By Tret Fure As we celebrate the 20th birthday of Local 1000, I raise a glass to the ones who came before me and first dreamed this union, and then worked hard to make it a reality. It wasn’t easy, but our founders persevered and we now stand 500 members strong. I joined Local 1000 in 1999, 6 years after our Charter and it was one of the most important decisions I have made in my life. I have been a member of the AFM since I was 16 but Local 1000 changed the way I looked at the union and at my future. I have friends, comrades, people to whom I can turn for solidarity, for protection and for advice. As I approach 65, I know that I have a pension waiting for me, one that I can further grow as I continue to work into very old age. I feel proud of the work we have done to get where we are and I am proud of the work we are doing to further us in all our endeavors. Our Fair Trade Music Campaign is a model for other Locals and the AFM at large. We have successfully signed up many venues, ensuring a fair wage for all working musicians. We have also negotiated collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) with several festivals to pay good wages and pension contributions and to provide decent working conditions for the ones who bring their beautiful work into all our lives. Well done Local 1000!!

INSIDE: page 2–Local 1000 Turns 20 • page 3–Celebration • page 4–Why I Joined, Remembering Steve Peters and Jon Fromers • page 5–Clearwater Now, Recommended Amendments, Meeting Notice • page 6–Office & Board Changes • page 7–Paul Taylor New Deal is the official organ of Local 1000. Please read it carefully. Upcoming Meetings...

Fall Board Retreat: Oct 23-Oct 25th St. Louis, MO (with FARM)

Fall Membership Meeting Thursday, Oct 24th 5:30-7:00 pm, By Karen Newman New Deal Committee met annually at the Song Dinner included AFM Local 1000 President, Tret Fure, will Exchange to report their individual progress to (Prior to FARM Meeting) attend the Great Labor Arts Exchange this the group. St. Louis, MO year to honor her local’s 20th birthday at its John O’Conner was the organizer of the birthplace, and she encourages her members to New Deal Committee and actively recruited www.local1000.org attend too. This is where it all began” said Fure. new followers and moved the project forward. Find Local 1000 The Great Labor Arts Exchange, formerly One of the first steps was to send out a on Facebook & Twitter known as the Song Exchange was organized survey to traveling musicians to get feedback thirty-five years ago by Joe Glazer in Silver on what they would like the union to do 212-843-8726 for them. Many remember recruiting other E-mail: [email protected] Spring, MD at what was then called the Meany Center. The objective was to bring traveling traveling musicians and spreading through the Amy Fix: [email protected] musicians together to present new songs tied to “Showcase Free Zone” held at Folk Alliance. (through 8/15/13) union and social justice activism. And it did! It was a hotel suite where the New Deal Co-Office Managers: Colin Dean Charlie King described the group of Committee invited musicians to come and sing Richard Coombs traveling musicians attending the Song together for the joy of singing in a spirit of Exchange in the early days as “geographic community and solidarity. Many came for the gadflies” that didn’t fit into AFM’s structure free beer and peanuts; still, they were willing LOCAL 1000 OFFICERS: for geographic locals. It was not possible to stay to discuss the merits of a union for President: to join every local where they traveling musicians. TRET FURE Charlie King was known as New 608-469-4007 • [email protected] performed for one night as soloists or small ensembles. Deal’s “pension guy.” He created Canadian Vice-President: Yet most of them embraced the a national scale so that when a KEN WHITELEY contract was filed the contributions 416-533-9988 • [email protected] concept of unionism and many performed regularly for union would be uniform. King said that Vice President: his desire to make music his DEBRA COWAN gatherings. The Song Exchange vocation, and to have the freedom 508-662-9746 • [email protected] became the annual meeting of to choose jobs he wanted to do Secretary-Treasurer: traveling musicians/ activists. STEVE EULBERG John McCutcheon recalls a 1983 were what motivated him to develop 970-222-8358 • [email protected] lunch discussion about union war John McCutcheon, the pension plan for traveling Midwestern Regional Rep stories such as the airline and mine former Local 1000 musicians. When he presented his AARON FOWLER strikes and the solidarity workers President, expressed employers with a contract they 316-207-4715 • [email protected] who demonstrated showed as they would realize that performing was Western Regional Rep love for musicians entered the belly of the beast. his job, and he needed to be paid. DANIEL BOLING who fill a silent “Charlie was relentless, eventually 505-228-2530 • [email protected] Charlie King asked, “Wouldn’t it world with song, using AFM’s own language to Eastern Regional Rep be great if we felt the way these and gratitude to all CHARLIE PILZER people felt about their unions?” At shape the final proposal to show those who worked 301-891-9035 • [email protected] that moment, the paradigm of “a that it could be done,” said John Geographical Un-Local” for traveling diligently to make McCutcheon, crediting King’s New Deal Editor: Steve Eulberg musicians was born, and the New the career choice refusal to take “no” for an answer in his pursuit of access to the AFM Contributing Editors: Deal Committee was created. easier for those Debra Cowan, Joe Jencks Essentially, an organizing who follow. pension plan as the foundation for successful recruitment of new Graphic Editor: Jan Hammond committee to build a structure that would suit the needs of musicians members. Member News Editor: One year AFM International President Marty Joe Jencks on the road, the New Deal Committee started to organize other traveling troubadours they Emerson attended the Song Exchange. Anne NEW DEAL is the official organ of the North American Feeney, a relative newcomer to the event, Traveling Musicians Union, Local 1000, AFM met on their journeys. Over the next decade the

