs ran the gamut in style, everything from mountain ballads to fiddle tunes and railway blues... I'd stay with the Ramblers for days. At the time, I didn't know they were replicating everything they did off old 78 records, but what would it have mattered anyway? It wouldn't have mattered at all. They had originality in spades, were men of mystery. I couldn't listen to them enough.” - Bob Dylan

Being a fan of the pop folk artists of the day, I had never heard of The New Lost City Ramblers. Until a college roommate (also named Bill) enlightened me with a song called “Gold Watch & Chain.”

In 1966 I was a member of the SIU Campus Folk Arts Society and we decided to get an “affordable” folk act to come to town. Bill (the roommate) immediately said it’s gotta be the Ramblers. He contacted them in New York, and somehow convinced them to come to Carbondale.

I was put in charge of promotion. 99% of the students had never heard of the Ramblers, so it was a challenge to fill the auditorium with enough people to cover expenses. I decided to do a multi-week “teaser” campaign of posters around campus. Somehow it worked and we sold out the auditorium.

Early morning, on the day of the concert, Mike, John and Tracy, plus all their instruments and overnight luggage, jammed into a small car and drove non-stop from NYC, arriving just a few hours before their concert. And that night the they put on a heck of show, filled with great music and lots of humor.

Being a very low-budget affair, my two roommates and I moved out of our off-campus trailer for the night so the Ramblers had a place to sleep after the concert.

The next morning we held a workshop back on campus with the trio. All three guys were very nice — but it was obvious they needed coffee and couldn’t wait to get back on the road to New York.

– Bill Lemos

ABOVE: Cohen and Schwarz , both looking serious.

LEFT: Seeger, looking bored, and Cohen, looking cheerful.

Local Venues

Two Way Street Coffee House — Friday Night Concert Series.

Doors open at 7:30pm and concerts start at 8pm. You can also view concerts online — more information on Two Way Street Coffee House or Facebook.

Maple Street Concerts.

Enjoy live concerts at Maple Street Chapel in downtown Lombard. Please check the Maple Street website for concert listings.

Other venues . . .

- Acoustic Renaissance Concerts

- Old Town School Of Folk Music

- Tobias Music Concerts

5th Saturday Workshop features Bobcat Opossum

On August 30 the third 5th Saturday Workshop of the year was held at Two Way Street Coffee House. The “Sing And Play In Harmony” Workshop featured muti-instrumentalists and educators Sean Hoffman and Ellen Coplin of the duo Bobcat Opossum.

They demonstrated through hands-on music theory and group participation, exploring how to hear harmonies and express them with voice and instrument. One person commented that at times the room seemed to “vibrate” as the group experimented building harmonies.

The workshops are held at Two Way Street Coffee House, in partnership with Plank Road, under the direction of Joel Simpson and Jennifer Ashley.

One more workshop to come! Nov. 29: "Ukulele with Lil Rev."

Two Way Street’s Heritage Matinee Concert Series . . .

On October 5, Two Way Street Coffee House presented another in its series of Sunday afternoon Heritage Matinee Concerts. Mark Dvorak and Ashley & Simpson were joined by two local artists — the ever-popular George Mattson Trio, and singer-songwriter Lisa P. Medina.

100% of the free-will donations collected at each concert will support Two Way Street’s operation and programming.

If you missed the concert, it’s available online at twowaystreet.org.

The finale featured Mark Dvorak and Marianne Mohrhusen — capped off with a rousing rendition of "This Land Is Your Land" by all performers on stage!

Jennifer Ashley and Joel Simpson

The George Mattson Trio

Old-Time Barn Dance Season is here!

Saturday, October 11 kicked off the season’s first Barn Dance. The Plank Road String Band provided the tunes, and Meg Dedolph was the caller. It was a fun-filled evening as dancers enjoyed square, line, reels, waltzes and more!

Mark your calendar for these upcoming barn dances:

November 15

February 7

March 21

April 25

May 9

Dances begin at 7pm and are co-sponsored by Plank Road and Two Way Street Coffee House. Click here for more details!

The power of singing together

Family singing with your kids or grandkids . . . it’s a good thing!

