PLOWSHARES COFFEE HOUSE:
PEOPLE, MUSIC AND COMMUNITY
A University Thesis Presented to the Faculty
of
California State University, East Bay
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies
By
Susan Burnice Fuller Wageman
March 2017
Copyright © 2017 by Susan Burnice Fuller Wageman
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ABSTRACT
The Plowshares Coffee House Concert series ran for twenty years—presenting
686 concerts and dances between 1977 and 1998. Many of the performers, audience members, volunteers and other supporters of this effort continue to be involved with music and with each other—effectively forming complex interwoven networks of people and communities that connect Plowshares with other music communities in the past and the present. This thesis focuses, in particular, on Plowshares as a place of music making that built and nurtured community and contributes to an expanding literature about places of music making that build community and function as community centers. Ideally, this research will provide a foundation for deeper investigation of music communities in the future.
Approaching the research from the perspectives of music, history, and anthropology (folkloristics and ethnography), the data collection and analysis employed an emic, or insider, perspective. Informal ethnographic interviews, oral history interviews, and an online survey provided first-hand information on how different people experienced Plowshares. Ongoing participation in contemporary music communities helped reveal additional information and insights about Plowshares, its operation, and its influences. The San Francisco Folk Music Club's newsletter, the folknik, provided information on the concert schedules, vision, development, and challenges of Plowshares.
The San Francisco Folk Music Center's organizational papers—particularly the meeting minutes—provided detail on how the organization operated.
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This thesis provides a brief history of Plowshares, the circumstances that enabled
its emergence, and an assessment of the forces that contributed to its cessation. The
people who created Plowshares were motivated by their passion for sharing their
musics—and by a countercultural ethos that valued egalitarianism, peaceful anarchy, DIY
(do-it-yourself), and collective action to effect change. The collective energy of the nearly-all-volunteer effort swiftly grew the concert series during the first five years.
However, volunteer burnout, shifting demographics, economic pressures, competition from new venues, and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake led to a long, slow decline. The same countercultural ethos that contributed energy to Plowshares' initial growth seems to have contributed to its cessation as well. Dependence upon "Ralph" (i.e. volunteers who would do whatever was needed) too often led to unpaid bills, insufficient publicity, internal organizational strife, miscommunications, and overloaded volunteers.
Nevertheless, a twenty year run is impressive for a live music venue, suggesting a significant level of community engagement and support. Many of the people who were involved consider their experience at Plowshares to be foundational. Many remember relationships that began during the Plowshares years—and continue to this day.
Plowshares veterans can be found attending, performing at, teaching at, and helping run concert venues, festivals, camps, contra dances, conferences, community music schools, and university music programs. The evidence suggests that Plowshares drew from and strengthened a network of acoustic-folk music communities in the San Francisco Bay
Area, across the nation, and through time.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
When I inquired about pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Interdisciplinary
Studies at California State University, East Bay, I was told that it would be very difficult,
if not impossible, to find faculty advisors who would be willing to serve on my
Interdisciplinary Studies Major committee. Dr. Peter Marsh, Associate Professor, Music,
chaired my committee which included History Department Chair Dr. Linda Ivey and
Professor of Anthropology Dr. Laurie Price (who replaced Anthropology Department
Chair Dr. Laura Nelson, when she left the University). I am immensely grateful for their
time, advice, thoughtful feedback, and encouragement.
Each of my professors—in music, history and anthropology—introduced me to
different perspectives, helped me hone my research, writing, and analysis skills, and
offered me opportunities to grapple with the complexities inherent in studying music
communities. Professor Ivey mentored my oral history research. In addition to teaching
most of my music courses, Professor Marsh provided ongoing mentoring and guidance throughout the development of my thesis. Dr. Price's Advanced Ethnographic Methods
class provided a thorough introduction to the subject and enabled me to produce the
prize-winning paper, "Comparative Study of Two Music Communities Separated by
Time."1 Professor Mary Ann Irwin (Lecturer, Department of History) guided my initial
foray into Plowshares history through a class on San Francisco Bay Area History. The
1 Susan Wageman, "Comparative Study of Two Music Communities Separated by Time," unpublished manuscript, 2014 (winner of the Annual Emeritus Anthropology Faculty Student Research Paper Prize).
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assignment to blog about our research formed the basis for my "Plowshares Coffee
House" website.2 Professor Khal Sneider's Seminar in History enabled me to examine the historical context of Plowshares and focus on the Plowshares history embedded in San
Francisco Folk Music Club and San Francisco Folk Music Center records. Assistant
Professor of History, Dr. Elizabeth McGuire generously offered to review my not quite complete draft thesis. Her observation that "research is infinite," provided the mantra that enabled me to stop researching and finish my thesis—knowing that there always will be more to the story.
Many of my classmates were equally encouraging and supportive. I was twice blessed to be partnered with Moriah Ulinskas, who is a thorough editor, talented communicator, and brilliant thinker. My colleague in the Office of Research and
Sponsored Programs, Melissa West, graciously reviewed a near-final draft of my thesis. I must also thank Dr. Barclay Hudson (my organizational management master's thesis advisor at Fielding Graduate University) for his still-all-too-true-and-useful wisdom regarding the "research jungle" which can be both enticing and entangling.3
The National Park Service's Golden Gate National Recreation Center Park
Archives and Records Center has an extensive collection of photographs, reports, and documentation on the development of the Park, including Fort Mason. The finding aids
2 Susan Wageman, "Plowshares Coffee House: The People & the Music | Fort Mason, San Francisco, California," Wordpress, http://plowsharessfmusichistory.wordpress.com.
3 Barclay Hudson, "The Jungle Syndrome: Some Perils and Pleasures of Learning without Walls," in Handbook of Online Learning: Innovations in Higher Education and Corporate Training, edited by Kjell Erik Rudestam and Judith Schoenholtz-Read, 185-220 (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2002).
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and catalog are extensive and many of the resources are available online.4 Curator &
Reference Archivist Amanda Williford graciously assisted with my requests to use
photos from their collection.
This thesis would not exist without many contributions of information, interviews,
archival materials, and encouragement from people who were involved with Plowshares.
I wish that I could share everything that was shared with me. But, if had tried, I would
still be tramping around in the research jungle. Special thanks are due to Charlotte
Patterson, who saved San Francisco Folk Music Center business records. Jeff Crossley
allowed me to use some of his "Folkie" photos taken at Fort Mason. Debbie McClatchy allowed me to use a publicity photo of her that Art Peterson had saved, along with many other photos, when the Folk Music Center office was closed. The Board of the San
Francisco Folk Music Club allowed me to borrow a nearly complete set of their newsletter, the folknik, and use scans from that publication to illustrate this thesis.
I must also thank my friends who patiently waited for me to take breaks from researching and writing to play music with them. Finally, I am most grateful to my life partner, Charlie Fenton, who introduced me to the San Francisco Folk Music Club and
Plowshares. I would not have begun and could not have finished this thesis without his
support and nearly unending patience as I pursued my quest to capture some of the stories
and history of the community that formed around Plowshares Coffee House.
4 National Park Service, "Research," Golden Gate National Recreation Area, accessed October 30, 2016, https://www.nps.gov/goga/learn/historyculture/research.htm.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ...... iii
Acknowledgements ...... vi
List of Figures ...... xi
List of Photos ...... xii
Preface ...... xiii
Introduction ...... 1 Plowshares Coffee House: Music Making Community ...... 3 Defining Folk Musics ...... 6 Perspectives & Methodology ...... 10 Learning from the People of Plowshares and their Stories ...... 11
The People Bring their Musics and Music Building Community ...... 16 Many Music Traditions in the Bay Area...... 16 Folk Music to Change the World ...... 18 Music Communities of the Revival ...... 23
San Francisco Folk Find Opportunity at an Old Military Base ...... 28 San Francisco Folk Music Club ...... 28 West Coast Circuit ...... 30 Swords to Plowshares: Army Base to Cultural Center ...... 33 Opportunity for an Organization ...... 36 Emergence of the San Francisco Folk Music Center ...... 38
A Brief History of Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series ...... 42 1977-1980: Launching Plowshares and Organizing the Organization ...... 43 1981-1982: Reaching for Another Level ...... 51 1983-1988: Ending and Continuing ...... 57 1989-1998: Shaking and Shifting to the East Bay ...... 65
The Tyranny of Ralph ...... 74
People, Music and Community: The Story Never Ends ...... 79 Community Centered Around Folk Musics ...... 80 Plowshares Influences ...... 85 A Network of Communities through Time ...... 87 Key Findings ...... 90 Future Research ...... 92
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Bibliography ...... 94
Appendix: Plowshares Performances ...... 104 1977...... 104 1978...... 104 1979...... 105 1980...... 106 1981...... 108 1982...... 111 1983...... 114 1984...... 115 1985...... 117 1986...... 118 1987...... 118 1988...... 119 1989...... 119 1990...... 120 1991...... 120 1992...... 121 1993...... 121 1994...... 121 1995...... 121 1996...... 122 1997...... 122 1998...... 122
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. First Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series listing, November 6, 1977...... 43
Figure 2. Plowshares schedule headers...... 55
Figure 3. The number of concerts presented at Plowshares each year between 1977 and
1998...... 63
Figure 4. Distribution of Plowshares patrons across San Francisco Bay Area regions in
1988...... 68
Figure 5. Plowshares and Freight & Salvage capacity over time...... 70
Figure 6. Number of regular venues listed in the folknik, each year in November 1968-
1998...... 71
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LIST OF PHOTOS
Photo 1. Detail of Lower Fort Mason c.1951...... 33
Photo 2. Charlie Fenton calling a contra dance, undated...... 42
Photo 3. Building C, home of the San Francisco Folk Music Center and Plowshares
Coffee House, c.1984...... 45
Photo 4. Plowshares Coffee House sign, 2016...... 45
Photo 5. Faith Petric and the Clayton Street Singers, San Francisco Free Folk Festival,
c.1982...... 46
Photo 6. The performer's view of the audience, c. 1982...... 47
Photo 7. Art Peterson, c. 1982...... 53
Photo 8. Publicity photograph of Debbie McClatchy, c. 1982...... 87
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PREFACE
My interest in the Plowshares Coffee House and its parent organization, the San
Francisco Folk Music Center, emerged through several years of participation in a variety of local San Francisco Bay Area acoustic and folk music scenes. Over time, I began to notice subtle and, sometimes not so subtle, cultural differences between the different groups. Yet, these groups are not entirely separate entities. They are connected by complex networks of people who have similar interests and passions. Despite some cultural differences, these groups also have some common understandings, needs, and opportunities for mutually beneficial support. Music and dance have been integral to my
life in a variety of ways for as long as I can remember. Even so, I had not previously
recognized the complex social systems that connect the different music scenes.
It is possible that I may never have noticed this phenomenon if I had not
previously studied for a Master of Arts degree in Organizational Management. After
twenty years (at that time) working in the museum field, I became curious about
organizational systems during a field-wide flurry of facility expansions, changing
missions, and efforts to create institutions that better serve community. My audience
research and evaluation work at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose afforded
me both first-hand experience with these change processes and exposure to a variety of organizational approaches through professional involvement with the Association of
Science-Technology Centers and the American Association of Museums.
In 2002, I was selected to present my thesis, “Under the Seat Cushion: Find the
Keys to Innovation Connecting the Formal Structure with Informal Organizational
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Systems,” to Fielding Graduate University students and faculty prior to our graduation
ceremony.5 Four years later, an adaptation of my thesis was included as a chapter in the
Handbook for Small Science Centers.6
After joining the University Advancement staff at California State University,
East Bay in 2011, I began exploring formal education options and potential subjects for
research. Recognizing that the topic of social systems was probably too big for focused
research, I considered researching the San Francisco Folk Music Club. However, its 50+
year history and hundreds of members seemed unmanageable. I first learned about
Plowshares Coffee House in 2009 from friends who recalled its one-time role in the local
folk music scene. I had the impression that Plowshares had operated for about five years,
rather than twenty. So, it seemed a reasonable subject of study.
In 2013, I enrolled in the California State University, East Bay Interdisciplinary
Studies Master of Arts degree program and began my research on Plowshares in earnest.
My thesis, “Plowshares Coffee House: People, Music & Community,” documents the
state of my research upon completion of my course of study. My intention is to continue
my investigations of Plowshares and its situation among other music communities
beyond the bounds of this formal program. Additional information on my research may
be found online at plowsharessfmusichistory.wordpress.com.
5 Susan B.F. Wageman, "Under the Seat Cushion: Find the Keys to Innovation Connecting the Formal Structure with Informal Organizational Systems" (master's thesis, Fielding Graduate University, 2002).
6 Susan B.F. Wageman, "How to Foster Innovation within your Science-Technology Center: Observations from Under the Seat Cushion," in Handbook for Small Science Centers, ed. Cynthia C. Yao (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2006).
xiv 1
INTRODUCTION
Charlotte Gerst (now Patterson) began attending "music things" in the San
Francisco Bay Area in the 1960s. She was delighted when the San Francisco Folk Music
Center began the Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series in 1977 at Fort Mason in San
Francisco—just across the Golden Gate Bridge from her home in Mill Valley. She
recalls, "This was just too good to be true. It was so close to where I lived."7 When I
asked her about going to Plowshares, Charlotte immediately slipped into the sing-song
voice of a carnival mid-way barker:
Oh, why should you go to Plowshares? [pause]
We had a raffle. You could win things. Don't you like to win something? [laughter] You can always win something. Everyone likes to win something. You'd get records of people you'd never heard of before.
Oh, the raffle was a hot thing. I loved winning. I won a Prairie Home Companion record. [pause] That was fun.
But, then she switched to a serious tone.
That was before I was involved in it. I came for years because I live in Mill Valley and it was so easy to get there and then when I heard that it was sort of having trouble because they had so much trouble keeping volunteers. Volunteers would be there and they would just kinda float away. So I got involved only because I said, 'Oh no, no, wait a minute, you cannot stop this thing. This is something I like.' So I said, 'I'll do what I can to keep it afloat so I can keep enjoying this music.' I mean that was what I had in mind.8
7 Charlotte Patterson, Informal ethnographic interview by Susan Wageman, Oakland, February 26, 2014, digital audio recording, 67 minutes.
8 Ibid. Note: As is customary in many ethnographies, informants are referred to by their forename rather than by their surname when the full name is not used.
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Charlotte Patterson is one of many people who remember Plowshares as an important way station in their lives. She was instrumental in keeping the concerts going at a time when nearly all of the key volunteers had moved on. She worked hard to create a welcoming environment for performers, volunteers, and the people who came to the shows. Then, as the "last volunteer," she kept the organization intact for nearly two decades after the last show, hoping that volunteers might come along to create a new
Plowshares Coffee House. Today, she frequents the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse in
Berkeley and various San Francisco Folk Club camps, festivals, and events where many others who were involved with Plowshares can also be found.
The last Plowshares concert was nearly two decades ago. "So," you may ask,
"Why should I care about Plowshares?" Certainly, from what I have heard, an evening at
Plowshares was likely to be entertaining. The volunteers who operated the venue cared about their musics, the musicians, and gathering people together to enjoy the music, support each other, and share the work. The musicians were passionate about sharing their musics—and their musics often reflected the belief that music could make the world a better place. The songs and stories I have heard and the newsletters and meeting minutes I have read make it clear that the people of Plowshares embraced, to varying degrees, the countercultural ethos of the 1960s that stood up for peace, civil rights, equality, harmony, and collective action towards these ends. The San Francisco Folk
Music Center that operated Plowshares functioned as a collective—that seems to have both supported community development and hindered sustainability. This brief history of
Plowshares examines the dynamics of that ethos in the context of a music community.
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Plowshares Coffee House: Music Making Community
Plowshares Coffee House was operated by the nonprofit San Francisco Folk
Music Center between 1977 and 1998.9 A spin-off from the San Francisco Folk Music
Club, Plowshares offered nurturing support for a community centered around music at a time when there were few folk music venues. For some people, Plowshares was another gig, another concert. Yet, for others, Plowshares was "too good to be true;" a place to woo your future mate, gain some music business chops, make friends, raise children, or help you be ready to face next week.10 Plowshares drew from and strengthened a network of acoustic-folk music communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, across the nation, and through time. Although Plowshares is long gone, the relationships forged among volunteers, performers, and audience members contribute to the sense of community that exists in many similar music places today.
The people who founded and nurtured Plowshares retained many of the counterculture values of the late 1960s: egalitarianism, participation, peaceful anarchy,
DIY (do-it-yourself), heritage, and music. Although Plowshares ceased operations in
1998, the volunteers, performers, and audience members brought forward many of these values as they continued their musicking elsewhere, sharing their passion for music and
9 San Francisco Folk Music Club, the folknik 12, no. 6 (November/December 1976) through 34, no. 5 (January/February 1998).
10 Patterson, Informal ethnographic interview, February 26, 2014; Dick Holdstock, "Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series Survey," collected by Susan Wageman (unpublished, 2015); Dick Holdstock, personal communication; Redmond O'Connell, personal communication; Kate Wolf & Wildwood Flower, Kate Wolf, Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series, recorded April 16, 1978 at Fort Mason in San Francisco, unpublished concert recording [incomplete], cassette, 22 minutes.
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utilizing the power of music to promote social justice and a better world. This thesis focuses, in particular, on Plowshares as a place of music making that built and nurtured community; and contributes to an expanding literature about music and places of music making that build community and function as community centers.
The tendency of music places to foster community has attracted scholars from a variety of disciplines. Historians, ethnomusicologists, folklorists, sociologists, journalists, and musicians bring unique perspectives to their accounts of music places that somehow become more than just a venue to hear (or play) music. Sociologist Ruth Finnegan's ethnography of local, grass roots music-making in Milton Keynes, UK, uncovered the pervasiveness of music-making in the city and the often hidden systems that promote and sustain deep, complex, and interconnected networks of music makers.11 Finnegan's
description of the music communities that she found in the early 1980s could describe
many aspects of current music making communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Folk
critic, singer, songwriter (and one-time performer at Plowshares) Scott Alarik offers "the
fan's perspective" with his decade-deep (1992-2002) series of stories that collectively
illustrate how people in modern folk music communities are connected and perceive music as a tool for change.12 Folklorist Jocelyn Arem, musicologist Tanya Su-Kyung
Lee, and historian Paul Malkoski examine venues that emerged during the folk revival of
11 Ruth H. Finnegan, The Hidden Musicians: Music-Making in an English Town, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
12 Scott Alarik, Deep Community: Adventures in the Modern Folk Underground, Cambridge: Black Wolf Press, 2003, 1.
5
the 1960s, evolved over time, and continue to thrive as community centers today.13
Mildred Rahn's folkloristic study of Club 47 in Boston looks back nearly half a century at an iconic folk revival era venue that lasted only ten years (1958-1968). She found that, after more than thirty years, a strong sense of community still exists among many of the
people who were involved.14
Plowshares was a west coast node in the network of coffee houses, churches,
colleges and clubs across America that supported local and touring musicians by
providing performance space and an audience. Friends recruited friends to help put on the
show, learning the ropes along the way. Community values helped create a sense of
family, belonging, and ownership—and created challenges when there was a need for
leadership and action. Although the ethos of the counterculture may have been effective
in building community, it was less effective as a framework for organizing within a
capitalist society. Ultimately, gentrification in the city drew many folkies from San
Francisco to the East Bay and pushed Plowshares out of Fort Mason Center. Furthermore,
other venues in the region were more convenient and professionally run. Plowshares
13 Jocelyn Arem, "Forty-Seven Years on 47 Phila Street: From Radical Homespace to Third Place: The Life and Lasting Legacy of Caffe Lena---America's Oldest Continuously Running Folk Coffeehouse" (M.A. thesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2008), ProQuest Dissertations Publishing; Tanya Su- Kyung Lee, "Music as a Birthright: Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music and Participatory Music Making in the Twenty-First Century" (Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011), ProQuest Dissertations Publishing; Paul Alexander Malkoski, "Folk Music in Denver" (M.A. thesis, University of Colorado at Denver, 2007), ProQuest Dissertations Publishing; Paul A. Malkoski, The Denver Folk Music Tradition: An Unplugged History, from Harry Tufts to Swallow Hill and Beyond, Charleston, SC: History Press, 2012.