2 NEW DEAL • Summer 2013 AFM Local 1000 met at the Highlander Center in 2011. The local is both the largest and fastest growing local in AFM. asked him when AFM would recognize traveling and said he wasn’t going to sing. He please visit: musicians and let them form their own local. conducted what he called a “membership http://www.laborheritage.org/?p=1309 Emerson’s response was, “Interesting idea.” auction” to get fifty signatures to create the Encouraged, the New Deal Committee started local. He did, and Local 1000 was born. to submit proposals to AFM international. The Song Exchange evolved into the Great With each accepted proposal the international Labor Arts Exchange, and is celebrating its became more responsive. John O’Conner thirty-fifth anniversary this year. The event remembers feeling relief and gratitude when is still a gathering place for activists in social the traveling musicians were first allowed to justice, environmental issues, and unions. It is send their contracts in to the international both a retreat and a training ground for and their staff would work out all of the organizers and those who want to learn how details with the locals along the tour. to use labor culture to advance their cause Another step on the path to recognizing more effectively by using, music, posters, differences between traveling musicians and spoken word, dance and creativity. the rest of AFM’s membership led to the This year the theme is Gonna Take Us All. creation of a phone number (1-800 ROAD Many will recognize the theme as the title to GIG) to call if the artists were not paid after one of many great songs written by the late the performance and had to move on the next Jon Fromer, a member of Local 1000 and a day. In 1991 the New Deal Committee attended regular attendee of the Great Labor Arts the AFM national convention and proposed Exchange. Two of the many exciting events an amendment to the constitution to create a planned are a song writing contest and Anne Feeney received the 2011 Utah local for traveling musicians. It was accepted. a photo contest with cash prizes. All AFM Phillips Lifetime Service to Labor Award in At the Song Exchange in 1993 John members are cordially invited to attend. For 2011, presented by John O’Connor at the McCutcheon took his turn at the microphone more information and online registration, Local 1000 Highlander Retreat.