Condensed and edited from an article in The Epoch Times by Walker Larson. Thanks to John Pratapas for forwarding it to Bob O’Hanlon.

Who sings together as a family anymore? Almost no one.

Family singing was once an activity considered an essential part of family life. Long winter evenings by the fire, or humid summer afternoons on the porch, passed swiftly and sweetly to the sounds of the guitar, banjo, fiddle, and a chorus of familiar voices.

Yes, it’s only October, but the holidays will be here before we know it. And that’s a great time to gather the kids for some family folk songs.

In 1955, Welsh poet Dylan Thomas wrote: “Always on Christmas night there was music.”

The Power of Song

One of the many benefits of singing and playing music together with family and friends is that it plays a role in the education and formation of children. Aristotle believed that music had the power to form character in a positive way: “In listening to such strains (of music) our souls undergo a change.”

One way to bring music back into the home and children’s lives is to teach them good old traditional folk songs. What could be easier — and more fun?

Learning folk songs connects children to their heritage and may provide opportunities for impromptu history lessons. Singing together also makes possible a rare form of social bonding — as we all know so well at Plank Road.

Once, almost everyone knew a core list of American folk songs and could join in at will.

But we can play our part in passing on these songs that our grandparents and great-grandparents sang as part of our American identity.

Here are just a few traditional folk songs (plus a little history) that you can explore with your kids — or grandchildren. (Click the links to hear the songs.)

‘Yankee Doodle’

This classic, patriotic American song is tied with our nation’s history. The tune already existed by the 1750s, but in 1755, a British doctor wrote new words that made fun of the American soldiers he was serving alongside in the French and Indian War. We don’t know the exact origin of the word “Yankee,” but it definitely refers to American colonists. The term “doodle” means a fool or simpleton, while “dandy” refers to a foppish man who paid too much attention to his dress and manners. Not very flattering. But the Americans took the insults with wry good humor and adopted the song for their own purposes. By the time of the American Revolution, it had become a marching air of defiance, with revised lyrics depicting Washington astride a warhorse.

‘Crawdad Song’

This tune, sometimes called “Crawdad Hole,” seems to have grown out of African American blues, Anglo-American dances, and the experience of workers constructing levees along the Mississippi. The simple, repetitive lyrics about hunting for crawdads (crayfish) make it easy for children to learn and enjoy.

‘Oh Shenandoah’

The precise roots of this American classic remain obscure, although it likely developed before the Civil War. Folklorist Alan Lomax theorized the song was actually a sea shanty written by French Canadian voyagers. Sea shanties helped sailors keep up morale, maintain a rhythm when rowing or performing other tasks, and build a sense of solidarity.

Even the exact meaning of the words remains uncertain. Some argue that it describes the Shenandoah River, and others that it refers to the daughter of the Oneida Indian Chief Shenendoah.

‘Git Along Little Dogies’

This cowboy song from the late 1800s describes the process of herding orphaned calves, termed “dogies.” Because the calves were weaned too early, they weren’t yet ready to easily digest range grass. That led to swollen bellies called “dough-guts,” which cowboys altered to “dogies.” The pitter-patter of this cowboy song reminds listeners of a trotting horse.

‘Turkey in the Straw’

This song will appeal to animal-loving kids with its comedic lyrics and buoyant, fast-pace. So energetic is the song that it makes an excellent dance tune.

There are dozens more, such as:

“This Land Is Your Land,” “Aunt Rhody,” “Don’t Fence Me In,” “Down In The Valley,” “Home On The Range,” “I’ve Been Working On The Railroad,” “Michael Row The Boat Ashore,” “On Top Of Old Smokey,” “Red River Valley,” “You Are My Sunshine.”

And our Plank Road Songbooks are full of these and other great songs!

“Music is probably the only real magic I have encountered in my life. There’s not some trick involved in it. It’s pure and it’s real. It moves, it heals, it communicates . . .”

- Tom Petty

Remembering . . .

Connie Francis

The most popular female vocalist in the United States between 1958 and 1964 was Connie Francis. She died July 16 at age 87.