14 Mildred Louise Rahn, "Club 47: An Historical Ethnography of a Folk-revival Venue in North America, 1958-1968" (M.A. thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2003), ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
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Coffeehouse was discontinued. Yet, the people of Plowshares continue to be involved with each other and the music—and many carry on the traditions today.
Defining Folk Musics
There has been an enormous amount of research on folk music. The first argument in nearly every tome about this genre is about the meaning of the term. Over time, the term "folk music" has evolved through a variety of meanings so that neither scholars nor folk music aficionados agree on a single meaning.15 To some, it is the
"music of the peasant class, ancient and anonymous."16 To others, it may be the music of a particular ethnic culture passed down through oral tradition or a recent composition in a particular style.17 Some definitions of folk music encompass a great variety of musics,
including ballads, blues, spirituals, dance tunes, nineteenth century popular songs,
gospels songs, and the works of singer/songwriters.18
Ethnomusicologists Bruno Nettl and Helen Myers use the plural term "folk
musics" to emphasize that this term actually represents a group of musical repertoires,
rather than a single type of music. They argue that America provides an unmatched
resource for the study of folk music because of our great diversity of folk musics and
15 Bruno Nettl and Helen Myers, Folk Music in the United States: An Introduction, Wayne Books Wb41 Humanities, 3d ed., Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1976, 20.
16 Pete Seeger, Michael Miller, and Sarah H. Elisabeth, Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Singalong Memoir, Rev. ed., New York: W. W. Norton, 2009, 16.
17Nettl and Myers, 11-27.
18 Ronald D. Cohen, Folk Music: The Basics. (New York: Routledge, 2006), 3 & 17.
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their constant evolution as immigrants introduce new traditions, mainstream culture assimilates heritage, and others work to revive old traditions.19
Folk music scholar Norm Cohen traces the origin of the term "folk song" to the
late seventeenth century, when scholars became interested in the broadsides and
chapbooks of songs that were popular with "common folks."20 As the pace of change
increased at the beginning of the twentieth century, preservation movements developed to
save rural music traditions that scholars thought might be lost through urbanization,
leading to the establishment of institutions such as the Archives of American Folksong in
the Library of Congress in 1928.21 In the United States, collectors such as Cecil Sharp,
Olive Dame Campbell, and John and Alan Lomax focused on rural areas, particularly in
Appalachia, the South, and the West.22 The phonograph and radio brought the Carter
Family, Jimmie Rogers, Mamie Smith, Charlie Patton, Mississippi John Hurt, Lead
Belly, Jelly Roll Morton, and others who had learned their music, through oral traditions
to the public.23
Historian Ronald Cohen offers a "working definition" of folk music that begins to
capture the nature of the music presented at Plowshares more accurately than any of these
19 Nettl and Myers, 11-19.
20 Norm Cohen, Folk Music: A Regional Exploration, Greenwood Guides to American Roots Music (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2005), xxii.
21 Nettl and Myers, 138; American Folk Life Center, "About the American Folklife Center," The American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, accessed May 6, 2013, http://www.loc.gov/folklife/aboutafc.html.
22 R. Cohen, 19-29.
23 R. Cohen, 29-38.
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definitions. He suggests that folk music is "music whose survival does not depend wholly on commercial media."24 As American folk singer and activist Pete Seeger has noted,
“America has in it as many different kinds of folk music as it has folks.” The music
comes from different countries, places (woods, plains, cities, etc.), and people with
different backgrounds (such as cowboys and "hillbillies"). Seeger defines folk music as
"a process, which has been going on for thousands of years, in which ordinary people
continually re-create old music, changing it a little here and there as their lives change."
However, he clarifies that this definition can also include new topical songs about events
and concerns of the day.25
Social scientist Ruth Finnegan, who studied local music scenes in the English city
of Milton Keynes during the 1980s, found that, despite an emphasis on learning by ear
and playing without any written music, folk singers often learned their songs from
songbooks and recordings. While some people maintained a narrow interpretation of folk
music tradition, others experimented with different instrumentation and styles, combining
folk with rock, jazz or other genres. Ultimately, Finnegan concluded, "When one comes
down to its actual realization in the local context, there can be no real definition of local
'folk music' beyond saying that it was the kind of music played by those who called
24 Norm Cohen, "Folk music," Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed October 28, 2014, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/ grove/music/A2241135.
25 Pete Seeger, "Why Folk Music?" in The American Folk Scene: Dimensions of the Folksong Revival, edited by David DeTurk and Jr. A. Poulin (New York: Dell, 1967), 46-48.
9
themselves 'folk' performers."26 In much the same vein, Plowshares founder Faith Petric
often said, "If folk sing it, it is folk music."27
The music of Plowshares, as described by Charlotte Patterson, clearly reflects
these broader definitions of folk music:
[The music was] acoustic and—so I'll just list off: Irish music, French- Canadian music, people who played ballads. They had cowboy music: Western music, I guess you'd call it, Western swing music. We had Indian music, English music. (English, you know like Holdstock and MacLeod kind of music.)28 And I'd say that covers it.
Then, she added "up and coming people," 40's swing, protest music, union music,
duos, guitarists, and Appalachian music. Throughout our conversation, Charlotte
continued adding to the list of music genres, while recalling some of her favorite
musicians who played at Plowshares (Bill Staines, Utah Phillips, Pete Seeger, Duck
Baker, J.C. Burris, the Georgia Sea Island Singers, and Suzy Thompson). Eventually,
Charlotte provided a more succinct description Plowshares' music: "traditional music,
acoustic, a lot of folk music, but a lot of music from around the world."29 Other people
who were involved with Plowshares provided similar lists of genres and performers.
26 Ruth H. Finnegan, The Hidden Musicians: Music-Making in an English Town (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 65, 68-69.
27 Faith Petric, personal communication.
28 Dick Holdstock and Alan MacLeod present English and Scottish traditional music including sea songs, chanties, and ballads. Dick Holdstock Traditional Music, "Holdstock & MacLeod," Traditional Music, website, accessed May 6, 2016.
29 Patterson, Informal ethnographic interview, February 26, 2014.
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Perspectives & Methodology
My research employed perspectives from music, history, and anthropology
(folkloristics and ethnography), as well as other disciplines represented in the diverse literature relevant to folk musics and community building. I am amazed at the vibrancy and dynamics of the complex interwoven networks that connect a great variety of music communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the globe. My friends' stories about Plowshares—and the existence of some concert recordings—inspired me to embark upon this research.
I am a participant-observer in a network of music communities (along with many of the people who were involved with Plowshares). People have shared their stories, loaned me photographs, volunteered to digitize old tape recordings, and retrieved old San
Francisco Folk Music Center records from storage to inform my research. Some stories emerged from conversations at music jams and camps. Others came from performers on stage. I conducted informal ethnographic interviews, oral history interviews, and an online survey to gather information about how different people experienced Plowshares.
The San Francisco Folk Music Club's newsletter, the folknik, provided information on the vision, development, and challenges of Plowshares, and also published Plowshares concert schedules. The San Francisco Folk Music Center's organizational papers— particularly the meeting minutes—provided detail on how the organization operated.
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Learning from the People of Plowshares and their Stories
As much as possible, I approached the research, data collection, and analysis from the emic, or insider, perspective. Although I have been connected with music most of my life as a listener, audience member, and dancer, I am new to the roles of musician, music jam host, and house concert producer. Assuming the (quite genuine) role of the curious novice seeking wisdom from the elders helped ensure this emic point of view. Although my primary focus was on participants' experiences at Plowshares, I also asked about their experiences with other venues. Since the Freight and Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley
(a venue that has been presenting folk, traditional and roots musics since 1968) was contemporaneous with Plowshares, is still operating, and presents similar musics, I probed more deeply into similarities and differences between the two venues. It seemed that comparing the two venues might reveal evidence that the Plowshares community persists today in other music communities, like the one at the Freight and Salvage.
My primary ethnographic data collection strategy was to conduct informal interviews with key informants who could help me understand both the current cultural scene centered at the Freight and the historical scene centered at Plowshares. I collected data about the types of music presented, how the venues operated, how participants perceive the scenes, their experiences, how they were involved, who they most closely associated with, and their thoughts about why Plowshares ceased operations while the
Freight continues. Most questions were open ended, which is consistent with an anthropological ethnographic approach.
12
Oral history interviews focused on how individuals became involved in
Plowshares, their experiences, how Plowshares fit into the music scenes at that time, and participants' thoughts on how Plowshares may have influenced their lives and current music scenes. Oral histories were supplemented by a lively panel discussion on "The
Early Days of Folk Music on the West Coast" hosted by Art Podell at the Folk Alliance
International Western Regional Conference on October 18, 2014. Stanford University
History Professor Estelle Freedman shared from her in-depth oral history interview with
Faith Petric, one of the three founders of the San Francisco Folk Music Center and a long-time leader of the San Francisco Folk Music Club. Singer/songwriter/activist Nancy
Schimmel shared memories of the San Francisco Folk Music Club and her mother, folk singer Malvina Reynolds (who wrote the song, "Little Boxes" to protest suburbia and middle class pressure for conformity). Folk singer Bob Reid recalled how his mother,
Betty Reid Soskin, introduced him to the San Francisco Folk Music Club and brought attention to the opportunity for a folk music center at Fort Mason.30
I conducted unobtrusive observations at the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse
during the Faith Petric Memorial on January 15, 2014—which included many people
who were involved with Plowshares.31 By observing this event, I hoped to gain some
insight into how people participate in this cultural scene—and, perhaps, some
30 Art Podell, Estelle Freedman, Nancy Schimmel, and Bob Reid, "The Early Days of Folk Music on the West Coast," recorded by Susan Wageman at the Folk Alliance International Western Regional Conference (FAR-West), Oakland, CA, October 18, 2014, digital audio recording.
31 Faith Petric was one of the three founders of the San Francisco Folk Music Center and—for more than fifty years—the driving force behind the San Francisco Folk Music Club.
13
impressions of the possible impact of Plowshares. My observations focused on timing, event patterns, participant interactions, overheard dialogue, audience participation practices, performer actions and movements, dialogue and music performed, and how
Plowshares participants were engaged in the scene.
I conducted a survey in order to reach a broader sample of people who had been involved with Plowshares. The survey used queries from the interviews, while taking advantage of the online format to pose additional specific questions to individuals who identified themselves as volunteers, performers, or booker/programmers. I recruited participants by sending personalized survey invitations to people who had performed at, or otherwise been associated with, Plowshares, explaining the research project and why I was inviting their participation. Twenty-four complete surveys were returned.
Two archival collections provide contemporary information about Plowshares
Coffee House and its relations with the San Francisco Folk Music Center and the San
Francisco Folk Music Club. One hundred forty-three issues of the San Francisco Folk
Music Club bi-monthly newsletter, the folknik, chronicle the establishment, activities, and cessation of the Plowshare Coffee House through articles, concert schedules, and event listings. the folknik is the official newsletter of the San Francisco Folk Music Club.
Although the San Francisco Folk Music Center was a separately incorporated non-profit community benefit organization, the folknik regularly reported on the Center's operations
14
and—for much of its run—prominently promoted the Plowshares Coffee House Concert
Series schedule alongside other Club activities.32
The second archival collection that informs this study is 2.8 cubic feet of San
Francisco Folk Music Center papers that were saved when the office in Fort Mason
Center was closed. Dating from 1978 through 1992, these papers include founding
documents, meeting minutes, contracts, invoices, volunteer and mailing lists, operational
procedures, promotional materials, business records, and other organizational documents.
Currently, the papers are roughly organized by subject and the business records
(primarily meeting minutes and related documents) are also organized by year. These
papers provide documentation of intent, volunteer involvement, operational practices,
financial position, and a variety of organizational opportunities and challenges.33
Sound recordings of thirty-eight concerts (some incomplete) provide a visceral, reality-based sense of the Plowshares experience. Most of the recordings include the patter between songs, performers bantering with the audience, sing-a-longs, and the request at the end of the performance for audience members to help stack the chairs.
Although a relatively small sample, compared to the 686 concerts that were presented over a span of 20 years, these recordings represent a variety of musics and demonstrate the familiarity between performers and audience in a way that recollections cannot.
32 San Francisco Folk Music Club, the folknik 12, no. 6 (November/December 1976) through 34, no. 5 (September/October 1998). 33 These papers were collected by Folk Music Center board member Charlotte (Gerst) Patterson immediately prior to closing the office and are currently in possession of the author. Currently, the papers are roughly organized by subject and the business records (primarily meeting minutes and related documents) are also organized by year. Business papers have been scanned by year. Citations in the format: "SF Folk Music Center Papers, year, #" indicate the year of the papers and the page within the scanned set.
15
These primary sources reveal an organization that flirted with anarchy, depended upon volunteers and self-identified leaders, and nurtured a community centered on music, participation, and a commitment to social justice. The story about how Plowshares came to be, how it was operated, what the experience was like, and why it ended offers a brief glimpse into the complex interwoven networks that connect a variety of music communities near, far, and through time. The connections between the San Francisco
Folk Music Center, the San Francisco Folk Music Club, and the Freight and Salvage
Coffee House are the most visible. This study only begins to reveal some of the networks that connect the people of Plowshares with the broader networks of folk music communities worldwide.
16
THE PEOPLE BRING THEIR MUSICS AND MUSIC BUILDING COMMUNITY
Plowshares was a child of the 1960s folk music revival and the countercultural movements of that era. However, its heritage goes back further. Diverse people have been drawn to the San Francisco Bay Area from all around the world, pushed and pulled by social and economic forces. Although the use of music to effect change did not originate in the Bay Area, the idea has been embraced by the people who have lives here (as it has been embraced throughout the world). Since people who are interested in particular types of music tend to be attracted to the venues where they can hear those musics, there is an opportunity for communities to develop around performance venues and other places where music is shared. Just as communities gathered at folk revival venues in the past and gather at similar venues in the present, Plowshares attracted a community centered around folk musics.
Many Music Traditions in the Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area has been attracting diverse peoples pursuing their dreams of freedom, economic security, adventure, and new lives throughout its recorded history. The shifting demographics of the region over time reflect wars, famines, economic booms and busts, new technologies, perceived opportunities, and changing ideologies—not just locally, but also nationally and worldwide. As cultures meet, clash, blend, and change, the music of the region echoes these patterns.
The Gold Rush of 1848 attracted hordes of people intent on making their fortunes to California, growing the population in San Francisco grow from 1,000 to 50,000 in less
17
than ten years.34 By 1870, San Francisco was a major center of immigration, with large
Irish, German, Chinese, and Italian populations.35 By 1906, cultural pluralism had
become the norm and labor unions were the major political drivers.36 During the first half
of the twentieth century, immigrants fled Europe and Asia to find their fortunes in the
golden state; refugees from the dust bowl sought new lives in the "land of plenty;" and
more than 500,000 black and white southerners flocked to shipyards and defense plants
during World War II. Both the political left (Communists, socialists, and radical
unionists) and the right grew in the San Francisco Bay Area along with these population
booms.37
Each wave of new arrivals brought different cultural traditions, political points of
view, ideas, and musics.38 Early in the twentieth century, the growth of radio and the
recording industry spread music traditions far beyond their immediate communities. 39
During the 1930s, multi-ethnic Europeans arrived with their various cultural traditions,
34 Douglas Firth Anderson, "'We Have Here a Different Civilization': Protestant Identity in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1906-1909," The Western Historical Quarterly 23, no. 2 (1992): 204, accessed March 31, 2013, DOI: 10.2307/970445.
35 Ibid., 205.
36 Ibid., 216-219.
37 Joshua Paddison, "Summers of Worry, Summers of Defiance: San Franciscans for Academic Freedom and Education and the Bay Area Opposition to HUAC, 1959-1960," California History 78, no. 3 (1999): 191, accessed March 31, 2013, DOI: 10.2307/25462565.
38 Marilynn S. Johnson, "War as Watershed: The East Bay and World War II," Pacific Historical Review 63, no. 3 (1994): 323, accessed March 31, 2013, DOI: 10.2307/3640969.
39 R. Cohen, 29-38.
18
including music; and "Okies" first brought country music to the region.40 World War II
migrants from the south brought their own versions of country music and blues.41 The post-war economy—and efforts to escape unequal social conditions—brought black
Creoles and white Cajuns from Louisiana along with their Zydeco and Cajun musics
(derived from their African and French heritages).42 Peoples from around the world
continue to seek their futures in the San Francisco Bay Area—which has become the
second most diverse region in the United States.43
Folk Music to Change the World
Dick Weissman points out that, “the tradition of songs of social complaint in this country [the United States] go back to the times of the Revolutionary War and American conflicts with British rulers. There have been songs associated with virtually every political cause and most presidential elections.”44 Nevertheless, the Communist Party in
America deserves some credit for its use of music to engage people in social change. The
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), working to create one union of all workers to
40 Johnson, 318-323.
41 Ibid., 317-323.
42 Mark F. DeWitt, Cajun and Zydeco Dance Music in Northern California: Modern Pleasures in a Postmodern World, American Made Music Series (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008), 49-51, 67-79.
43 PolicyLink and PERE, An Equity Profile of the San Francisco Bay Area Region (Oakland: PolicyLink and PERE, 2015), 7, report, accessed April 23, 2015, http://www.policylink.org/sites/default/files/ documents/bay-area-profile/BayAreaProfile_21April2015_Final.pdf.
44 Dick Weissman, Which Side Are You On?: An Inside History of the Folk Music Revival in America (New York: Continuum, 2005), 36.