NEW DEAL • Summer 2013 3 music festival in Mountain View, Arkansas, and was a member of the Foolkiller and its successor, CrossCurrents Culture Unlimited, from that time until his death, performing in many concerts and acting in many plays... by Peter Alsop He was a host of the folk music show Foolkiller Folk on KKFI from 1989 to the present time, When I had children, I saw that I was a longterm supporter and volunteer at the spending whatever money I had on our food, station, and was on the air on the Sunday clothing, shelter and education. That’s when it before his death...” dawned on me that I didn’t really have much left to put aside for my “later years”. It was A link to his full obituary is here: Jon Fromer also clear to me that since my kids seemed http://bit.ly/ZxRnw2 bent to have a “life in the arts” themselves, In solidarity, mentors. As a teenager Jon participated in I would not be able to depend on them to AFM Local 1000 the historic Civil Rights march from Selma support me in my dotage! (Willow was kind to Montgomery, advocating for fair voting ______laws and practices. And from that moment enough at age seven to offer me a job as her ______chauffer when I got to be old. I pointed out forward, Jon never stopped marching and that I was already her chauffer!) demonstrating, singing and writing, recording With Utah Phillips as a close friend, I and holding the line for justice and dignity. knew about and supported “Hey Rube!”, a And on that life-long journey, our beloved predecessor to Local 1000’s formation. I love departed brother helped change the lives the idea of a community of performers who of so many people. While many people in come to each other’s aid when necessary. the Local 1000 community knew of Jon as a For those who don’t know, “Hey Rube!” is and activist, fewer people knew what carnival and circus performers shout that he won more than a dozen Emmy Awards when there’s trouble from outsiders or a for his work in Public Television (KQED). Even skirmish. Everyone within earshot drops what fewer knew that as a young man, he was a they are doing and runs to the aid of their world-class soccer player who was chosen as associate. So when I checked in with John an alternate for the US Men’s Olympic Soccer O’Connor, and he filled me in on the rewards of Team. Jon was full of surprises. How do you sum up a life in a few words? the Local 1000 AFM pension fund, I jumped in! Back in the day, he had a recording deal How do you bid farewell to a friend and Now, along with being part of a community with Mercury Records, singing with his mentor whose talent and convictions were of folks who understand what it is to make a brother David in the trio, Jonathan, David & surpassed only by his devotion and love? living on the road as a musician, and to work Elbert. In the last 20 years or so, Jon You could Google the name Jon Fromer, for making the world a better place, every released several records of original music, and find a list of accolades, awards, and month I find a delicious pension deposit in my and traveled all over the world, often with honors, and still have no real sense of the credit union account, and I don’t have to drive his dear friend Francisco Herrera, singing passionate gentle soul behind all of those my daughter around in order to pay my bills! and playing his unique songs. accomplishments. Jon Fromer was a Thanks Local 1000! Particularly noteworthy is the kind of remarkable man, and I am pleased to say he music he wrote. Jon drew on Soul, R & B, ______was my friend. But he was a friend to literally Gospel, and pop influences to create songs thousands of people. It is hard to believe of hope, healing, dignity, and justice that that we will never again hear his soulful voice defied the typical confines of folk music. reverberate through our concert halls or He befriended rappers and beat poets, on our picket lines. But he left a legacy of musicians young and old, and was always songs, and an indelible mark on the hearts We were recently notified that Local 1000 learning and becoming a better musical of those who knew him that will continue to member Steve Peters has passed away. craftsman; always growing and expanding ripple outward for generations. his knowledge and skill-set. No musician can From the Kansas City Star: “He played banjo Jon Fromer was born in Chicago in 1946. strive for more. Jon was also given the Joe and concertina and had a passion for sea His family moved to San Francisco in 1950, Hill Lifetime Achievement Award from the songs. Steve moved to Kansas City in 1971 where Jon lived for the rest of his life. His Labor Heritage Foundation. after meeting musicians and actors from the parents were friends with Pete Seeger and Jon’s greatest joy however was his beloved Kansas City organization the Foolkiller at a Studs Turkel, whom Jon counted as his own wife Mary, who often traveled with him