One of the biggest-selling pop singers of the 50s and 60s, she had huge hits like “Who’s Sorry Now,” “Stupid Cupid,” and “Lipstick On Your Collar.” Sixteen of those hits went gold.

"Everybody's Somebody's Fool," came out in 1960, making her the first female singer to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. She also sang the theme song and appeared in the 1961 film, Where the Boys Are.

At the height of her career she occupied a unique position in the American record industry — selling over 40 million records worldwide before she was 25 — and amassing sales that comfortably outstripped most of her male contemporaries

Born Concetta Franconero in Newark, NJ, she changed her name at age 13 when television host Arthur Godfrey suggested that "Connie Francis" would be easier to pronounce.

She received a recording contract in 1955, initially overdubbing her singing voice for film actresses. She recorded 10 singles under her own name — they all flopped. But opportunity knocked with her 11th release — “Who’s Sorry Now.” It shot into the Top 10 and sold a million copies after exposure on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. A run of hits followed, scoring nearly thirty Top 40 successes on both sides of the Atlantic over the next six years.

Bobby Darin wrote several songs with Francis — and they eventually became lovers. However, they split up after Francis’s father threatened Darin with a shotgun. (Yikes!)

She recorded music in multiple languages, including Italian, French, German, Yiddish, Spanish and Japanese.

In 1967 she underwent a cosmetic procedure which damaged her ability to sing. It took multiple surgeries before Francis could sing again.

The latter part of her career was marred by a succession of tragedies. In 1974 she was raped at knife-point at a hotel. She sued the hotel and won a $2.5 million award. In 1981 her brother George, an attorney who had testified against organized crime, was murdered by the Mafia. The events triggered years of depression. Though Connie tried to resume her recording and touring career, she was diagnosed with manic depression, and in 1984 she attempted suicide.

Francis was married and divorced four times between 1964 and 1985. She resumed performing in 1989 and eventually made a comeback in the 90s, retiring in 2018.

Earlier this year she gained social media fame because of the resurgence of her 1962 recording, "Pretty Little Baby," which went viral on TikTok.

Sonny Curtis

Singer, songwriter and guitarist, Sonny Curtis, died September 19 at age 88.

Known for his collaborations with Buddy Holly, and as a member of the Crickets, he continued with the band after Holly's death in 1959.

His best known compositions include ”Walk Right Back,” a major hit in 1961 for the Everly Brothers; “I Fought The Law,” covered by the Bobby Fuller Four and others; "Love Is All Around,” the theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show; “More Than I Can Say,” co-written with The Crickets' drummer Jerry Allison and a hit for Leo Sayer; and "I'm No Stranger to the Rain," a #1 Country hit for Keith Whitley in 1989.

Curtis was born in Texas, and grew up with bluegrass music. He learned the guitar at a young age from his three uncles who had a bluegrass band. He eventually formed his own bluegrass band with his two older brothers.

As a guitarist, he played on some of Buddy Holly's earlier 1956 Decca sessions. In 1955 and 1956 he, along with Buddy Holly, opened concerts for rising new star Elvis Presley.

Curtis worked with other musicians by the time Buddy Holly put together the Crickets in 1957, but joined the band in late 1958, shortly before Holly's death in 1959. He soon took over the lead vocalist role in addition to lead guitar.

Curtis was drafted in late 1959. During basic training, he was given a three-day pass and met drummer Jerry Allison, who was then with the Everly Brothers in Los Angeles. Curtis played him a song he had written, “Walk Right Back" — and Allison had him immediately take it to the Everlys. They recorded the song that weekend and were later rewarded with a Billboard Top 10 hit.

Curtis left the band several times to pursue his solo career, but made occasional guest appearances and recordings with the Crickets. In 2016, he performed at the Crickets' farewell concert at the legendary Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, the venue of Holly's last performance before his death.

Songs written by Curtis were recorded by Glen Campbell, Bobby Goldsboro, Andy Williams, Anne Murray and others. While "I Fought the Law" was a big hit for other artists, Curtis enjoyed the royalties. He said it only took him 15 minutes to write: "It's my most important copyright."

Curtis was inducted into three music Halls of Fame including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.