19
oppose capitalism, recognized the power of music to engage workers in a cause. Setting activist messages to popular and religious tunes, the IWW issued the first edition of its
Little Red Songbook in 1909 in Spokane, Washington.45 This book became a staple at
labor rallies and on picket lines across the country—updated through approximately 37
editions to keep up with changing times and issues (and still in print).46 Socialists and
various unions followed suit, repurposing hymns and popular song tunes to advocate for
contemporary issues.47
By the 1920's professional musicians were creating their own folk songs to
support social justice and labor movements.48 Woody Guthrie is perhaps the best-known
activist folk singer of this period. Although many people think of his song, This Land is
Your Land, as a benign patriotic song, it actually was commentary on the disparities of
society. The seldom heard last three verses comment on property rights and social
inequities.49 During the depression, federal programs supported the collection of folk
45 Lee, 47.
46 Archie Green, "Preface," in The Big Red Songbook, edited by Archie Green, et al. (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr, 2007), 4; Franklin Rosemont, "Lost and Found: Other IWW Songs & Poems," in The Big Red Songbook, edited by Archie Green et al. (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr, 2007), 13-22.
47 R. Cohen, 67-70.
48 Nettl and Myers, 151.
49 One variant of the last three verses of Woody Guthrie's This Land is Your Land is:
As I went walking I saw a sign there | And on the sign it said "No Trespassing." But on the other side it didn't say nothing, | That side was made for you and me.
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people, | By the relief office I seen my people; As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking | Is this land made for you and me?
20
music field recordings and the employment of musicians, just as it supported the painting of murals by artists. Employed by the Bonneville Power Administration in 1941,
Guthrie's Columbia River songs promoted the grandeur of nature and technology coming together to bring power, water, and work to the people of Washington, while subtly offering a progressive agenda.50 Clare Donaldson argues that “American Left Wing activists” were motivated by democratic ideals rather than Stalinist ideology and that they used folk music in their activism because it "expressed the concerns, interests, values, and experiences of the American populace."51
Nobody living can ever stop me, | As I go walking that freedom highway; Nobody living can ever make me turn back | This land was made for you and me.
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND Words and Music by Woody Guthrie WGP/TRO-© Copyright 1956, 1958, 1970, 1972, and 1995 (copyrights renewed) Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc. & Ludlow Music, Inc., New York, NY Administered by Lud low Music, Inc. Used by Permission
Woody Guthrie, "This Land Is Your Land,"TRO|Essex Music Group, accessed May 7, 2013, http://www.troessexmusic.com/1/songs/this_land_is_your_land_3. Similar variations by Woody Guthrie are cited in Jeff Place and Guy Logsdon, Woody Guthrie: This Land Is Your Land - the Asch Recordings, Vol. 1 (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Folkways, 1997), p.10. Guthrie sings a variant of the first verse listed above on the accompanying recording: Woody Guthrie, "This Land Is Your Land," by Woody Guthrie recorded April 1944, matrix MA-114, on This Land Is Your Land - the Asch Recordings, Vol 1, Smithsonian Folkways, SFW 40112, 1998, CD.
50 R. Cohen, 56; James Gregory, Mark Jenkins, and Sarah Nash Gates, "The Great Depression in Washington State Pacific Northwest Labor & Civil Rights Projects: Culture & Arts During the Depression," University of Washington, accessed May 6, 2013 2013, http://depts.washington.edu/depress/ culture_arts.shtml; Mark Pedelty, "Woody Guthrie and the Columbia River: Propaganda, Art, and Irony," Popular Music & Society 31, no. 3 (2008): 329-55, University of Washington, accessed May 6, 2013, http://depts.washington.edu/depress/culture_arts.shtml; Steven M. Gelber, "Working to Prosperity: California's New Deal Murals," California History 58, no. 2 (1979): 98-127; "Woody Guthrie's Biography: 1941 - Columbia River," Woody Guthrie Foundation & Archives, accessed May 6, 2013, http://www. woodyguthrie.org/biography/biography5.htm.
51 Rachel Clare Donaldson, "Music for the People: The Folk Music Revival and American Identity, 1930— 1970" (Ph.D. diss., Vanderbilt University, 2011), ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 11-14.
21
During the 1950s and 1960s—as the Cold War and Red Scare were escalating— the popularization of traditional and seemingly traditional musics, drawing from folkloristic and progressive sources as well as singer-songwriter compositions, became known as the folk revival movement. The Weavers (Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Ronnie
Gilbert, and Fred Hellerman) had a string of folk song hits including Lead Belly's
Goodnight Irene and the African song, Wimoweh. But, their activist past and suspicion of communist associations brought their careers to a halt. Some folk musicians and collectors, including Alan Lomax, left the country to avoid potential exposure to the
House Un-American Activities Committee.52
The "folk music revival," with its plethora of bands, genres, publications,
nightclubs, coffee houses, folk clubs, hootenannies, and sing-a-longs, lasted well into the
1960's. Alongside the revivalists, activists for peace, civil rights, and social justice
emerged again—and activism in the San Francisco Bay Area often incorporated music.
Joshua Paddison argues that "grassroots activism helped change the course of politics and
protest in the Bay Area and influenced national debates on anticommunism, academic
freedom, and civil rights."53 For example, in 1960, religions leaders, students, and
activists rallied and sang in opposition to the House Un-American Activities
Committee.54 A few years later, in the mid-1960s, Joan Baez led protesting University of
52 R. Cohen, 103-113.
53 Paddison, 201.
54 Paddison, 197-199.
22
California, Berkeley students singing The Times They Are A-Changing and We Shall
Overcome. 55
Shuichi Takebayashi argues that the folk revival helped young people connect
past, present, and future visions of themselves and society. A reaction to postwar
America, it created a foundation for the "protest culture" of the 1960s.56 A participant in
the folk music revival of the 1960s, Alan Jabbour, recalls how they created "music to
express simultaneously our quest for cultural roots, our admiration of democratic ideas
and values, our solidarity with the culturally neglected, and our compulsion to forge our
own culture for ourselves."57 These sensibilities infused the "hippie culture" that emerged
in the late 1960s, centering community around music as a way of life and a means of
social change.58 The San Francisco Folk Music Club and the San Francisco Folk Music
Center that ran the Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series emerged from this culture.
Bob Dylan's electrified performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 is
sometimes credited with ending the folk music revival.59 Folk rock and San Francisco's
psychedelic rock drew on a wide range of musics from the past, while incorporating
55 R. Cohen, 153.
56 Shuichi Takebayashi, "The Making of Folk Identity: Politics, Consumption, Tradition, and Rebellion in the Folk Music Revival Movement" (Ph.D. diss., Michigan State University, 2010) , ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 7-8.
57 Alan Jabbour, "Foreword," in Transforming Tradition: Folk Music Revivals Examined, edited by Neil V. Rosenberg, xi-xiii (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993), xiii.
58 Andy Bennett, "Consolidating the Music Scenes Perspective," Poetics 32, nos. 3-4 (June 2004): 224.
59 Takebayashi, 1.
23
electric instrumentations.60 For example, Fairport Convention melded rock and roll with
traditional English folk songs to create folk rock and the Rolling Stones, inspired by
American electric blues bands, created a new form of blues-rock.61 Ultimately, other
genres emerged—punk, country and disco in the 1970s; thrash, Latin jazz, and hip hop in
the 1980s are just a few.62 By the 1980s, many of the venues that had featured folk
musics—across the country—had switched to different genres or simply gone out of
business.63 However, while other musics emerged to dominate the music industry, folk
musics did not completely disappear—and some community music centers have survived
to the present day.
Music Communities of the Revival
Many of the places where folk music was shared and presented during the folk
music revival developed as communities of mutual support for sharing musics and
promoting social change. These places presented much the same mix of folk, roots, traditional and other acoustic musics as Plowshares—and many of the same performers.
60 Takebayashi, 18; Craig Morrison, "Folk Revival Roots Still Evident in 1990s Recordings of San Francisco Psychedelic Veterans," The Journal of American Folklore 114, no. 454 (2001): 478-180.; Richard Henderson, "Billboard Spotlights: San Francisco--View from the Bridge: Diverse Sounds Connect a Music-Rich Town," Billboard, April 14, 2001, 21-26, Proquest ID (227161183).
61 Cohen, R., 129-167.
62 Bennett, 229; Thomas Robert Gruning, "Crossroads of the Ordinary: Contemporary Singer/songwriters and the Post-revival Folk" (Ph.D. diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2003), ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 7.
63 Gruning, 7-8; Malkoski, 2007, 35; Michael Francis Scully, "American Folk Music Revivalism, 1965— 2005" (Ph.D. diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2006), ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 149-151.
24
Some exist to this day. Recent scholarship is beginning to reveal some commonalities in the nature of these places.
The core activity at the Old Town School Music School in Chicago (founded in
1957) has always been lessons. However, the organization also presents concerts, festivals, and other events. Tanya Su-Kyung Lee's organizational biography explores how
Old Town was able to "foster and sustain intimate, music-based communities within its walls" despite the "tensions between the discourses of late-capitalist, corporate management styles and those of egalitarian, anti-commercialist folk revival values" engendered by its operation as a business.64 Lee found qualities similar to those of
Plowshares in Old Town: roots in early twentieth century progressive values,
expectations of participatory music experiences, an egalitarian ethos, and challenges
related to dependence on volunteers and working musicians as staff. She argues that the
greatest legacy of the twentieth century folk revivals was the introduction of musical and social processes into the American middle class.65
Caffé Lena, located in Saratoga Springs, New York, is the oldest continually
operating coffee house in the United States (founded in 1960). Jocelyn Arem describes
the historic café, prior to Lena Spencer's death in 1989, as a "radical homespace" that was
"a nurturing, alternative home-environment for generations of artists and community members in need of a place to embody, hone and display both their identities and political
64 Lee, ii.
65 Lee, iii.
25
leanings."66 As a non-profit organization today, Arem argues, Caffé Lena has become a
“third space" (as conceptualized by Ray Oldenberg) that "serves to reinforce the identity
of those seeking to find acceptance, social equality and a neutral ground on its stage."67
Paul Malkoski's historical account of the Denver Folk Music scene, focuses on the
Denver Folklore Center (which opened in 1962) and its nonprofit successor, the Swallow
Hill Music Association (which took over in 1979).68 He speculates on why commercial
folk music businesses have failed, while some nonprofit ventures have survived: "folk
music nonprofits worry just as much about revenue and expenses as they ever did, but
they survive because their founders and members are passionate about music and the
community. Swallow Hill CEO Tom Sharf says, 'Swallow Hill has never been a building;
it's the people. That's what matters.'"69
Mildred Rahn's folkloristic study of Club 47 in Boston looks back nearly half a
century at an iconic folk revival era venue that lasted only ten years (1958-1968).
Although the venue was best known as the club where Joan Baez, Tom Rush, and the Jim
Kweskin Jug Band started out, as she interviewed Club members, Rahn found that:
Performers and audiences came together as much for the club's social organization as for its music and, like the chicken and the egg, it was often difficult to determine which came first. Whether as amateur or
66 Jocelyn Arem, "Forty-Seven Years on 47 Phila Street: From Radical Homespace to Third Place: The Life and Lasting Legacy of Caffe Lena---America's Oldest Continuously Running Folk Coffeehouse" (M.A. thesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2008), ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 4, 10.
67 Ibid., 128.
68 Malkoski, 2012, 15, 61.
69 Ibid., 136.
26
professional musicians on stage or as nonmusicians in the audience or on staff, Club 47 members functioned as a community that encouraged both the discovery and performance of various forms of folk music and the creation of new music in the folk idiom.70
During its run, Club 47 featured a combination of stars, house bands, and amateurs;
locals and traveling acts. Most of the non-profit Club's managers were musicians or
music lovers who learned the ropes on the fly. This was a communal effort that, at times,
seemed at odds with the increasing commercialization and popularization of folk music in
society. Ultimately, the Club closed as the revival petered out, popular music tastes
shifted, and the young people ventured forth into the next phases of their lives (after
college).71
Each of these studies reveals the complexity of the scenes as situated in their
communities and broader contexts. Each of these scholars emphasizes the importance of
people and community building and how the music scenes in their studies created strong, resilient communities. Each of the studies surface tensions between the ideals of these communities and the economic realities of the broader society. Ultimately, the persistence of music scenes depends upon the production of a culture that that will engage performers, audiences, volunteers, and other supporters. Arem's "radical homespace," Oldenberg's "third space," and all the complexities of Swallow Hill's and
Old Town's communities are cultural products that must attract resources—economic,
70 Mildred Louise Rahn, "Club 47: An Historical Ethnography of a Folk-revival Venue in North America, 1958-1968" (M.A. thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2003), ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 3, 12.
71 Ibid., 187-190.
27
political, social, and human capital—in order to persist. Malkoski alludes to this in his discussion about the popularity of folk music:
Many people think that folk music now has the same appeal of authenticity that it had sixty years ago. For many fans, it is just more real, less manufactured. In the fast-paced electronic world, some people find comfort in music whose roots go back hundreds of years and embrace all cultures. And many people want to make their own music, and these places offer schools and the opportunity to meet other like-minded musicians, as well as opportunities to perform.72
Although Plowshares Coffee House concerts began well after the peak of the folk music revival, it is clear from interviews, surveys and the historical record that the community that emerged around Plowshares had much in common with these earlier music communities. The people who were involved with Plowshares appreciated many of the same musics, held similar countercultural values, and struggled with tensions between these ideals and the society in which Plowshares operated.
72 Malkoski, 2012, 136.
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SAN FRANCISCO FOLK FIND OPPORTUNITY AT AN OLD MILITARY BASE
The story of Plowshares begins with the San Francisco Folk Music Club, which
traces its origins to a small gathering of friends who began meeting to share their music interests in 1948. By the 1960s, the folk revival was in full force and Club members were dreaming of a performance venue of their own. However, their countercultural values became an impediment (and also an asset) to implementation when opportunity arose in
1976 at the decommissioned Fort Mason in San Francisco. Resourceful Club members formed the nonprofit San Francisco Folk Music Center to address Folk Music Club member concerns about the Club becoming a "legal" organization (i.e. incorporated as a nonprofit). When Plowshares opened in the new cultural center at Fort Mason, it offered new opportunities for Club members and other locals to perform, enjoy, and support folk musics—and also created a much-needed venue for musicians touring the west coast.
San Francisco Folk Music Club
San Francisco Folk Music Club founder Dave Rothkop provided a brief history of the Club in the third issue of the Club's newsletter, the folknik (March 1965):
The San Francisco Folk Music Club was the legitimate child of Hiroshima and the Cold War. Believing that music is the one language capable of transcending national egotism, a small group of idealistic and not very musically gifted high schoolers began meeting in each others' homes in 1948. We played the limited number of folk 78's available at the time (mostly Burl Ives, Marais and Miranda, Tony Kraber—and, Bela Bartok!), sang together, and pretended to be amateur musicologists. … [In 1949] We even attracted a live guitarist in the person of Guy Hudson, soon to replace me as Club president. Now there were enough real singers around for cacophonists such as myself to begin humming gently or just keep time. Harmony began—and dating and courtship and all the other
29
"secondary" reasons for the Club's existence. … We didn't end the Cold War, unfortunately, but perhaps this world is a somewhat better place because we pursued our dream of mutual understanding through music.73
The primary activities of the Club in the mid-1960s were bi-weekly "sings" at
Presidio Hill Elementary School in San Francisco (where "members have opportunities to sing and play together, to swap chords and strums") and performances for hospitals, service men's clubs, churches, and other community centers.74 In the first issue of the folknik (March 1964), Faith Petric discussed a variety of new activities that the Club might sponsor, including concerts, classes and workshops, and social events. Although it took some time to implement, the Club began hosting house concerts in Faith Petrics's and other members' homes in 1970.75 Petric's greatest concern, expressed in this article,
seemed to be that the Club might have to "establish a legal entity" (i.e. become a
nonprofit organization) in order to purchase liability insurance to protect "both Presidio
Hill School and Club Members against a variety of possible liabilities. (Like falling off
swings?)."76 The article does not indicate if insurance was required by the school or if
some incident had sparked the potential need for insurance. However, it is clear that the
73 Dave Rothkop, "The Way It All Began," the folknik 1 no. 3 (March 1965): 1.
74 Faith Petric, "The Future Lies Ahead," the folknik 1 no. 1 (October 1964): 1; David Eskenazi, "In the Larger Community," the folknik 1, no. 1 (October 1964): 3; [San Francisco Folk Music Club], "Meetings," the folknik 1, no. 1 (October 1964): 4.
75 Genny Haley, "San Francisco Folk Music Club Brings Good Music Into The Home," the folknik 6. no. 3 (March/April 1970): 1.
76 Petric, the folknik (October 1964): 1.
30
idea of becoming "legal" was not appealing. The resolution of this concern is not captured in the record. The Club eventually incorporated as a non-profit in 1997.77
West Coast Circuit
Folksinger/songwriter/activist John McCutcheon credits McCarthyism for his career and the network of coffeehouses that host folk music performances across the nation. As he describes it, when the Weavers were blacklisted during the Red Scare and could no longer get work, Toshi Seeger (Pete Seeger's wife) called all the folk song societies, churches and other small venues across the United States—asking them to book
Pete. This created a network of places around the country that brought folk singers to perform in these community spaces.78
However, as the folk revival wound down, touring—and attracting performers
from afar—became more difficult. In 1969, Lou Curtiss, owner of Folk Arts Rare
Records and a sponsor of folk festivals and blues performances in the San Diego area
reached out to the San Francisco Folk Music Club.79 He let them know that Bill Nunn,
owner of The Heritage Coffee House at Mission Beach in San Diego, wanted to "bring
some groups down," and that he was "willing to be southern anchor for a West Coast
Folk Circuit which would make it possible for all of us to get and hear some of the
77 San Francisco Folk Music Club, Articles of Incorporation of the San Francisco Folk Music Club, 1995.
78 John McCutcheon, live performance at the Freight & Salvage Coffee House, Berkeley, January 9, 2015.
79 Tom Waits Library, "The Heritage," accessed October 29, 2015, http://www.tomwaitslibrary.info/ heritage.html.
31
Eastern folk nobody can afford to get out on a one-shot basis, as well as using our own folk more fully and getting money in their pockets, the better to eat with, my dear."80
Similarly, T.W. Mitchell, from the Seattle Folklore Society, wrote to the San Francisco
Folk Music Club in 1971, suggesting that they share information on their concert
bookings in order to "expand our list of performers who might be traveling on the West
Coast," since they could not afford the cost to bring performers from the East coast.81
Fresno Folk Festival organizer Harry W. Hart learned of the west coast circuit from musicians playing a benefit for the Fresno Folk Music Club. He considered the circuit an opportunity to "save all of us a lot of money and provide the performers with more than one or two concerts, so they make more money and it would be worthwhile to come longer distances."82 Musicians also contributed to development of the circuit. The
musician's cooperative, Wildwood (initially, Rosalie Sorrels, U. Utah Phillips, John
Roberts & Tony Barrand, Jack McGann, Bill Vanaver, and Bob White), was organized to
cut out the middle men (managers and agents) by working directly with venue bookers
and promoting each other on the circuit.83 By 1972, folk clubs, coffee houses, colleges, and other presenters of "folk-type" musics were organized enough that the folknik
80 San Francisco Folk Music Club, "Khrome Kazoo," the folknik 5, no. 2 (March 1969): 1; Lou Curtis, "Recordially, Lou Curtiss: We Had Some Great Concerts Back Then," San Diego Troubador, September 2010, 5.