4 NEW DEAL • Summer 2013 and was the source of the deep love that he present at the meeting is required to enact manifest in the world through his music, the recommendation. (Line through) indicates activism, and television career. He spoke of proposed elimination of language. her often, and she too became a friend to V. FEES, DUTIES, AND ASSESSMENTS so many of us. We send our deepest Section 7. Local 1000 Members in good condolences to Mary and their entire Earlier this year, I had a good conversation standing who pay more than $500 per family, and we share in the bittersweet joy with Clearwater where we came to an calendar year in work dues shall be eligible of honoring his presence among us, and agreement that was much more amicable for a rebate of an amount equal to the Local’s the sadness of his untimely departure. On than our last. This is how negotiations should annual dues minus the amount paid to the January 2nd 2013, surrounded by friends be. We agreed to a three year Collective Federation in annual per-capita dues. This and family, Jon succumbed to a two-year Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with concessions rebate shall be awarded in the form of a struggle with stomach cancer at his Mill on both sides, ones that we could all live with. reduction in annual dues to eligible members Valley home in California. On our end, we are continuing to guarantee for each year that they qualify. I was blessed to speak with Jon just and further the security of folk musicians who two days before he passed. He was busy play at this festival and similar festivals. We are ______recording an of new songs. That’s how also securing good working conditions for all he spent his last days; surrounded by his musicians, union or not. loved ones and working to give us all one last Our intention, of course, is to show that the collection of his marvelously crafted songs. union makes us stronger and all folk musicians At the end of our brief conversation Jon should be aware of the value of the AFM in said simply this, “Keep making the music of their lives and in their work. Through Collective the people, such beautiful music!” Bargaining Agreements with Clearwater And so we shall, Jon. We will keep your and the many other festivals with whom we songs alive, and we will keep writing new negotiate, we are working for you and with ones in your honor. We will hold you in our you, hand in hand. You can do your part by hearts when “We Do The Work” you talking to the festival promoters with whom you demonstrated so elegantly. From the SOA work, encouraging them to shake hands with The Local 1000 Fall Membership Watch in Columbus, Georgia to music Local 1000, work with Local 1000 to provide Meeting will be held at the Sheraton Westport festivals in Spain; from the Mission District of a pension contribution, equitable working Plaza in St. Louis, MO just prior to the San Francisco to the streets of Detroit conditions and a future for the artists we so beginning of the FARM (Folk Alliance Regional and Washington, DC you gave of yourself to love and so honor in this venerable world of Midwest) conference on Thursday, Oct 24 from bring hope to so many. So will we strive folk music. 5:30-7 pm (Dinner Included). You DON’T have love the world and all of her people, and In solidarity, to register for the conference to attend the work to welcome every generation into the Tret Fure - President of Local 1000 meeting, but Local 1000 will have a presence struggle for equality, justice and dignity, there and if you’ve been considering it, this is ______following in your footsteps. a great time to rub shoulders with your union Welcome. Come on into my land sisters and brothers. For more information It’s your land too now, about the conference: http://farmfolk.org/ I want to shake your hand ______Want to know your story, The journey you’ve been on Want to hear your language, Want to learn your songs The earth knows no borders, Just one sky above November 7-10, 2013 And friendship has no fences The Local 1000 Executive Board is Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA), No walls can stop the love recommending the following amendments in Hudson Valley Resort & Spa, 400 Granite *From Jon Fromer’s, Welcome. the Local 1000 Bylaws. The recommendation Road, Kerhonkson, NY (). Annual will be presented at the Local 1000 conference of the Northeastern Folk Alliance For more information, Membership Meeting on October 24th. A branch. For more information about the please visit www.jonfromer.com. two-thirds (2/3) vote of the membership conference: http://www.nerfa.org

NEW DEAL • Summer 2013 5 learned how to make better music, promote her term effective immediately, in accordance my body of work, and book my own tours. I with our ByLaws. still feel proud of my debut CD, and I credit the influence of veteran folk music people with that ______ability. As much as I have been at your service, you have also imparted to me a wealth of knowledge and wisdom for all that lies ahead. We bid farewell to long-time For that I am eternally grateful. Office Manager We Welcome When I first started working at Local 1000 in 1998 we had 75 members. I helped John O’Connor for a few mornings each week and Richard Coombs comes to Local 1000 with there was minimal activity with contracts, Music over 10 years’ experience as office manager Performance Fund first for a dinnerware designer and more applications, and recently for an architect. Prior to this, Richard union dues. Much spent nearly a decade appearing in the musical of our operations revue “Forever were analog. Plaid” playing in Over these past major cities around 15 years nearly the USA. A member every procedure of the Actor’s Equity changed to a Association since computerized 1989, Richard was process, we swelled part of the Broadway in membership to nearly 500, increasing the company of “Senator volume of work accordingly, and I believe Joe,” a pop-opera we managed to maintain our sense of written and directed community, camaraderie, and a personal by Tom O’Horgan in which, among other roles, touch through it all. Daniel Boling is a songwriter with a he appeared as a singing enzyme on toe It has been my honor and my pleasure to storyteller’s ear for detail and a balladeer’s shoes bailing out whiskey from Joe McCarthy’s serve you, our membership, through all of turn of phrase. His songs are inhabited by liver. Richard began his show business career our growth and changes, and I am happy to interesting characters drawn from Daniel’s singing with Joe Baris and the Winged Victory have gotten to know many of you. I derive life, family and friends: the vagabond Singers, a group that played every Catskill great satisfaction knowing that so many of running off with a tiny circus to tour the resort you can think of. He currently performs our members are retiring with a meaningful West; an aging Viet Nam veteran looking songs of the 30’s and 40’s such as “The pension, and that still more of you are on the back with surprise at his departed youth; a Donkey Serenade” in Senior Centers under the path toward reaching that goal. young rancher inheriting his grandfather’s auspices of the nonprofit group Vocal Ease. I am leaving Local 1000 to attend Stony nearly worn out rangeland and hoping he Richard graduated from the Hartt School with Brook University School of Social Welfare in can hold on and live up to the family legacy; a degree in musical theater. Richard is very pursuit of a Master in Social Work degree. a passenger on Flight 93 calling his wife to pleased to be working for the performers of Advocating for Local 1000 members, assisting say goodbye; and morons with a death wish Local 1000. them in achieving their goals and connecting proving Darwin’s theory of evolution! His them with appropriate resources has been finger-picked guitar and banjitar support wonderful preparation for my new career in a good, clear tenor voice that evokes his social work. characters’ emotions perfectly. During my 15 years as the primary Local Daniel has released five independent 1000 staff person, I have had the opportunity since 1999. His songs have been to attend workshops at Folk Alliance and featured on Rich Warren’s “Midnight NERFA conferences, share in song circles in Melinda Pittman, Western Regional Rep, Special”, NPR’s “Car Talk”, the Dr. Demento the Showcase-Free Zone, and meet hundreds resigned for health reasons in June. Presi- Show and on many other folk-format radio of members of this union and the folk music dent Tret Fure appointed Daniel Boling, from programs throughout the U.S., Canada, community. Through that exposure, I have Albuquerque, NM to serve the remainder of Australia, Europe and Israel.