81 T.W. Mitchell, "Letter to the San Francisco Folk Music Club, Jan. 22, 1971," the folknik 7, no. 1 (January/February 1971): 6.
82 Harry W. Hart, "Fresno," the folknik 7, no. 6 (November/December 1971): 7.
83 San Francisco Folk Music Club, "Wildflowers," the folknik 7, no. 6 (November/December 1971): 5.
32
ventured to call it another "revival."84 When The Vancouver Folk Song Society opened
their coffee house, The Open Door, in 1977, the Plowshares' organizers envisioned that
their coffee house at Fort Mason would become part of this music network.85
Art Peterson, an active volunteer who helped with sound, booking, promotion,
and many other activities, recalls how, in the early days, Plowshares (which could seat as
many as 300 people) provided a critical link on the west coast for traveling musicians. He
contends that musicians from afar, such as the English singer, Frankie Armstrong (who
played Plowshares in 1979 and conducted a singing workshop at the Folk Music Center
in 1981) would not have come to the San Francisco Bay Area at all if not for
Plowshares.86 Activities Coordinator Greg Kemble explained, in a 1981 volunteer
recruitment article, that "the Center and Plowshares provide a valuable link in the chain of music events here on the West Coast."87
John McCutcheon came to San Francisco for the first time in 1981 when Faith
Petric invited him to perform at Plowshares. Today—as in the past—concert, dance, and
festival organizers in the region often work together to attract performers from far way by
84 San Francisco Folk Music Club, "What's Going On Anyway?" the folknik 8, no. 1 (January/February 1972): 1; Cindy Wooten, "… Interested in setting up folk music circuit …" the folknik 9, no. 3 (May/June 1973): 4.
85 Redmond O'Connell, "And Up in Vancouver, British Columbia," the folknik 13, no. 2 (March/April 1977): 7.
86 Peterson, Informal ethnographic interview, February 24, 2014; [San Francisco Folk Music Center], "Plowshares," the folknik 15, no. 4 (July/August 1979): 1; [San Francisco Folk Music Center], "Plowshares," the folknik 17, no. 4 (July/August 1981): 2.
87 Greg Kemble, "The Center Needs You!!" the folknik 17, no. 6 (November/December 1981): 2.
33
providing multiple gigs in the area. When musicians tour the West Coast, they often
follow along the coast playing in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle—and
sometimes various places in between. Without San Francisco, there would be a long haul
to the next stop—and the next paying gig.
Swords to Plowshares: Army Base to Cultural Center
Fort Mason served as a military base for two hundred years before its conversion
to civilian use (photo 1). Located on San Francisco Bay, just inside the Golden Gate, it
was a major shipping port for the
United States Army between 1915
and the 1950s.
Known as the San Francisco
Point of Embarkation, during World
War II, 1.6 million military men and
women and more than 23.5 million Photo 1. Detail of Lower Fort Mason c.1951. Fort Mason History Walk, A Reflection of History through Time: A 19th Century Army Post on a San Francisco Bluff, U.S. Department ship tons of material passed through of the Interior, National Park Service, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, 2013, 14. Courtesy of Golden Gate NRA, Park this port. Fort Mason and several Archives, TASC Negative Collection, GOGA 35301.
other military sites in the Bay Area were deemed surplus by the military in the 1960s.
Fort Mason is now a part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which was established in 1972 as the nation's first urban National Park.88
88 Rothman, 164-166; National Park Service, Fort Mason Center History Tour.
34
Bill Whalen, the park's first superintendent, was very sensitive to the political nature of converting military property to civilian use. He recognized that long term success would require public support. San Francisco had a long history of progressivism
(embracing liberalism, environmentalism, and populism) that could either help or hinder the project.89 Activist coalitions had stopped plans for a major freeway that would have
connected to the Golden Gate Bridge in 1959; and, in 1965, stopped a freeway that would
have traversed the Western Addition (a predominantly African American neighborhood) and Golden Gate Park.90 In 1970, activists led by Amy Meyer organized against a Federal
Government plan to build a warehouse for the National Archives on surplus Department
of Defense property in San Francisco's Richmond District because it was incompatible
with the residential nature of the neighborhood.91
During the 1970s, San Francisco was in flux. The economic base had been shifting from blue-collar to white-collar for some time. 92 Disinvestment in the inner city
and increases in non-traditional and "bohemian" populations were creating opportunity
89 Richard Edward DeLeon, Left Coast City: Progressive Politics in San Francisco, 1975-1991, Studies in Government and Public Policy (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1992), 32-33.
90 G. William Domhoff, "Why San Francisco Is (or Used to Be) Different: Progressive Activists and Neighborhoods Had a Big Impact," November 2011, accessed April 19, 2014, http://whorulesamerica.net/ local/san_francisco.html.
91 Amy Meyer and Randolph Delehanty, New Guardians for the Golden Gate: How America Got a Great National Park (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), xiii.
92 Brian J. Godfrey, Neighborhoods in Transition: The Making of San Francisco's Ethnic and Nonconformist Communities, University of California Publications in Geography (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 123.
35
for gentrification in the city's neighborhoods.93 Since the 1960s, pro-growth forces had
dominated the city's development. During the 1970s, 16 million square feet of office
space was built, with projections for 20 million more in the next decade; and tourism was
fast becoming the city's biggest business.94 By the late 1970s, as Whalen prepared for
development of the Fort Mason property, a slow-growth movement was emerging in the
city.95 So, Whalen and his staff engaged broadly with people in all sectors—from business to the arts.96 By fostering collaborations with park neighbors, Whalen helped create a sense of local ownership and a groundswell of support.97
When the Army turned Fort Mason over to the National Park Service, it featured
derelict piers and dilapidated buildings that would cost millions to rehabilitate.98
Whalen's solution was to partner with private nonprofit organizations that would be better positioned to secure public support than the Federal government.99 In this spirit, the
nonprofit Fort Mason Center was incorporated to manage Lower Fort Mason.100 The
adaptive reuse of the historic structures and development of Fort Mason as a cultural
93 Ibid., 176-177.
94 Charles Wollenberg, Golden Gate Metropolis: Perspectives on Bay Area History (Berkeley: Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, 1985), 328-329.
95 DeLeon, 10.
96 Meyer & Delehanty, 128-130.
97 Ibid., 232.
98 Ibid., 233.
99 Ibid., 234-235.
100 National Park Service, Fort Mason Center History Tour.
36
center was a response to identified local and regional community needs.101 The Park's
advisory commission determined that the programs at Fort Mason should "reflect the
region's diversity and be available at low cost or free of charge."102
The National Park Service strategy to transform the former military base into a
cultural center ultimately resulted in the founding of the San Francisco Folk Music
Center by members of the San Francisco Folk Music Club—and the twenty year run of
Plowshares Coffee House at Fort Mason.103
Opportunity for an Organization
Folk Music Club member Bob Reid learned about the opportunity to get space in the new cultural center at Fort Mason from his mother Betty Reid Soskin. When he took the idea to the Club, it sparked some excitement, but there was great concern that only
nonprofit organizations could participate. Reid recalls the reaction of Club members,
"There was a huge discussion. … They were not a nonprofit organization. They didn't
really have a legal standing and there were people who did not want to have one."104
This aversion to organization and becoming a legal entity certainly was no surprise. Reid recalls his first experience with the Folk Music Club. In 1970 or 1971 his
101 Rothman, 164-166.
102 Meyer & Delehanty, 235.
103 San Francisco Folk Music Club, the folknik 12, no. 6 (November/December 1976) through 34, no. 5 (September/October1998).
104 Bob Reid in Podell, et.al.
37
mother called him in Lake Tahoe, where he was living at the time saying, “There's this group of people you have to meet. You have to come down for this."105 He says that his
experience camping with the Club members at Kirby Cove (near the Golden Gate Bridge
in Marin County) changed his life:
Because it was a group of people who, they were anarchists, really. They believed that you don't need to have rules. That people can be trusted to do the right thing. That leadership can come from whoever is available to lead. So at our camp outs we had Ralph.
Ralph was, Ralph existed because at one of the camp outs, a ranger at the state park came over and said, "Well, who's in charge here?"
People said, "Well, Ralph."
"So, ok, well, where's Ralph?"
"Right there. Go over and talk to Ralph."
It was that everybody's Ralph. So, you just picked it up and you were in charge. The Board meetings, everybody who came to meetings was on the Board. That's the way it was. So, that experience, I didn't realize until I didn't have that experience in my life how powerful it was and how much I missed that. The idea that everyone was trustworthy and worthy of picking up the responsibility. So, I am ever thankful for that experience.106
The San Francisco Folk Music Club was an all-volunteer collective with a passion
for radical inclusiveness. Club members were used to finding ways to work with the
resources at hand. However, enthusiasm for the project could not overcome the members'
aversion to formal organization. Ever resourceful, Club leaders addressed this conflict by
creating a new organization, the San Francisco Folk Music Center, to apply for space in
105 Ibid.
106 Ibid.
38
the new cultural center. This allowed the Club to continue operating as it had for so many years—without the perceived restrictions and limitations of becoming a "legal entity."
Emergence of the San Francisco Folk Music Center
Although the San Francisco Bay Area was a center for the folk revival movement during the 1960s and early 1970s, it was not until 1977 that the San Francisco Folk Music
Center and Plowshares emerged—sparked by the opportunity at Fort Mason. A notice in the November/December 1976 issue of the folknik, encouraged members to help Paul
Foster develop a proposal to the Fort Mason Foundation regarding a concert series and other folk-music related activities that would be appropriate for the cultural center envisioned for the new urban National Park:
We are submitting a proposal with suggestions for a possible concert series; the beginnings of a folk-music switchboard (who plays what, who needs what); an outreach program to prisons, hospitals, schools, music instruction; and (dream of the future) a coffee house. … Come on in! There is room for any number of folk-music related activities if there are people to get & keep 'em going.107
This is the first mention in the San Francisco Folk Music Club's official newsletter of the project that spawned Plowshares Coffee House at Fort Mason. The vision captured in this notice was clearly inspired by places like Izzy Young's Folklore
Center in New York's Greenwich Village, the Old Town School of Folk Music in
Chicago, and Harry Tufts' Denver Folklore Center—all of which opened between 1957
107 San Francisco Folk Music Club, "SFFMC Gets Involved," the folknik 12, no. 6 (November/December 1976): 8.
39
and 1961. Each of these establishments became community centers for musicians and others who cared about folk and related musics.
Although different in each incarnation, these were places where audiences experience different musics; musicians and organizers developed their crafts; and traveling musicians connected with people in the local area. In addition to concerts, many of these organizations offered lessons; and the Folklore Centers were also music stores.108
If the San Francisco Folk Music Center had fully developed as proposed, Plowshares
would have been its concert series.
In some ways, Plowshares Coffee House was more closely similar to folk music
venues like Club 47 in Boston, Massachusetts (which operated from 1958 to 1968), Café
Lena in Saratoga Springs, New York (which opened in 1960), and the Freight & Salvage
Coffeehouse in Berkeley, California (which opened in 1968). The primary business of
these venues was presenting concerts. They featured musics similar to those presented at
Plowshares—and sometimes the same musicians.109
The San Francisco Folk Music Center Articles of Incorporation were signed on
June 19, 1977 by Charles Fenton, Horace Browder, and Faith Petric, all active leaders in
108 Malkoski, 2012, 33. Lee, 68,78.
109 Michael Francis Scully, "American Folk Music Revivalism, 1965—2005" (Ph.D. diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2006), ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 136-137; Jocelyn Arem, "Forty-Seven Years at 47 Phila Street: America's Oldest Continuously Running Folk Coffeehouse," VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore 34, no. 1/2 (2008): 12-18; "Home of Traditional Music: Freight & Salvage Coffee House," Berkeley Society for the Preservation of Traditional Music, accessed January 14, 2014, http://www.freightandsalvage.org; the folknik November/December 1976 through September/October 1998.
40
the San Francisco Folk Music Club.110 An article in the folknik explained the relationship
between the San Francisco Folk Music Center and the San Francisco Folk Music Club.
Sponsorship of an SFFMCenter at the Old Fort Mason army embarkation center has been talked about for well over a year—and so has a coffee house. These weren't being seen as a common endeavor, but it's rather neatly turned out that way and Yipee! The SFFMCenter is a legal entity (a California non-profit corporation no less) quite separate from the SFFMClub (which is no legal entity at all). But the SFFMClub sponsors the SFFMCenter (confusing? sorry) so it's still us, kids. Same old folks, just taking on more work is all.111
Although the Center's Articles of Incorporation merely list the organizational
purpose as "educational," the exemption application submitted to the State of California
Franchise Tax Board on September 22, 1978 lists the Center's primary activity as
"Encouragement and presentation of folk music (educational)" and its purpose was to be a center where:
1. Information on folk music activities could be gathered and exchanged;
2. The public could be exposed to the folk music of North America and the British Isles, and other traditional musics and instruments, on a regular basis at modest cost;
3. Local folk musicians could be encouraged and assisted in the development of their craft, and travelling musicians of special merit enabled to present their music in the Bay Area;
4. One or more free festivals could be promoted and put on annually featuring folk music;
110 San Francisco Folk Music Center, Inc., Articles of Incorporation, San Francisco Folk Music Center, Inc., June 19, 1977.
111 [San Francisco Folk Music Center], "We're at the Fort Mason Center," the folknik 12, no. 6 (November/December 1977): 1.
41
5. Local folk musicians can be assisted in performing and bringing their music to schools and institutions.112
These aspirations reflect both the ideas in the original folknik notice about the Fort
Mason opportunity—and the agenda that Faith Petric articulated for the Folk Music Club in the first issue of the folknik.113
112 San Francisco Folk Music Center, Inc. (ID: 817743), "Founding Documents," Sacramento, 1978, 6. (Registry of Charitable Trusts, Office of the Attorney General, Department of Justice, State of California), accessed April 14, 2013, http://rct.doj.ca.gov/Verification/Web/Search.aspx?facility=Y.
113 Rothkop, 1; Faith Petric, "The Future Lies Ahead," the folknik (October 1964): 1.
42
A BRIEF HISTORY OF PLOWSHARES COFFEE HOUSE CONCERT SERIES
The San Francisco Folk Music Center operated the Plowshares Coffee House
Concert series for twenty years—presenting 686 concerts and dances between 1977 and
1998. Sixty-five percent of these were presented during the first five years. During the final decade the number of concerts each year ranged from eighteen to one. When I began research on Plowshares, many people were surprised that it had lasted so long. Most were familiar only with the span of years when they were involved, as audience, performers, or volunteers. Only a few of the people who shared their stories with me were involved
(sometimes off and on) from beginning to end.
Charlie Fenton first told me about Plowshares. He was a founder of the San Francisco Folk Music Center and deeply involved with Plowshares through January 1984, when he resigned from the Folk Music Center Board.114 My initial perception was that Plowshares had lasted for about five years.115 Each person who shared their Plowshares stories with me brought new perspectives, based upon their interests,
Photo 2. Charlie Fenton calling experiences, and memories of the past. Articles in the folknik a contra dance, undated. Courtesy of Charlie Fenton. and the Folk Music Center papers bring the perspectives of that
time to light. This brief history of Plowshares shares some of these stories, follows its
114 Minutes, December 6, 1983, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1983, 24.
115 Personal conversations.
43
evolution over time, and assesses some of the social and economic forces that brought the series to an end.
1977-1980: Launching Plowshares and Organizing the Organization
The initial efforts of the San
Francisco Folk Music Center focused on producing concerts and figuring out how to run this non-profit business. On November
6, 1977, the Plowshares Coffee House
Concert Series debuted with a benefit concert featuring some of the finer musicians in the region—all active members of the San Francisco Folk Music Club
(figure 1).
The "Plowshares Coffee House
Concert Series," was named to reflect
Isaiah's prophecy of peace from the Bible that "they shall beat their swords into Figure 1. First Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series listing, November 6, 1977. the folknik 12, no. 6 plowshares," a fitting name for a music (November/December 1977): 1. Courtesy of the San Francisco Folk Music Club.
44
venue located on a former military base.116 The "concert series" moniker seems to reflect
the both the centrality of concerts to the endeavor and the less-than-permanent aspect of
the place itself. Whereas a typical coffee house is primarily a place to get a cup of coffee
and may or may not have music, Plowshares was first and foremost a series of concerts.
Over time, Plowshares became a place where people came together to hear many
different musics. The diverse populace in the Bay Area ensured both diverse local talent and audiences with interests in a variety of musics. Plowshares provided a place for San
Francisco Bay Area folks to connect with cultural roots of all sorts.
Plowshares presented seven concerts in November and December 1977; forty-six in 1978; forty-nine in 1979; and eighty-four in 1980.117 The programming included
traditional music representing a diversity of cultures; popular music with traditional roots
(such as bluegrass, country, Western swing, ragtime and jazz); work songs about
railroads, cowboys, and the sea; and topical songs about inequities in society and the need
for change.118
Initially, concerts were scheduled on Sundays, to avoid competing with other
venues.119 Most were in Room 2-G, Building 312, a space that could accommodate about
116 “Isaiah 2.4,” The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, King James Version. New York: American Bible Society, 1999. www.bartleby.com/108/, accessed May 7, 2013.
117 San Francisco Folk Music Club, the folknik 13, no.6 (November/December 1977) through 16, no. 6 (November/December 1980).
118 San Francisco Folk Music Club, the folknik 12, no.6 (November/December 1976) through 34, no. 5 (September/October 1998).
119 Lilith, "Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series Survey," collected by Susan Wageman,. (unpublished, 2015).
45
40 people.120 Before the end of the second year, Board member and founder Charlie
Fenton was advocating for the
Center to pursue negotiations for an
expanded, permanent space that
could be used on a full-time basis
as a coffee shop, music store, and
activity center.121 In September
1979, the concerts were moved
to room 3-H (later renumbered 300)
in Building 312/C (photos 3 and Photo 3. Building C, home of the San Francisco Folk Music Center and Plowshares Coffee House, c.1984. Stephen J. Farneth, 4).122 Hisashi B. Sugaya, David P. Wessel, and Gordon O. White, San Francisco Port of Embarkation Historic Structure Report, Golden Gate National Recreational Area, National Park Service, 1991, 57. Thursday concerts were Courtesy of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Park Archives (Golden Gate NRA D262).
added in December 1979; and in Note the Plowshares sign hanging from the awning at the far end of the loading dock. May 1980 Plowshares began
offering dances (Jewish jazz,
contra, country swing, and square Photo 4. Plowshares Coffee House sign, 2016. Photo by Susan B. dancing for a start) on some F. Wageman.
Thursdays.123 Peter Persov, who played for contra dances with Brad Foster, Stan Kramer
120 San Francisco Folk Music Club, the folknik 12, no.6 (November/December 1977) through 14, no. 6 (November/December 1979); Art Peterson, personal communication.
121 SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1979, 5, 37, 41-42; SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1980, 1-2, 16, 21-22.
122 [San Francisco Folk Music Center], "The San Francisco Folk Music Center …," the folknik 15, no. 5 (September/October 1979): 1.
46
and Derek Booth recalls, "It was a lot of fun! I think the dancers said that the concrete floor was hard to dance on, but they still enjoyed it."124
Art Peterson installed a sound
system and Dean Pratt led a group of
volunteers who built the stage (photo 5),
both improving the performance space,
and qualifying the Center for a 25%
discount on the room rental rate.125
Photo 5. Faith Petric and the Clayton Street Singers, According to one performer who played San Francisco Free Folk Festival, c.1982. From left to right: Faith Petric, Carlo Calabi, Peter Kessler, Gail Fratar, Plowshares in the early 1980s, "I recall and Steve Scott. This is the same stage used for Plowshares concerts. Photo by and courtesy of Jeff Crossley. that the sound system was good and well
run, the stage was high enough to be able to see and perform to all of the audience. I don't
recall the acoustics but I don't have any negative memories in that regard." 126
Now, Plowshares was one of the largest venues presenting folk music in the
greater Bay Area. Although it was possible to seat 300 to 400 people in this expanded
space, the typical audience was 60 to 125. La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley could seat
123 San Francisco Folk Music Club, the folknik 14, no. 6 (November/December 1979) through 15, no. 3 (May/June 1980).
124 Peter Persov, "Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series Survey," collected by Susan Wageman. (unpublished, 2015).
125 Minutes, June 4, 1980, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1980, 57; Minutes, September 3, 1980, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1980, 66.
126 Anonymous #18, "Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series Survey," collected by Susan Wageman (unpublished, 2015).
47
200 and operated five nights per week, but their focus was primarily on Latin American cultures. The Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse in Berkeley, which had a capacity of 80, also operated five nights per week, featuring a variety of musics very similar to those presented at Plowshares.127
In a document that appears to be targeted to attract musicians, Plowshares
booking coordinator Barry Smiler wrote:
Plowshares is a showcase. And our audience knows it. Even if they haven't heard of someone, they know that if a group is playing at Plowshares, they've got to be pretty good. So the audience comes out eager to listen to the music, and appreciate it. You know, at some clubs the bar comes first, your friends are second and the musicians are last. … Not at Plowshares … the energy level is incredible, and the musicians can feel it. They eat it up, I tell you, and then they'll put it right back out again; as some of the most magnificent music you ever heard in your life.128
Musicians generally liked performing at Plowshares. Suzy Thompson remembers how "the audience was always completely
'with' the performers and the people who organized Plowshares were always very welcoming—and the sound was good"
(photo 6). Unlike so many other venues in
San Francisco, it was a "listening place,"
Photo 6. The performer's view of the audience, c. 1982. Photo by and courtesy of Jeff Crossley.
127 "Bay Area Gigs as of 8/80," SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1980, 68.
128 Untitled document describing Plowshares as a concert venue, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1979, 53.
48
not a bar.129 One anonymous survey respondent agreed with Suzy's comment about the
sound, but also explained that, as a volunteer/amateur effort, "some things are worse and
some things are better than venues run by professionals."130
At her concert on April 16, 1978, Kate Wolf explained why Plowshares was important to her:
I have to soapbox a bit here to say that I'm awfully glad to see the Plowshares in San Francisco. Because, years ago, all there was was the Drinking Gourd Coffee Gallery, and a very closed society of people out of San Francisco State College who would not let outsiders play music. I was one of the outsiders. I used to go longingly to the hoots at the Coffee Gallery. It was always a trauma. But, something like this is long overdue and I think you have a great crew of people running it and I think you should give them a hand for that kind of dedication. [cheer] Absolutely. [Applause] Thank you.
You get to hear a lot of good really good people like Margaret McArthur. People who are traveling around the country who just, would not, you know. You would just not, you know, be able to really get into them like you can here if they were in some other commercial setting. Incidentally you really should not miss Margaret McArthur.131
Although the San Francisco Folk Music Center had successfully launched a
regular concert series, the organization behind the scenes was in flux. Less than two years
after the Center was incorporated, questions were raised by some Board members about
the governance structure. In February 1979, a committee was "formed to study adding
129 Suzy Thompson,, "Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series Survey," collected by Susan Wageman. (unpublished, 2015).
130 Anonymous #10 in Plowshares Survey.
131 Wolf, concert recording, April 16, 1978. Note: Margaret McArthur, on a rare visit from her home in Vermont, specialized in songs the British settlers had brought to New England. A fine singer who played dulcimer and lap harp, she was a friend of Faith Petric.
49
Directors in a manner acceptable to the Board and all persons involved in the Center."132
In the Folk Music Club, "Board Members" were the people who showed up for the
"Board Meetings." Lilith explained this practice in the folknik, "For those who don't
already know, the SFFMC [Club] does not have any elected or otherwise officially
designated officials. The Board/Work/Business meetings are attended by people who
think it's important that the Club's activities continue."133
The San Francisco Folk Music Center By-Laws designated the founding Board
Members—Horace Browder, Charles Fenton, and Faith Petric—and included procedures
for electing new Board members at each annual meeting.134 However, these procedures
were not acceptable to the more anarchistic individuals who believed in self-organization
and Ralph. As some active members of the community were unsatisfied with this
approach, several options for creating a full Board of Directors were discussed, finally
narrowing down to a choice between an elective process and a "self-selection" process.
Gail Middleton advocated for the latter:
I am opposed to the elective process, and would not like to see it instituted in our organization. I believe it unnecessary for a group of our size, and like1y to discourage the participation of innovative thinkers or busy working musicians. My proposal basically suggests that we continue our current procedures, in which the working board consists of those people who give the time and energy required to keep things running.
132 Minutes, February 1, 1979, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1979, 3.
133 Lilith, "An Open Letter – From Lilith," the folknik 17, no. 1 (May/June 1979): 8. Note: Lilith's name does not include a surname.
134 San Francisco Folk Music Center, "Founding Documents," 15-16.
50
Gail proposed that anyone could join the Board of Directors by stating their intention to serve at a board meeting, volunteering at least 48 hours per year, and attending at least half of the board meetings each year. Board members could serve unlimited terms by renewing their statement of intention each year. After the first year, the other board members could refuse renewal if the previous commitment had not been fulfilled.135
Greg Kemble simply objected to the concept of directors:
I do not recognize the authority of elected representatives nor do I open myself to the opportunities of such positions. I feel very strongly on organizations accepting and controlling the power of their authority and delegating that power specifically and directly to delegate assigned to perform specific tasks. I will not support any action that places a person in ANY position of authority nor will I support any action that places an individual in a position of being simply a "figurehead leader."136
These convictions harken back to the anarchistic ideal that self-organizing Ralphs
will take care of everything. Anyone can be a board member; everyone can be Ralph.
The initial plan was to pay a part-time office manager who would take care of
critical business needs and concert scheduling.137 All other activities would be supported
by volunteers.138 It actually took two "part-time" staff working long hours (Jane Fleming and Sue Barrera)—with the help of many volunteers—to get Plowshares up and
135 Middleton, Gail E. "To the active members of the working board," July 13, 1979 in SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1979, 59-60.
136 "Minutes Corrections," SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1980, 25-27.
137 San Francisco Folk Music Center, "Founding Documents," 5.
138 Minutes, December 11, 1978, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1978, 11.
51
running.139 The Board minutes, along with detailed workload lists prepared by staff,
make it clear that no one had considered what it would take to run the Center and
Plowshares or how much it would cost.140 In its first full year (July 1, 1978 to June 30,
1979) the Center had a net gain of $923. However, in the second year (July 1, 1979 to
June 30, 1980) the Center recorded a loss of $846.141 Although the folknik articles suggest
increasing levels of sophistication in running the San Francisco Folk Music Center, the
Board meeting minutes reflect an organization that did not have the resources—and
perhaps, also, the expertise—necessary to operate a venture on this scale.
1981-1982: Reaching for Another Level
Going into 1981, the Center was $2,744 in arrears on its rent. Fort Mason staff was pleased with the programming, but required a payment plan. Board President Lilith, wrote a stern letter to her colleagues on the Board expressing concern about the lack of attention, communication, and participation from most of the Board and bewailing that
"the SFFMCenter is currently in the midst of a 'crisis' and yet there is practically no communication between the Board members." She advocated for a paid staff person who could work with Fort Mason staff and strengthen the Center's programming.142 In March
139 Ibid., 9-14.
140 Minutes, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1978-1979.
141 Minutes, December 5, 1979, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1979, 3.
142 Lilith, letter to Fellow Board Member, dated January 15, 1981, San Francisco Folk Music Center Papers, 1981, 3.
52
1981 the Board voted to hire fellow Board member, Greg Kemble as coordinator of volunteers and activities. 143
Perhaps compounding the crisis, Barry Smiler, who had been booking Plowshares
since the summer of 1979, resigned in October 1980. According to the Folk Music Center
meeting minutes, "The reasons are many and mostly involve differences of opinion on
how bookings and the booking committee should be run."144 Smiler recalls,
There were various [booking] committee members at various times but it was mostly me. I took over from Jane Fleming, who was doing a great job but left for personal reasons. When she did it the model was "yes there was a committee but it was basically Jane," and I inherited that model. But I tried to spread it around to others as much as I could.145
Smiler strived to create "a balanced program that offered a wide variety of performers in various styles that would appeal to the different segments of the audience we were able to reach."146 However, he was constrained by Folk Music Center business
practices. Plowshares frequently lost money because performers were paid 90% of the
door, even when the remainder was insufficient to pay the rent. Yet, board members were
unwilling to change this practice.147
143 Greg Kemble, “Notes from the Center,” the folknik 17, no. 1 (January/February 1981): 2.
144 Minutes, August 16, 1979, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1979, 33; Minutes, October 1, 1980, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1980, 73.
145 Barry Smiler, "Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series Survey," collected by Susan Wageman. (unpublished, 2015).
146 Ibid.
147 Minutes, January 2, 1980, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1980, 18.
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The Board discussed Smiler's ideas on how to attract big names, but could not agree. So, no decision was made.148 Smiler recalls:
This was difficult as for most of my tenure we were constrained by the fact that Plowshares would not offer minimum-fee guarantees, so we could only book performers who would be willing to perform for no guarantee. Like the San Francisco Folk Music Club, Plowshares operated under the idea that music should be as unlinked to money as possible. While a fine sentiment this made it difficult to convince the better performers to play.149
After Smiler left, Art Peterson (photo 7) was recruited to take over booking,
perhaps because he had experience running the Waterfront Folk Club at the Peer Inn in
San Francisco.150 When Plowshares first opened, Art
was new to the area. He attended concerts and
occasionally helped with sound or selling "goodies."
The volunteer work quickly expanded:
I started booking, and then I started writing up. Since I knew the performers, it just made sense I would just write up the blurbs. Since I wrote up the blurbs, it made sense that I put together the calendar. Since I put together the calendar, it made sense that I organize the mailing party. And, also, I brought up to the committee the idea of paying performers a little bit less so we could have a fund for advertising. So, I was Photo 7. Art Peterson, c. 1982. Photo by and courtesy of Jeff Crossley. Art attended concerts, performed, and volunteered in many ways at Plowshares.
148 Minutes, April 2, 1980, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1980, 44.
149 Barry Smiler in Plowshares Survey.
150 [San Francisco Folk Music Club], "The Waterfront Folk Club," the folknik 16, no. 2 (March/April 1980): 1.
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putting together advertisements to be put in KPFA Folio and Bay Guardian.151
The Center continued to expand its programming throughout 1981, offering 105
concerts, including twenty-one dances featuring live bands and callers (i.e. dance
leaders).152 Following the folk music center model, the San Francisco Folk Music Center
began stocking some performers' records for sale and offering workshops led by
Plowshares performers. The Harmony Sisters (Alice Gerrard, Irene Herrmann·and Jeanie
McLerie) offered "Harmony Styles" and "Fiddle Styles" workshops in the afternoon
before their January 18 evening concert. Similarly, John McCutcheon offered "Shape
Note Singing" and "Hammered Dulcimer" workshops on the Sunday afternoon following
his Thursday, February 12 concert.153
In September 1981, Plowshares introduced Friday night concerts and regularly
scheduled Thursday evening dances with English Country dance on the first Thursday,
Old Time Squares on the second, New England Contra Dances on the third, and, on the
fourth Thursday an "Open Mic Dance" where anyone with an interest could to try out
calling or sitting in with the musicians.154
151 Peterson, Informal ethnographic interview, February 24, 2014.
152 San Francisco Folk Music Club, the folknik 17, no 1 (January/February 1981) through 17, no.6 (November/December 1981).
153 Greg Kemble, “Notes from the Center,” the folknik 17, no. 1 (January/February 1981): 2.
154 [San Francisco Folk Music Center], “Dancing at Plowshares,” the folknik 17 (September/October 1981):2
55
The Board began promoting the San
Francisco Folk Music Center in 1981, shifting the organizational identity from the concerts to the broadening activities of the Center. New
"San Francisco Folk Music Center" letter head was created. 155 The November/ December 1981
concert schedule in the folknik featured a new header emphasizing the San Francisco Folk
Music Center, rather than Plowshares.
However, this change lasted only a brief time.
By March 1982, Plowshares was, again, the focus of the schedule. Headers continued to change periodically until the use of artwork ceased in 1990 (figure 2).
Most of the first two pages of the
November/December 1981 folknik are devoted to Plowshares, clearly indicating a close Figure 2. Plowshares schedule headers. the folknik 17, no. 6 (November/December 1981): 2; the folknik relationship between the San Francisco Folk 18, no. 2 (March/April 1982): 7; the folknik 18, no. 4 (July /August 1982): 3; the folknik 19, no. 5 Music Club, the San Francisco Folk Music (September/ October 1983): 2; the folknik 21, no. 1 (January/ February 1985): 9. Courtesy of the San Francisco Folk Music Club.
155 Minutes, February 21, 1981, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1981, 4.
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Center, and Plowshares. Both the anniversary concert story and the plea for volunteers emphasize the diverse music presented by the Center. The volunteer story explains the importance of the Center and Plowshares for touring musicians, stating that Plowshares is the "only organization in the Bay Area designed to promote the entire scope of what we call 'FOLK MUSIC.'"156
To celebrate the fourth anniversary of Plowshares, the annual benefit concert
brought in an eclectic lineup that represented many of the traditions regularly featured at
Plowshares concerts: Jethro Burns (Django Reinhart style jazz guitar) and Tiny Moore
(western swing), Elizabeth Cotton (blues and folk guitar), Grant Street String Band (led
by Bluegrass fiddler Laurie Lewis), and Jane Voss and Hoyle Osborne ("old-time pop"
and ragtime). the folknik summarized the lineup:
Well, it should be quite an evening. Some who changed the traditions they came into, some who are keeping alive traditions older than they are. We need 'em, thank God they're all doing it.157
The projected audience of 1000 could not be accommodated at Fort Mason, so the
concert was held at Nourse Auditorium in San Francisco's Civic Center. The attendance
required to break-even on covering expenses was estimated at 593 people.158
Despite the excitement about this stellar lineup, the benefit concert—which
attracted only 310 paid admissions—ultimately drove the Folk Music Center into deeper
156 [San Francisco Folk Music Club], the folknik 17, no. 6 (November/December 1981): 1-2.
157 [San Francisco Folk Music Club], “The Astounding Anniversary Concert,” the folknik 17, no. 6 (November/December 1981): 1.
158 "Initial Proposal for Anniversary Show," SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1981, 17-18; [San Francisco Folk Music Club], “The Astounding Anniversary Concert.”
57
debt. The concert lost $1400 and, at the January Board meeting, Greg Kemble estimated a total debt of "$3000 to $4000." Furthermore, Fort Mason rents would be increasing in
March. The Center could no longer afford a paid staff person. Long-time overworked volunteers and Board members, burdened with increasing workloads, cut back their involvement or resigned. It seemed that there might not be enough Ralphs to keep the
Center and Plowshares going. Despite all these challenges, Plowshares presented 102 concerts and dances in 1982.159
1983-1988: Ending and Continuing
Instability in the leadership continued in 1983, amidst rumors that the volunteer
coordinator had left (which was true) and that the Center and Plowshares were closing.160
An entire column in the January/February folknik was devoted to a plea for help from the
Center's Board of Directors: "CHIEFS CHIEFS CHIEFS CHIEFS CHIEFS CHIEFS
CHIEFS WE WANT MORE CHIEFS! WE WANT MORE CHIEFS!" After describing the many jobs performed by just three people, they suggested, "Take (oh, please do take!) some jobs not covered at all," such as office manager, fundraising, publicity, a "business- type treasurer for Federal and State reports," sound crew, and maintenance captain.
Finally, the article noted that:
159 San Francisco Folk Music Club, the folknik 18, no. 1 (January/February 1982) through 18, no. 6 (November/December 1982). Dances moved to California Hall on Polk Street in October 1982. Plowshares continued to sponsor these dances through May 1984.
160 Minutes, January 6, 1983, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1983, 1.
58
A non-profit coffee house presenting a variety of local, national and international performers cannot meet expenses from door income held at people's prices. And even this has fallen off at Plowshares as everywhere else – Reagonomics and there's a depression on, right? 161
Six months later, the Board reported that their plea for volunteers had gone
unanswered (except for people who "would be very glad to help as long as it did not
involve spending any time)". Therefore, "if new people who are ready to make a
commitment do not come knocking on our door—(we don't know who you are and don't
have the time and energy to hunt you up)—the Center (and Plowshares) will close at the
end of 1983."162
At their August meeting the Board received the resignation of Julie Vernon, their
Treasurer. Julie had accepted the position at the beginning of the year "only on the
understanding that we must find someone to take care of the tax stuff." Although no
details were specified, "State and Federal Tax issues" were an item of concern in the
February 1983 San Francisco Folk Music Center meeting minutes.163 At the same meeting,
both Lilith and Charlie Fenton announced that they would be leaving the Board at the end
of the year. With one officer gone and two on their way out, closure of the Center and
Plowshares seemed imminent. Ralph had not responded to the emergency and a truly
leaderless future was on the horizon. Not yet ready to give up on the Center and
161 San Francisco Folk Music Center Board, "Chiefs Chiefs Chiefs Chiefs Chiefs Chiefs Chiefs We Want More Chiefs! We Want More Chiefs!" the folknik 19, no. 1 (January/February 1983): 3.
162 San Francisco Folk Music Center Board, "From the Board," the folknik 19, no. 4 (July/August 1983): 2.
163 Minutes, February 3, 1983, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1983, 3-4.
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Plowshares, the Board postponed the decision about closing to September.164 Enough
people showed up for the September meeting expressing interest in volunteering that the
Board committed to continue Plowshares for another year. Yet, the pleas for volunteers
and financial instability continued.165
Despite these challenges, the Center entered 1984 with a positive bank balance,
more key volunteer positions filled, and a Pete Seeger concert (that grossed $22,000)
scheduled at the Berkeley Community Theater to benefit Sing Out! Magazine, the San
Francisco Folk Music Center & Plowshares, and the Woodie Guthrie Foundation.166
Newly engaged board members and volunteers set out to improve business practices.