6 NEW DEAL • Summer 2013 Every dry season for the last decade, audiences to connect to their own stories. the pair has gone bush, travelling to School residencies often produce murals sacred sites to record and preserve depicting local history that takes into account the art and songs of the Wardaman the stories of local indigenous people. culture, an integral part of Paul, recipient of grants from the Kalliopeia Australia’s history. Paul is confident Foundation and WRAR (Western Rock Art that in 2013 his work will culminate Research), is director of the Yubulawan with the transfer and safe storage Dreaming Project which is documenting of the records in the archives the stories, art and culture of this clan of the Australian Institute of of the Yubulawan Clan of the Wardaman Aboriginal and Torres Strait people. He has been filming, recording Islanders Studies in Canberra.” and editing interviews to preserve and Taylor makes his home in share since 2003. A website with a video Laramie, WY. He came to the USA archive has recently been launched http:// from Adelaide, South Australia and feels that yubulyawandreamingproject.com/. This is also Laramie is the heart of America’s outback. where donations to support the final phases of A graduate of the University of South the project can be received. Australia with a BA in Social Work, Taylor’s Paul has produced 4 recordings, included interest in the Aboriginal culture of his own Cooee! (co-produced Russ Hopkins and by country is born from time spent as a social Local 1000 member Steve Eulberg). Cooee! worker among the Aboriginal people in the Has won 6 National Awards including NAPPA outback Australia’s Northern Territory in the Gold Award, Parent’s Choice Gold Award and early eighties. It was at that time that he was Storytelling World. introduced http://paultaylor.ws/ by Steve Eulberg to the wonderful Celebrated for his tradition of work as a “Heritage storytelling Campaigner”, Paul and the Taylor – a Local 1000 music of the welcomes these member since 2006 – didjeridoo, was named Finalist in possibly one NEW MEMBERS the Australian of the of the world’s Michael Archer Kobi Hass Year 2013 Awards. oldest musical The award states: traditions. In Renee Batten Rachael Kelly “With an interest the mid-eighties, Lindsay Beaver Chris Kokesh in Indigenous Paul trained as Nick Brodie Mara Levine culture sparked an actor at the Hal Brolund Mike Mezzatesta when he was social worker in Royal Academy Kevin Buchan Karla Pilgrim the 1980s, Paul Taylor is passionate about of Dramatic Emily Burgess Darryl Poulsen preserving the language, law and culture Art in London, Matt Chambers Chris Reed of the Wardaman people. He is also an UK and worked Kev Corbett Jan Seides Indigenous ambassador showcasing their professionally culture by staging performances of song, as an actor and Anthony da Costa Alastair Whitehead dance, painting and didgeridoo each year to clown. Ryan Harvey Johnathan Wong thousands of children in the United States Taylor has where he spends much of his time. When he created a career Reinstated Members returns to the vast Victoria and Flora River by weaving Kim Barlow region of the Northern Territory each year the strands of Mark Gamsjager his passion is guided by Wardaman elder his life and experience together: bringing the Yidumduma Bill Harney whose extraordinary stories and songs with which he is entrusted Anne Genest cultural knowledge was at risk until the to an audience of American schoolchildren inception of the Yubulywan Dreaming Project. and their families, all the while helping his

NEW DEAL • Summer 2013 7 PRESORTED FIRST-CLASS MAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID NEW HAVEN, CT PERMIT NO. 1090 322 West 48th Street • New York, NY 10036 212-843-8726 • Fax 212-489-6030 e-mail: [email protected] • website: www.local1000.org