A Goals Committee (Faith Petric, William Ramsay, and Kathryn La Mar) analyzed the Center's founding documents, identified existing and proposed projects, and proposed a goals statement:
The San Francisco Folk Music Center facilitates the preservation, promotion, and performance of traditional and tradition-based music and other folk arts.167
After a long vacancy, Linda Matson joined the Board as booking coordinator in
May 1984.168 Although Linda stayed on for two years, membership coordinator Kathryn
164 Minutes, June 7, 1983, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1983, 10-11.
165 Minutes, February 3, 1983, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1983, 3-4; Minutes, September 6, 1983, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1983, 12.
166 Minutes, January 3, 1984, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1984, 1-6.
167 Minutes, February 7, 1984, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1984, 4-9.
168 Minutes, May 15, 1984, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1984, 24.
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La Mar (who also was running the record store) and Deborah Sandler (who was managing the mailing list, distributing flyers, and coordinating floor singers) both resigned in September 1984.169
In September 1986, the Center was notified that the Young Performers Theatre would take up residence in Room C-300. Although the space could be booked for
Plowshares concerts when not otherwise in use, the process would require approval by the Theatre.170 Although promising in concept, the presence of sets that could not be disturbed made it difficult to use the space for concerts. After significant investments to improve the space, "SFFMC felt 'pushed' out of 'their' space."171 Once again, the Folk
Music Center Board sent out a plea for help:
HELP WANTED: Yes, Yours! After 9 years, the San Francisco Folk Music Center is still alive and kicking! However, our Board of Directors is down to about four active members, and we need HELP! On Monday, November 3, anyone interested in joining the Folk Music Center labor force is cordially invited to attend a POTLUCK Center meeting at 7:30 PM at the Center's old office in Room 300, Building C, Fort Mason. The Board recently decided to suspend booking Plowshares concerts beyond our current season (through December) while we try to channel our energies to solve ongoing problems.172
169 Minutes, January 3, 1984, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1984, 2; Minutes, October 2, 1984, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1984, 37.
170 Memo to "Fort Mason Center Regular Users," September 1, 1986, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1986, 13.
171 Shirley Nickovich, Letter to Leila, August 17, 1987, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1986, 28.
172 "San Francisco Folk Music Center Help Wanted," flyer, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1986, 8.
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Charlotte Gerst (now Patterson) responded to one of the many pleas for help, attending her first San Francisco Folk Music Center board meeting in January 1987.173
She recalls,
There was a meeting that was probably in the folknik about how Plowshares desperately, desperately—or they had some word like desperately—needed volunteers to keep going. … So there were about five people there. Faith was there. They were talking. It was very boring and while they were talking I said you know, there's no role for me here, I cannot figure out what they—they don't need me. It was a false alarm, false fire alarm. So I got up and I said I need to go and I went down the hall. I left and Faith followed me down the hall, catches me and she says we really need you here. I said really? I can't do any of those things you've been talking about. She says, "I'll show you."174
With some new volunteers on board, Plowshares was, once again, "alive and kicking." While they sorted out the new situation at Fort Mason, the Spring 1987 (March through May) Plowshares concert series was held at 885 Clayton Street, in the Haight
Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.175 This was the home of Faith Petric, where the
San Francisco Folk Music Club held its "musical meetings" every other week.
Plowshares concerts returned to Fort Mason (a conference room in Building A) for the
fall season.176
173 Minutes, January 6, 1987, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1987, 14.
174 Patterson, Informal ethnographic interview, February 26, 2014.
175 [San Francisco Folk Music Center], "Plowshares House Concerts at 885 Clayton Street!!!" the folknik 23, no. 2 (March/April 1987): 9; [San Francisco Folk Music Center], "House Concerts at 885 Clayton St., S.F." the folknik 23, no. 3 (May/June 1987): 9.
176 [San Francisco Folk Music Center], "Plowshares," the folknik 23, no. 4 (July/August 1987): 9.
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As promised, Faith helped Charlotte learn what she needed to know to help out.
Petric also passed on some of the practices that helped Plowshares feel "cozy" in spaces that once were warehouse store rooms—and ultimately helped develop a sense of community. For example, Faith showed Charlotte how putting out the chairs in curved rows, instead of straight lines, was more inviting. From the time that audience members arrived, Charlotte would strive to make them feel welcome:
We never let anybody stand outside. "Get in here." It was cold, you know, near the water. "You can wait in here." It was just much more casual. We went around and we talked to everyone. I went down the line. I talked to everybody. I told them how much I was glad they came. You would see the same faces after a while and you just tried to make it more homelike. More like we really appreciate you coming and this is your place and it's all volunteer and if you ever want to come and help us out, you can do that too. I just tried to make everybody feel at home and when I had gone there, kind of the same thing happened. Everybody remembered your name, remembered who you were. It was cozy.177
Nevertheless, expenses frequently exceeded revenues. The need to recruit
volunteers was ongoing. Volunteers would make their best effort to help, but then step
down when the workload became too much—or when it seemed the current crisis was
over. The challenge to recruit and retain volunteers and leadership took a toll on
Plowshares. After peaks in 1981 and 1982, the number of concerts presented at
Plowshares dropped swiftly to 46 in 1985 and to 12 in 1987, then slowly declined, ending
the run with a single concert in 1998 (figure 3, next page).
177 Patterson, Informal ethnographic interview, February 26, 2014.
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# Concerts 110 105 100 102 90 84 80 70 60 60 58 50 49 44 40 46 30 25 18 18 17 20 11 5 7 6 4 10 4 3 1 7 12 0
Years
Figure 3. The number of concerts presented at Plowshares each year between 1977 and 1998. Source: San Francisco Folk Music Club, the folknik 14, no. 6 (November/December 1976) through 34, no. 6 (September/October 1998). G. William Dumhoff offers some compelling evidence regarding economic and pro-growth development pressures that seem directly linked to the fate of Plowshares and the Folk Music Center. Resistance in San Francisco to post-war, pro-growth forces emerged in the 1970s as former railroad yards, industrial complexes, and warehouses
(like Fort Mason) were redeveloped.178 In the early 1980s, during the Reagan administration, government austerity measures severely reduced public assistance,
leaving non-profits to pick up the slack.179 The City of San Francisco, perhaps in an
178 Domhoff, 2011.
179 Harder, W. Paul, Madeleine H. Kimmich, and Lester M. Salamon. The San Francisco Bay Area Nonprofit Sector in a Time of Government Retrenchment. (The Urban Institute Press: Washington, 1985), xi.
64
attempt to mollify those who were disrupted by all the redevelopment, invested in nonprofits, including the cultural sector. A 1985 Urban Institute study found that San
Francisco had the highest concentration of cultural organizations in the nonprofit sectors
(23%) of all the major urban cities that they studied.180 The San Francisco Folk Music
Center was one of the many small cultural organizations struggling to ride out the tight
economy. In December 1986, the Center had deficit of $11,204.181
The 1980s were also a difficult time for musicians in San Francisco. Over-
development, new restrictions, and competition from the suburbs, led to an economic
recession that persisted into the mid-1990s, when pressure for development returned.182
This is when the dot.com boom began feeding the economy, sparking development, increasing the cost of living, and raising rents. Rapid commercial growth pushed out low margin businesses like music recording and rehearsal studios. One closure left 500 musicians without rehearsal space. Clubs shut down. Many musicians left town.183
Plowshares undoubtedly felt this pressure as well. Perhaps the economy made it even more difficult for musicians and other folks who cared about Plowshare to volunteer.
180 Ibid., 18-23.
181 SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1986, 5.
182 Richard Hu, "To Grow or Control, That Is the Question: San Francisco’s Planning Transformation in the 1980s and 1990s," Journal of Planning History 11, no. 2 (2012): 141-60.
183 Henderson, "Billboard Spotlights."
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1989-1998: Shaking and Shifting to the East Bay
On October 17, 1989, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake, centered on Loma Prieta peak near Santa Cruz, shook the entire San Francisco Bay Area. The Bay Bridge between San
Francisco and Oakland was severely damaged and out of commission for a month.184
Only a few people made it to Plowshares to see the Andean music ensemble Inkuyo on
October 28 and Celtic harpist Kim Robertson on November 11.185
David Brown (who volunteered on the Plowshares booking committee for a
while) lived in the East Bay, where he attended shows at the Freight and Salvage Coffee
House in Berkeley regularly. However, on weekends, he would go to the San Francisco
Folk Music Club musical meeting in the city's Haight neighborhood on Friday, go to Palo
Alto for contra dancing on Saturday and shape note singing on Sunday, and then attend
the Plowshares concert at Fort Mason in San Francisco on Sunday evening before
returning to Berkeley for the week. When the earthquake closed the Bay Bridge, he, and
perhaps many others, just stopped going to San Francisco. He speculates:
[After] the earthquake in 1989. It became more tedious to get to San Francisco. And, after that we stopped going in. I felt like San Francisco was further away, even after the bridge reopened. So we stopped going to the San Francisco Contra Dance, unless it was really a special occasion. And, we stopped going to Plowshares. 186
184 "October 17, 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake" (U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, 2016), accessed July 29, 2016, http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1989/;
185 "Plowshares Concert Cash Flow Summary Sheet for Fall 1989," SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1989, 4.
186 David Brown, Informal ethnographic interview by Susan Wageman, Albany, February 23, 2014, digital audio recording, 37 minutes.
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The San Francisco Folk Music Center closed its Fort Mason office in 1991 to save the rental expense. Art Peterson and Nick Holbrook helped Charlotte Patterson dismantle the office. Charlotte recalls, "I went really quickly through the file cabinets and … Art pulled out all the pictures. … I tried to keep everything that looked controversial. (I liked that stuff when they were fighting, infighting.)"187 Charlotte pulled out "anything that
looked interesting or terribly important." She suggests, "That’s probably why we don’t
have a lot of financial records because I just found those so not interesting."188
Plowshares concerts continued at Fort Mason. A limited use agreement allowed
rental of Building F, the Firehouse, at a fixed rate of $85, use of the mailroom, and
retention of the Plowshares sign hanging outside Building C.189 The Firehouse, which
was located adjacent to the water, could seat 60 people. This was Charlotte's favorite
concert space:
We had concerts all over the place. We had them in the different buildings but my favorite was the Firehouse because the Firehouse was right on the edge of the water. It was by itself. It was cozy. It had a little place in the back for people to practice and change. It was very self- contained and I liked it better than the other places that were sort of like big monstrous places that did not have a beginning or an end to them.190
Unfortunately, there was yet another economic hurdle for the Plowshares and the
Folk Music Center to overcome. The legislation creating Golden Gate National
187 Patterson, Informal ethnographic interview, February 26, 2014.
188 Charlotte Patterson, Oral history interview by Susan Wageman, Oakland, June 3, 2014, digital audio- video recording, 56 minutes.
189 Charlotte Gerst, Letter to Marc Kasky, May 20, 1991, SF Folk Music Center Papers, 1991, 1.
190 Patterson, Informal ethnographic interview, February 26, 2014.
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Recreation Area in 1972 included the provision to add the Presidio to the park when the
Army left (at some unknown future date). When this happened in 1994, the enormous cost of operating this new unit fostered great concern about the economic viability of the park. A bipartisan effort in Congress created the Presidio Trust in 1996 with the mandate that the Presidio become self-supporting by 2013.191 That successful effort created a high
revenue commercial center at the Presidio.192 Nearby, at Fort Mason, the renovation of
dilapidated warehouses had been in progress throughout the 1980s and 1990s. As
Charlotte recalled, the area became more desirable, with its critical mass of cultural
institutions. "Hot shots" and "high society" came into Fort Mason, changing the scene.
More economically stable nonprofits moved in, and the facilities became popular for
commercial and high end events, allowing higher rents to support the facilities. Charlotte
believes that Plowshares would still be around if the rent had not been tripled. 193
The people who were involved with Plowshares noticed how gentrification in the
city encouraged migration of populations from San Francisco to cities in the East Bay.
Art Peterson recalls that the East Bay had become "more conducive to folk music." He
observed that young people in the city were moving on to new genres, while the older
people who enjoyed folk music had moved across the Bay.194
191 The Presidio Trust, "Presidio Trust Mission + Vision," San Francisco, 2013, accessed June 8, 2015, http://www.presidio.gov/about/Pages/mission-history.aspx.
192 Domhoff, 2011.
193 Patterson, Informal ethnographic interview, February 26, 2014.
194 Peterson, Informal ethnographic interview, February 24, 2014.
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An analysis of 1,642
76 Plowshares customers in 221 160 Peninsula (13%) 1988 found that only 42% San Francisco (42%) lived in San Francisco, East Bay (30%) 499 North Bay (10%) 686 while 30% lived in the East South Bay (5%)
Bay and the remainder lived on the Peninsula and in the Figure 4. Distribution of Plowshares patrons across San Francisco Bay Area regions in 1988. North and South Bay areas Source: "Plowshares Coffee House Customer Breakdown by Area," San Francisco Folk Music Center Papers, 1988, 2-6. (figure 4).195 Certainly,
today, most of the San Francisco Folk Club members who live in the Bay Area reside
outside of San Francisco—many in the East Bay.
Julie's Place—a concert series operated by the Bay Area Acoustic Arts
Association in Berkeley, took advantage of the transportation challenge caused by the
Loma Prieta earthquake by asking the folknik readers, "Is there life after the Bay
Bridge?"—
To judge from some sources, you'd never know that there were any folk concerts or dances or workshops outside of the San Francisco city limits. Well, we at JULIE'S PLACE have been sponsoring folk events in Berkeley for a while now, with artists like John McCutcheon, Trapezoid. Margaret MacArthur, Frankie Armstrong, Debby McClatchy, Caswell Carnahan, Poor Howard, and many others. We feature concerts and workshops in an informal atmosphere that comes directly from our beginnings as a house concert series. That cozy feeling that happens when
195 Plowshares Coffee House Customer Breakdown by Area, San Francisco Folk Music Center Papers, 1988, 2-6.
69
you go to a show in someone's home was all too rare around here, so we decided to bring it back. And it's worked, too - so well that in September 1982 we had to move to a larger room at the Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship Hall.196
This series was run by Barry Smiler, one of Plowshares' first booking coordinators. Except for Trapezoid, all the performers listed in this notice also played at
Plowshares. Smiler credits the success of Julie's Place—at least in part—to their practice of "[paying] performers a top-level fee as a way of attracting them to play there."197
The Freight & Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley began offering a regular schedule of concerts in 1968, long before both Plowshares and Julie's Place. The Freight and Plowshares presented similar musics and many of the people involved—as organizers, performers, or audience—were the same as well. The Freight's first location had a capacity of 87 people—and according to some individuals who performed there; the audience could be as small as a dozen people. Plowshares had close to the same capacity in 1977 when it opened.198 In 1980, when Plowshares moved to Room C-300,
which had a capacity of 300, it became one of the largest folk music venues in the region.
Even when the Freight moved to its second location which seated 200, Plowshares
retained its edge. Once the Folk Music Center lost this space in 1988, Plowshares was
limited to a capacity of 60 people in the Building A Conference Center and the Firehouse.
196 [San Francisco Folk Music Club], "JULIE'S PLACE ASKS: IS THERE LIFE AFTER THE BAY BRIDGE?" the folknik 19, no. 2 (March/April 1983): 2. Barry Smiler in Plowshares Survey.
197 Barry Smiler in Plowshares Survey.
198 Peterson, informal ethnographic interview, February 24, 2014.
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Then, the larger and more favorably situated Freight was able to attract the major acts.199
Figure 5 (below) charts the capacity of each performance space over time.
500 440 450 400
350 300 300 300 250 220 220 220 Plowshares 200 Freight 150 87 87 87 100 75 60 60 50 0 1968 1977 1980 1984 1988 1994 2009
Figure 5. Plowshares and Freight & Salvage capacity over time. Source: Art Peterson, personal communication; Freight & Salvage Coffee House, "About Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse."
The growth of the Freight and Salvage was generally paralleled by an increase in the number venues presenting folk musics in the Bay Area. When the idea for a folk music center at Fort Mason first arose, the music calendar listings in the San Francisco
Folk Music Club newsletter, the folknik, listed 84 events offered by 26 venues or presenters in November and December 1976.200 In the year that Plowshares ceased operations, the November/December 1998 folknik listed 142 events offered by 55 venues
199 Freight & Salvage Coffee House, "About Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse," website, accessed May 20, 2013, http://www.freightand salvage.org/about-freight; Art Peterson, personal communication.
200 San Francisco Folk Music Club, [Scheduled Events], the folknik 7, no. 6 (November/December 1976): 10.
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or presenters.201 Furthermore, there were a full array of regularly scheduled dances, jams,
singing circles, hootenannies, song swaps, and open mics throughout the week, ranging
from nine events each Tuesday to 28 events each Saturday.
The proliferation of folk music venues in the San Francisco Bay Area reflected
the growing popularity of singer-songwriters and venues for folk music that began in the
late 1980s.202 Figure 6 (below) charts the number of folk music venues that regularly
hosted concerts in the immediate Bay Area from the opening of the Freight in 1968 to the
cessation of Plowshares in 1998.
16 14 14 12 12 11 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 9 9 9 9 9 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 6 6 6 5 55
4 3 3 2 2 2 1
0
Figure 6. Number of regular venues listed in the folknik, each year in November 1968-1998. Source: San Francisco Folk Music Club, the folknik 4, no. 5 (September/October 1968) through 34, no. 5 (September/ October 1998).
201 San Francisco Folk Music Club, [Scheduled Events], the folknik 34, no. 6 (November/December 1998): 10.
202 Gruning, 212.
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Recovery from the end of the folk music revival was already in process when Plowshares
203 started in 1977.
The last Plowshares concert at Fort Mason featured Lou & Peter Berryman on
Saturday, January 24, 1998. The notice is buried among the regular calendar listings on
the last page of the folknik. 204 A notice in the September/October 1998 folknik announced
that after twenty years of performing at Plowshares, Bill Staines would perform at the
Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse in Berkeley on October 12, 1998. Furthermore, "the
concert portion of the Folk Music Center's activities" had been eliminated because rent
for the Firehouse had tripled.205 The Center would continue its other activities, including
co-sponsoring the San Francisco Free Folk Festival and the Musical Saw Festival in
Santa Cruz and Felton.206
When I interviewed her in 2014, Charlotte was working through the process of dissolving the nonprofit San Francisco Folk Music Center. For more than a decade, she had maintained the organization with the hope that Plowshares might be revived. Now, she was ready to move on. She told me,
203 San Francisco Folk Music Club, the folknik 4, no. 5 (September/October 1968) through 34, no. 5 (September/October 1998).
204 [San Francisco Folk Music Club], “Regularly Scheduled Events and Dancing,” the folknik 34, no 1 (January/February 1998): 10.
205 [San Francisco Folk Music Club], "SF Folk Music Center/ Bill Staines," the folknik 34, no. 5 (September/October 1998): 7.
206 Ibid.
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The appeal was that it was an all-volunteer organization. That's what I keep trying to say to Sacramento. Hey, you know, we’re all volunteers. We'd like to end now. We’re done. The volunteers are all gone. It's just me. I'm it. Please, let us close.207
Plowshares emerged to fulfill a need for a folk music venue in San Francisco after most of the venues that had supported similar musics had closed or moved on to new musics. During its development as a cultural center, Fort Mason offered a welcoming and affordable space. However, the enthusiasm of the volunteer workforce was not sustainable. The small band of volunteers running Plowshares was faced with a variety of operational challenges related to the development of Fort Mason, shifting of populations out of San Francisco, and other external economic pressures—all exacerbated by the
Loma Prieta earthquake. Venues in the East Bay became more accessible to the audiences who were most interested in the musics presented at Plowshares. Collective governance
was variable in effectiveness—and volunteer burnout was an ongoing problem.
Depending upon Ralph to do what was needed did not successfully address all the
business needs of the nonprofit San Francisco Folk Music Center. In the end, the audiences went elsewhere for their music and all but the very last few volunteers (in
Charlotte's words) "floated away."208
207 Patterson, Informal ethnographic interview, February 26, 2014.
208 Ibid.
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THE TYRANNY OF RALPH
Other than the concert schedules, the most common reference to the Folk Music
Center and Plowshares in the folknik was the need for volunteers. The pitches varied from
reasoned to desperately hopeful to just plain desperate:
Six people, often only five, just isn't enough! More help is needed in taking over major responsibilities whether or not as 'Board Members.' But starting there, it's not that hard to achieve this exalted and hard working status. Just ask to be on the Board, put in some time and you, too, are part of the IN GROUP.209
Plowshares Lives! (At least for now) A decision was made by the Folk Music Center on September 6 to continue Plowshares into next year, since several people showed up at the meeting to express interest in volunteering to work with Plowshares. Still, our problems are not over-- the light at the end of the tunnel may be another train. The Center still desperately needs volunteer energy, especially people who are willing to be board members and take primary responsibility for making Plowshares happen. This includes booking, sound system, bookkeeping, office work, crew captains, and a myriad of other fun, exciting jobs. 210
Now is your chance to HELP. We desperately need a treasurer, a legal consultant, and at least 5 people to do secretarial work, booking, publicity, concert coordination, and office management on an ongoing basis.211
The concept of Ralph was well ingrained in the San Francisco Folk Music Club
culture—and also the Center and Plowshares. The origins of Ralph are legendary in the
San Francisco Folk Club—and as with all legends; the details of the story vary with each
209 San Francisco Folk Music Center Board, "Chiefs Chiefs Chiefs Chiefs Chiefs Chiefs Chiefs We Want More Chiefs! We Want More Chiefs!" the folknik 19, no. 1 (January/February 1983): 3.
210 [San Francisco Folk Music Center], "Plowshares Lives!" the folknik 19, no. 6 (November/December, 1983): 2.
211 [San Francisco Folk Music Center], "Plowshares" the folknik 24, no. 4 (July/August 1988): 9.
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telling. They all begin with a disgruntled park official seeking the person in charge and helpful campers telling him that Ralph "went thataway." In an obituary for Ralph, in the folknik, the writer explains,
[Initially,] Ralph's sole job was to keep disgruntled Officialdom off the back of Folkdom long enough for us folks to do the truly important things in life: making music, love and hay while the sun still shines. However, through the folk process, "Ralph" was instantly burdened with doing everything because "Ralph's in charge." On September 13, 1994, "Ralph," sick and tired of this mistreatment, "bid this unfair world adieu." He is survived by one of the first "Ralphs" on record, the phrase "anarchic organization," an oxymoron of the finest tradition (as in, "[The SFFMC] is an anarchic, not bureaucratic, organization) …
With the recent "moving on" of "Ralph" as we used to think of him, one might wonder who's going to do all the work that he was mistakenly charged with doing. … Well, it's still up to each of us to attend to those things otherwise being unattended to. … Just quietly realize when you do a job you've seen needs doing that you are merely carrying on the honorable tradition of being a faithful Folk Club member.212
The next issue of the folknik, included a letter from Ralph explaining that the
report, "he went thataway," did not mean that he was dead!213 Essentially, Ralph takes
care of what is needed, without being asked and with no expectation of recognition.
Anyone and everyone can be Ralph. Ralph is in charge, but not present, when authorities
inquire. Ralph also is incredibly powerful. Among the right group of people, Ralph can
achieve just about anything. Everyone needs to be Ralph from time to time. Some people
need to be Ralph most of the time. The burned out Board members and volunteers trying
to run Plowshares and the Folk Music Center found themselves subject to the tyranny of
212 [San Francisco Folk Music Club], Ralph's Obituary, the folknik 30, no. 6 (November/October 1994): 8.
213 [San Francisco Folk Music Club], "RALPH LIVES!" the folknik 31, no. 1 (January/February 1995): 4A.
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Ralph. Being Ralph takes dedication and attention. The wrong Ralph—or the lack of
Ralphs—can be the bane or downfall of an all-volunteer organization.214
Barry Smiler traces the failure of Plowshares and the San Francisco Folk Music
Center—and also some of their successes—to the ethos that anyone can do whatever they
feel needs to be done:
When things went well they went very well. For example when the board had to deal with the possibility of GGNRA taking away our venue we mobilized to successfully prevent this and worked very well together as a unit, to the point where the Ft. Mason manager we were dealing with specifically noted how impressed he was at the way the Plowshares board worked together so smoothly. But when things went south there was no way to stop this. In both the good and the bad situations this was because there were virtually no bureaucratic barriers preventing anyone from doing whatever they felt needed to be done. If someone felt the need to do something, offering time and energy to do it, it happened. This was great if it was a good thing to happen. But it also meant that there was nothing to prevent bad things from happening, as happened with Plowshares. Such situations both the good and the bad are, of course, common in small organizations.215
Charlotte Patterson volunteered at a time when there were so few volunteers that
the Folk Music Center and Plowshares were threatened with closure. Pleas for help
brought in a new wave of support, but only for a short time. Charlotte recalls,
Then I started putting on the concerts and getting volunteers. I had lots of help. There were lots of people around and then little by little they said oh, I can't do this anymore. And pretty soon there was—it was over a period of time that you did not have office help and you had to figure out who was going to do the office help. We had a married couple who came in for a while who were really, really good and right off hand I cannot remember
214 Susan Wageman, "Comparative Study of Two Music Communities Separated by Time" (unpublished, 2014), 42.
215 Barry Smiler in Plowshares Survey.
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their names. It's been a while. I run into them every so often and they were pretty good at getting everything organized and then they left. Everybody would do like six months or so and then they would leave. I always said before you leave can you please just tell us what you did and how you did it. For God sake, train one of us—and usually they didn't. They just left. It wasn't because of bad feelings. I never remember it being anything about bad feelings. It was just that it was a volunteer job.216
Although Ralph can be effective at times, a major problem with Ralph is that
someone in the group has to recognize a need before it can be addressed. "Super
competent" people like Lilith knew about some of the business practices required of
nonprofits. However, without that knowledge in the group, Ralph could not do what was
needed, because he couldn't see the need.
Every person I interviewed spoke of challenges recruiting and retaining
volunteers. Clearly the best volunteers, who cared most deeply and were willing to do
whatever was needed, were welcomed with open arms and given every opportunity to
participate. Folk Music Center founder Charlie Fenton "had his fingers in quite a few
aspects of the operation."217 David Brown helped with sound, set up, booking, and
printing the calendar. Art Peterson did "everything" (according to David)—and an awful
lot by his own tally.218 Charlotte took over the volunteer management job from Lilith,
who "could do program by herself, really amazing."219
216 Patterson, Informal ethnographic interview, February 26, 2014.
217 Charlie Fenton, personal communication.
218 David Brown, Informal ethnographic interview, February 23, 2014; Peterson, Informal ethnographic interview, February 24, 2014.
219 Patterson, Informal ethnographic interview, February 26, 2014.
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Being Ralph can burn you out if the group is too small and the work load too big.
Ultimately, the all-volunteer Plowshares did not have the stamina, structure, or economic values necessary to enable long-term sustainability.
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PEOPLE, MUSIC AND COMMUNITY: THE STORY NEVER ENDS
For twenty years, Plowshares offered concerts and dances featuring a variety of
folk musics that today might be labeled "roots and branches music"—drawing from
diverse traditions and inspired by those traditions. During a time when disco and rock dominated popular music, Plowshares was a place where people could gather to hear
musics that held meaning and encouraged participation. In its day, Plowshares
contributed to the vitality of the San Francisco Bay Area folk music scene, exposing local
audiences to the masters and providing a training ground for those who would carry these
traditions into the future. Although Plowshares is gone, the people, the music, and an
ever-growing network of music communities remains.
The beliefs and passions of the volunteers who guided the development,
programming, experiences, and culture within the community that formed around
Plowshares are evident today in the various communities were Plowshares veterans are
active. In his study of live music venues, journalist Tim Burrows observed that live venues tend to peak for just a few years and that "the life-span of venues has always been this fleeting."220 Plowshares' twenty year run was a reflection of its value to audiences,
musicians, and volunteers with a passion for its musics.
220 Tim Burrows, From CBGB to the Roundhouse: music venues through the years (New York: Marion Boyars Publishers, Ltd., 2009), 12.
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Community Centered Around Folk Musics
Many of the people who were involved with Plowshares had been engaged in folk music and music communities for years. Bob Reid, who brought the opportunity to establish a folk music place at Fort Mason to the San Francisco Folk Music Club, was introduced to the Club by his mother, Betty Reid Soskin.221 One of the first Folk Club
members that Reid met was activist/songwriter Malvina Reynolds. Her daughter,
storyteller, songwriter, and activist Nancy Schimmel, explains, "I grew up on folk music.
I was a member of the San Francisco Folk Music Club in the sixties and seventies,
attended house concerts at 885 Clayton, and went to Plowshares to listen and sing."222
Schimmel actively promotes social change as a member of the Freedom Song Network and as an organizer of Occupella which "organizes informal public singing at Bay Area occupation sites, marches and at BART stations… to promote peace, justice, and an end to corporate domination, especially in support of the Occupy movement."223
I first remember meeting Carlo Calabi at a dance camp in the Santa Cruz
Mountains about eight years ago. In addition to being a fine dancer, he was also the late
night song leader in the dorm where I stayed. Although he no longer lives in the Bay
Area, I occasionally see him at contra dances and music jams. He performed in a duo,
221 Art Podell, et al., "The Early Days of Folk Music on the West Coast."
222 Nancy Schimmel, "Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series Survey," collected by Susan Wageman (unpublished, 2015).
223 Art Podell, et al., "The Early Days of Folk Music on the West Coast;" Nancy Schimmel in Plowshares Survey; Occupella, "Sing with Occupella," accessed May 15, 2013., http://www.occupella.org/index.html; Occupella, "About Us," accessed September 17, 2016, http://www.occupella.org/aboutUs.html.
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"Carlo & Mary" at Plowshares on April 9, 1978. When I listen to the concert recording, it is easy to recognize Carlo's voice and approach to leading songs. Carlo leads while Mary provides strong harmonies and the audience sings along, producing a full, nicely harmonized sound. It seems clear that the audience knew these songs well.224 Carlo
recalls that performing at Plowshares "was a big deal for us back then." He also recognizes the influence of the many people who he heard play at Plowshares because
"everyone you listen to carefully influences you as a musician and performer."225 He recalls, "Those were the good old days for a lot of us old Folkies! It [Plowshares] was an integral part of the scene, which included meetings at Faith Petric's house, the campouts, and the contra dances."226
As former audience members, performers and volunteers talk or write about their
experiences at Plowshares, it is clear that this place was more than just a music venue. It
was a place of comfort and wonder; a place where you could feel at home while
experiencing a wide ranges of musics; a special place; a community center.
Charlotte Patterson enjoyed the waterside location—a contrast to the urban streets
of San Francisco. "You could hear the water when you got out. You could often see little
224 Carlo Calabi and Mary [?], Carlo & Mary, Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series, recorded April 9, 1978 at Fort Mason in San Francisco, unpublished concert recording [incomplete], cassette, 13 minutes.
225 Ibid.
226 Carlo Calabi, "Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series Survey," collected by Susan Wageman (unpublished, 2015).
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whitecaps. The first thing I would always do, [I] would go out and look at the water. It was beautiful. A beautiful moon and it was just gorgeous. It was a wonderful setting."227
Ray Murray attended concerts at Plowshares "from the beginning to the end." 228
He credits the great location and "the dedication of staff and volunteers" for creating
"many memories of performances and the Plowshares vibe that I will always value."229 I
see him frequently at the Freight and Salvage Coffee House (where he was a board
member for a while) and, sometimes, at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical
Park monthly Chanty Sing, local house concerts, or the Northwest Folklife Festival in
Seattle.
One audience member and sometimes performer calls out the "exceptional
community spirit driving the Plowshares project"—describing Plowshares as "a very
friendly, congenial place" and "probably my favorite place to hear folk music." Becoming
"very involved" with the San Francisco Folk Music Club during the 1970s, his group performed at Plowshares a couple times. "It was a friendly and warm place to perform.
You had the audience's full attention" and "the free spirit of the place and congeniality of
the participants encouraged people to consider performing in front of audiences."230
227 Ibid.
228 Ray Murray, "Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series Survey," collected by Susan Wageman (unpublished, 2015).
229 Ibid.
230 Anonymous #18, "Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series Survey," collected by Susan Wageman (unpublished, 2015).
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Sean Folsom, who played Irish dance music, first visited the San Francisco Folk
Music Club at 885 Clayton Street around 1972. After he moved from Monterey to the
East Bay in 1975, he got to know Faith Petric and became involved with Plowshares. He appreciated the opportunities to perform and to see other acts, such as Cape Breton master fiddler Buddy MacMaster and Scottish fiddle master Alasdair Fraser, who played
Plowshares on June 28, 1985. 231 As performers, Sean explains, "We usually let the
Sound People do their set-up and we were there an hour before hand for the sound check.
We were used to helping setting up the chairs, as well, to help out. We weren't 'Aloof
Stars' we were Young & Energetic in those years!"232 Sean describes Plowshares by
comparing it to other folk music venues:
Similar to Freight & Salvage in Berkeley and McCabe's in Santa Monica, but a much Larger Room as [it was] in was a de-commissioned Army Base. Not really like Folk Clubs in the UK and Ireland, where it's a Upstairs Room over the Pub, etc. which can be packed to the ceiling. We were in one corner of a comparatively Vast area. I Loved operating the Freight Elevator !233
Kate Brislin, a member of the Any Old Time String Band (that played for the
Plowshares Gala Benefit Opening concert on November 6, 1977), describes Plowshares
as "an intimate venue wherein you felt connected with the audience. It was relaxed and
fun." She also compares it to other venues that she knew:
231 Sean Folsom, "Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series Survey," collected by Susan Wageman (unpublished, 2015); [San Francisco Folk Music Center], "Plowshares," the folknik 21, no. 3 (May/June 1985): 9.
232 Sean Folsom in Plowshares Survey.
233 Ibid.
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It was comparable to the early Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse when it was small. Relaxed and intimate. It was less noisy and chaotic than Paul's Saloon in the Marina District of San Francisco. 234
Kate may have been remembering the initial Plowshares concert space that could
seat 42 people, while Sean's description of a "Vast area" fits the 300 seat capacity space
that Plowshares occupied through most of the 1980s. Art Peterson liked the spaciousness
of Plowshares because "it just had—that buzz was always in the air with people arriving.
People had room to walk around and be in different little groups chit-chatting. It was a
real social scene."235
For some people, Plowshares was a community center where they could gather
with friends to hear the music they enjoyed. Dave Olson remembers Plowshares as "a very informal and friendly performance space, where many of the people in the audience knew each other, or had common friends."236 Dick Holdstock calls Plowshares "A
peoples place that booked performers that I like." He brought his future wife to see a
Welsh singer at Plowshares on their first date; and it was at Plowshares that he presented his first full-length concert. Holdstock says that he enjoyed performing at Plowshares because, "many of the people in the audience were friends of mine."237
234 Kate Brislin, "Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series Survey," collected by Susan Wageman (unpublished, 2015).
235 Peterson, informal interview, February 24, 2014
236 Dave Olson, "Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series Survey," collected by Susan Wageman (unpublished, 2015).
237 Dick Holdstock, "Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series Survey," collected by Susan Wageman (unpublished, 2015); Dick Holdstock, personal communication.
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Plowshares Influences
Plowshares clearly had an impact on the lives of some of the individuals who were involved. It provided a formative experience for the young people who formed the audience, volunteered, performed, and organized the concert series. Many of these people are still involved in one or more music communities.
Plowshares founder Charlie Fenton has an amazing network of connections in multiple music scenes. He started the San Francisco Contra Dance (which was a spin-off from the Plowshare dances) and still calls (and dances) contra dances. He also participates in English Country and Scottish dancing. Charlie is a life member of the
Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse and serves on the board of the San Francisco Folk Music
Club. He is sure that Plowshares was a major influence on his life:
It brought me into the world of music performers, led me to start the San Francisco Contra series, which for 29 years I continued to help organize and for which I was the house caller. It also led me to help host frequent house concerts today and occasionally help produce concerts at other venues."238
Art Peterson regularly gigs with five different bands. He says that Plowshares
helped him in "finding out a little more about the nuts and bolts of how, of how it
[booking and dealing with agents] goes. And, so that's, that was really a good experience
for me. It helps me in dealing with that myself, as a performer."239
238 Charlie Fenton, "Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series Survey," collected by Susan Wageman (unpublished, 2015).
239 Peterson, informal ethnographic interview, February 24, 2014.
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Volunteer sound technician Dave Olson remembers Plowshares as "a community, growing out of and supporting the SF Folk Music Club, but with a wider base." He explains, "It was an experiment with the Fort Mason staff, and from that perspective, and in general, I think helped to convince the GGNRA [National Park Service Golden Gate
National Recreation Area] that performing arts were a viable part of their mission.240 Fort
Mason continues to be a vibrant arts center. The National Park Service also offers a monthly "chantey sing," concerts, and an annual Sea Music Festival at the San Francisco
Maritime National Historical Park, which is located at the Hyde Street Pier, just a mile and a half from Fort Mason.241
Charlotte Paterson stepped in when Plowshares was in danger of closing in the
late 1980's. Charlotte is currently working through the legal process of closing down the
organization. (Now that the Folk Music Club is incorporated, there would probably be no
benefit to having two folk music organizations that are so similar operating in close
proximity.) Along the way, she learned how to manage the Plowshares concert series and
its volunteers. She is happy to enjoy the music she loves at the Freight & Salvage.242
240 Dave Olson, "Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series Survey," collected by Susan Wageman (unpublished, 2015). GGNRA is the National Park Service's Golden Gate National Recreation
241 National Park Service, "San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Calendar," accessed September 18, 2016, https://www.nps.gov/safr/planyourvisit/calendar.htm.
242 Patterson, Informal ethnographic interview, February 26, 2014.
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A Network of Communities through Time
As I have become more engaged in various music related communities, in the San
Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere in the United States, I am constantly amazed at how many of the people in these networks have connections to Plowshares. For example, when I presented some of my early research at the
Eureka! Musical Minds of California 2015 graduate student conference in Santa Cruz, Professor Larry
Polansky commented that I had mentioned several musicians who are not well known, but deserve more attention—including Debbie McClatchy, who had played at his wedding (photo 8).243 Photo 8. Publicity photograph of Debbie McClatchy, c. 1982. SF Folk I was especially surprised to discover a Music Center Archives. Courtesy of Debbie McClatchy. connection between Cal State East Bay and Plowshares.
On Sunday, September 20, 1981, Ned Clamp and Marguerite & Sylvia with "special
guests" Julie Searles & Matthew Allen performed at Plowshares. Today, Dr. Allen is a professor of music at Wheaton College and he has been married to Julie Searles for 31 years. When I invited him to participate in a survey about Plowshares, he responded, "My
wife and I met at the SF Folk Music Club and I remember playing or attending
Plowshares events" and "Do you know Prof. Peter Marsh there by chance? We were in
243 Larry Polansky, informal remarks on Plowshares Coffee House: People, Music & Community presented by Susan Wageman, Eureka! Musical Minds of California Graduate Student Conference (Santa Cruz, California), May 9, 2015.
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grad school at Wesleyan together."244 It turns out that my thesis advisor knew musicians
who had performed at Plowshares long before I first heard about the music series.
Art Peterson grew up in the Los Angeles area—where he began to follow the folk
music revival. He recalls how his experiences with the music venues of his youth set the
stage for his active involvement with San Francisco Bay Area music communities:
It [Plowshares] got me involved. [I] did all this music scene stuff, which I had only observed as an attender. I had attended the Troubadour and the Ash Grove down in LA where I grew up and loved it, you know. It was just amazing. And, then, I come up here and Plowshares got me involved with booking and dealing with agents and all of that.245
The music community that formed around Plowshares drew from the San
Francisco Folk Music Club and many other music communities, near and far. Many of
today's folk music communities—especially in the San Francisco Bay Area—are derived
from or have connections with Plowshares. Festivals, concerts, dances, music jams, and
other uses of music are fairly common in the region.
Music regularly accompanies activist actions in the Bay Area. The San Francisco
Bay Area Progressive Directory lists thirty-one organizations that use music in their
activist efforts and music was integral to the Occupy movement that protested socio-
economic inequity in 2011.246 Occupella, a group that emerged from that movement
continues to sing out "to promote peace, justice, and an end to corporate domination,"
244 Matthew Allen, personal communications.
245 Art Peterson, informal ethnographic interview by Susan Wageman, Oakland, February 24, 2014, digital audio recording, 48 minutes.
246 Ken Cheetham, "San Francisco Bay Area Progressive Directory: Music," accessed May 24, 2015, http://bapd.org/kmusic-1.html.
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demonstrating at least weekly. Their website provides downloadable songbooks for activists to use wherever they may be—a modern variant of the Little Red Songbook.
Nancy Schimmel is one of the singers in this group.247
The Musical Saw Festival—produced by the International Musical Saw
Association and co-sponsored by the San Francisco Folk Music Center in the 1990s—
presented its 39th annual festival in August 2016. 248 The Saw Festival and Association
were founded by sawplayer Charlie Blacklock.249 Charlie's Band (Charlie Blacklock, Art
Peterson, Bill Carpenter, and David Garelick) played at Plowshares on August 10,
1980.250 Today, Art leads the Saw Festival organizers.
The San Francisco Free Folk Festival—a production of the San Francisco Folk
Music Club that was co-sponsored by the San Francisco Folk Music Center and
Plowshares between 1978 and 1999—the Festival celebrated its 40th year in 2016.251 Art
Peterson led the Festival's contra dance band. Performers and workshop leaders included
247 Occupella, "Sing with Occupella," accessed May 15, 2013, http://www.occupella.org/index.html.
248 International Musical Saw Association, "Sawplayers Festival Program," accessed September 24, 2016, http://www.sawplayers.org/festprogram.html.
249 International Musical Saw Association, "Charlie Blacklock," accessed September 24, 2016, http://www.charlieblacklock.com/.
250 [San Francisco Folk Music Center], "Plowshares," the folknik 16, no. 4 (July/August 1980): 7.
251 San Francisco Folk Music Club, "2nd Annual Spring Festival," flyer, May 20-21, 1978; San Francisco Folk Music Club, "23rd Annual San Francisco Free Folk Festival," flyer, June 12-13, 1999; San Francisco Folk Music Club, "San Francisco Free Folk Festival Home," accessed September 24, 2016, http://sffolkfest.org/2016-new/.
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Redmond O'Colonies, David Brown, Holdstock and MacLeod and other Plowshares veterans.252
The sheer numbers of people who participated in Plowshares and actively
participate in acoustic-folk music scenes today suggest influence and impact. About half
of the 400 people who attended Faith Petric's memorial at the Freight & Salvage, on
January 15, 2015, had been involved with Plowshares. Today's elders are passing on what
they learned to the younger people they play and socialize with today. They teach classes
at the Freight & Salvage, local music stores, and in their homes. They organize festivals,
camps, house concerts, jams, and other gatherings that bring people together and inspire
through music. They listen to the aspiring musicians, ask questions, offer guidance, and
play with those who are learning. I am constantly amazed at the generosity of the people I
have met.
It is clear to me that many of the people who were involved with Plowshares
valued their experience, built upon it in various ways, and continue to participate in
communities that are connected by people sharing their musics.
Key Findings
The primary objective of my research on Plowshares Coffee House was to begin
exploring the complex interwoven networks of people and communities that connect
Plowshares with other music communities in the past and the present. This task required
252 San Francisco Folk Music Club, "San Francisco Free Folk Festival Program," accessed September 24, 2016, http://sffolkfest.org/2016-new/program/.
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an understanding of Plowshares' history, the circumstances that enabled its emergence, and the forces that contributed to its cessation.
The people who created the Plowshares Coffee House Concert Series were motivated by their passion for sharing their musics—and by a countercultural ethos that valued egalitarianism, peaceful anarchy, DIY (do-it-yourself), and collective action to effect change. Launching Plowshares in the new Fort Mason cultural center as a nearly- all-volunteer effort drew heavily on this ethos. Naming the concert series "Plowshares" celebrated the victory of peace, culture and music over the former use of the site by the military.
During its first five years, Plowshares rapidly grew its offerings and helped fulfill the promise of a San Francisco node on the West Coast folk music tour circuit. The nonprofit San Francisco Folk Music Center that operated Plowshares functioned as a collective that depended upon "Ralph" (i.e. volunteers who would do whatever was needed) and struggled to balance peaceful anarchy with operating a concert series on a schedule. Shifting demographics, economic pressures, an increase in folk music venues in the Bay Area, and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake all contributed the end of
Plowshares. It is possible, however, that the lack of volunteers and professional staff to keep the organization going had the greatest impact on Plowshares' demise.
Nevertheless, a twenty year run suggests a significant level of community engagement and support. Many of the people who were involved with Plowshares consider their experiences there to be significant. Many remember relationships that began during the Plowshares years—and continue to this day. I have found Plowshares
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connections at contra dances, concerts, folk festivals, music camps, universities, and conferences. This evidence suggests that Plowshares drew from and strengthened a network of acoustic-folk music communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, across the nation, and through time.
Future Research
The more I learn about the people of Plowshares, where they came from and their experiences, the more visible the network of connected music communities becomes.
Perhaps, in the future, someone will map the relationships and connections between
Plowshares and the various connected music communities—past and present.
This thesis taps only a portion of the extant archival materials from Plowshares.
There are more stories in the interviews and surveys that were completed for this project.
There are many more photographs that need to be identified. The recordings capture performances, the engagement of audiences, and stories of the moment. A close examination of financial and other business records could provide a more nuanced understanding of the business of running a nearly-all-volunteer music venue—and help determine the true impact of Ralph on Plowshares. All of these sources could be tapped for a richer history of Plowshares.
The potential for additional research is infinite. At this time, there have been only a few scholarly investigations of folk music venues and their roles in building community—and few have been published. As this field of research grows, there is great
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opportunity to increase understanding of how these types of organizations create this sense of community and connectedness that can extend beyond a time and place.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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APPENDIX: PLOWSHARES PERFORMANCES
1977
11/6/1977 11/27/1977 The Any Old Time String Band Ray Bierl Faith Petric 12/8/1977 Kate Wolf & Don Coffin Jody Stecher Kenny Hall 12/11/1977 Tony Marcus Tom Hunter 11/13/1977 12/18/1977 Mike Elliott Larry Hanks 11/20/1977 Lost Ridge
1978
1/8/1978 4/2/1978 Debby McClatchy Carol McComb and Ed Johnson 1/15/1978 4/9/1978 Gordon Bok Carlo and Mary 1/22/1978 4/16/1978 Tony Marcus Kate Wolf & Wildwood Flower 1/29/1978 4/23/1978 Dick Holdstock The Mother Pluckers plus Scott and Paul Foster Nina Gerber 2/5/1978 4/30/1978 Eric Thompson, Suzie Rothfield, and Margaret MacArthur Marty Sonberg 5/7/1978 2/12/1978 Flutes des Andes Faith 5/14/1978 2/19/1978 Perfect Crime Don Coffin and Friends plus Eric Park 5/21/1978 2/26/1978 Any Old Time String Band Kenny Hall 6/4/1978 3/5/1978 Van Rosay from San Jose Kathy Fink and Duck Donald 6/11/1978 3/12/1978 Bob Reid and Mark Bradlyn Jane Voss and Hoyle Osborne 6/18/1978 3/19/1978 Bob White Genie Mansfield and Lenny Walker 6/25/1978 3/26/1978 Rosie's Bar and Grill Small Wonder String Band 7/9/1978 Alan MacLeod
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7/16/1978 10/15/1978 Ed Trickett Janet Smith 7/23/1978 10/22/1978 Bodie Wagner Alistair Anderson 7/30/1978 10/29/1978 Dale Miller The Last Jig Ceili Band 8/6/1978 11/5/1978 Sandy Darlington The Wagner Brothers 8/13/1978 11/12/1978 Laurie Lewis & Friends The Round Town Boys 8/20/1978 Tony Barrand Troika Balalaikas 11/19/1978 8/27/1978 Jean Ritchie Andy Cohen 11/26/1978 Eric Shoenburg Larry Hanks 9/4/1978 12/3/1978 Debby McClatchy Birthday Celebration and Gala Benefit 9/10/1978 12/10/1978 Bill Staines Hurricane Ridge Runners 9/17/1978 12/17/1978 Peter Kessler Tom Hunter 10/1/1978 Hawks & Eagles
1979
1/7/1979 3/11/1979 Debby McClatchy Jon Wilcox and Friends 1/14/1979 3/18/1979 Vera Johnson The Rhythm Rascals 1/21/1979 3/25/1979 How to Change a Flat Tire Le Camembert 1/24/1979 4/1/1979 How to Change a Flat Tire Jean Ritchie 1/28/1979 4/8/1979 Tiny Moore - The Blender Trio Kenny Hall 2/4/1979 4/15/1979 Malcolm Dalglish & Grey Larsen Billy Faier & Paul Geremia 2/11/1979 4/22/1979 Sparky Rucker U. Utah Phillips & Fred Holstein 2/18/1979 4/29/1979 The Cheap Suit Serenaders Rosalie Sorrels 2/25/1979 5/6/1979 Charlie Blacklock & Friends Pop Wagner & Bob Bovee Jim Page 5/13/1979 3/4/1979 Sukay J.C. Burris
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5/20/1979 10/21/1979 Small Wonder String Band & The John James Perfect Crime 10/28/1979 5/27/1979 Peter Krug & Murphy's Law Nobody a-tall 11/8/1979 7/8/1979 Margaret MacArthur Iron Mountain String Band 11/11/1979 7/15/1979 Sheila na GIG "An Evening with Woody Guthrie" 11/15/1979 7/19/1979 Grand Opening! Faith Petric Klezmorim 11/18/1979 7/22/1979 Jody Stecher & Krishna Bhatt Frankie Armstrong 11/25/1979 8/5/1979 Debby McClatchy Good Ol' Persons 11/29/1979 8/12/1979 Carlo Calabi & Gail Fratar Leon Rosselson 12/2/1979 8/19/1979 Jane Voss & Hoyle Osborne Barry and Howard Oliver 12/6/1979 8/26/1979 Motherpluckers Shubb-Wilson Trio 12/9/1979 9/9/1979 Tom Hunter & Gwen Alley Hunter Songs of the Sea 12/13/1979 9/16/1979 Cheap Suit Serenaders Bill Staines 12/16/1979 9/23/1979 Sean Nos Any Old Time 12/20/1979 9/30/1979 Local Fokels - Best of the Floor Singers Kate Wolf 12/23/1979 10/14/1979 Grand Wassail & Carol Sing Mitch Greenhill & Mayne Smith
1980
1/3/1980 1/24/1980 The Bluestein Family Tony Marcus 1/6/1980 1/27/1980 Miriam Dvorin Susie Rothfield & Eric Thompson 1/10/1980 1/31/1980 Orrin Star & Gary Mehalick Rick Winston; guest set 1/13/1980 Chrysanthemum Ragtime Band Chris Caswell & Danny Carnahan 2/3/1980 1/17/1980 Bodie Wagner Gary Lapow 2/7/1980 1/20/1980 Malcolm Dalglish & Grey Larsen Rick & Lorraine Lee 2/12/1980 John McCutcheon
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2/14/1980 4/27/1980 Clairseach Guy Carawan 2/17/1980 5/1/1980 Wendy Grossman Simcha Orchestra 2/21/1980 5/4/1980 Chrysanthemum Ragtime Band May Celebration: Berkeley Morris 2/24/1980 Team, Palo Alto Mummers Play, and Rosalie Sorrels Bob Raley 2/28/1980 5/8/1980 Fiction Brothers Contra Dance: Brad Foster with Peter 3/2/1980 Persoff, Stan Kramer & Derek Booth Possum Trot String Band 5/11/1980 3/6/1980 Woody Guthrie Show Nancy Gendel & Art Peterson 5/15/1980 3/9/1980 Martin, Bogan & Armstrong Lou Killen 5/18/1980 3/13/1980 Laurie Lewis & the Grant St. String Small Wonder String Band Band 3/16/1980 5/22/1980 Lone Star Any Old Time 3/20/1980 5/29/1980 Dick Holdstock & Allan MacLoed Paul Hostetter & Irene Herrmann 3/23/1980 6/1/1980 Eric Park & Ray Bierl Tiny Moore & the Blender Trio with the 3/27/1980 McKenney Sisters McCloud's Ceili Band 6/5/1980 3/30/1980 Don Lange Peter Kessler & Friends 6/8/1980 4/3/1980 Spoil the Barrel J.C. Burris 6/12/1980 4/6/1980 Golden Bough Debby McClatchy 6/19/1980 4/10/1980 Brendan Smith Randy Wilson & Horsin Around 6/22/1980 4/13/1980 Square Dance: Arkansas Sheiks, Karana Louisiana Playboys Drayton, caller 4/15/1980 6/26/1980 Contra Dnc Kirston Koths Sheila na GIG 4/17/1980 6/29/1980 Hurricane Ridge Runners Good Ol' Persons 4/18/1980 7/13/1980 U. Utah Phillips, Priscilla Herdman, & Chris Caswell & Danny Carnahan Cheap Suit Serenaders 7/20/1980 4/20/1980 Albert d'Ossche and Robert Force Robin Flower 4/24/1980 Dick Oxtot and the Golden Age Jazz Band with Toni Brown
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7/27/1980 11/6/1980 Leon Roselson Bodie Wagner Stephen Sedberry 11/9/1980 8/3/1980 Kenny Hall and the Long Haul String Howling Gael Band 8/10/1980 11/13/1980 Charlie's Band Small Wonder String Band Teresa Tudury 11/16/1980 8/17/1980 Priscilla Herdman Margeurite & Sylvie 11/20/1980 The Perfect Crime Alister Armstrong 8/24/1980 11/23/1980 Sammy Vomacka The Clayton St. Singers AND Randy 9/7/1980 Wilson Louis Killen 11/30/1980 9/14/1980 Irish Ceili Dance led by Larry Lynch Robin Flower + Nancy Vogl 12/4/1980 9/18/1980 Stone's Throw Grand Reopening with Tom + Gwen 12/5/1980 Hunter Gala Plowshares 3rd Anniversary 9/21/1980 Concert with U.U. Phillips, Kate Wolf, Patsy Montana Nina Gerber, and Caswell/Carnahan 9/25/1980 12/7/1980 Chrysanthemum Ragtime Band Jane Voss/ Hoyle Osborne/ Rosalie 10/5/1980 Sorrels Joe Heaney 12/11/1980 10/23/1980 Contra Dance with Kirston Koths Tony McMahon + the Golden Ring 12/14/1980 10/26/1980 Debby McClatchy Square Dance with Sandy Bradley 12/18/1980 10/30/1980 Will Spires Groupo Raiz 12/21/1980 11/2/1980 Holiday Party - Carol and Wassail sing The Ethnophonic Orchestra
1981
1/15/1981 1/29/1981 The Golden Bough Rick & Lorraine Lee 1/19/1981 2/1/1981 The Harmony Sisters Robert Force & Albert D'Ossche 1/22/1981 2/5/1981 Septeto Carabali and Joel Blair Bill Steele 1/25/1981 2/8/1981 The Gryphon Family Band and Carl Jean Ritchie Burger 2/12/1981 John McCutcheon
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2/15/1981 5/3/1981 Holly Tannen & Pete Cooper Gary Lapow and Mary Levy 2/19/1981 5/7/1981 Artie Traum Poor Howard with Scott Alarik 2/22/1981 5/10/1981 John Herald & friends How to Change a Flat Tire 2/26/1981 5/14/1981 La Bottine Soulante Square Dance with Arkansas Sheiks, 3/1/1981 Karana calling Jim Morrison with Tom Kruskal 5/17/1981 3/5/1981 The Golden Bough Guy Carawan 5/21/1981 3/8/1981 Nancy Schimmel & Toni Gross Planxty Clarsach and Isles of Prydian 5/28/1981 3/12/1981 Country Dance w Brad Foster, Dan Michael McCreesh & Campbell O'Connell, Terry O'Neill & others 3/15/1981 5/31/1981 Bob Carlin and Rolf Cahn Grant Street String Band 3/19/1981 6/4/1981 Reilly & Maloney Jane Voss & Hoyle Osborne 3/22/1981 6/11/1981 Dan O'Connell & the Wooden Nickel Frank Hamilton & The Kossoy Sisters String Band 6/14/1981 3/26/1981 Soc. Of Folk Harpers and Craftsmen Sammy Vomacka Benefit 3/29/1981 6/18/1981 Caswell/Carnahan Square Dance with Sandy Bradley & the 4/2/1981 Canote twins Paul Geremia 6/21/1981 4/5/1981 Bodie Wagner List Neustadt & Helen Schneyer 6/25/1981 4/9/1981 Irish Country Dance with Cathy Bosom Buddies Whitesides & Frannie Leopold 4/12/1981 6/28/1981 Leon Rosselson & Roy Bailey Mitch Greenhill & Mayne Smith 4/16/1981 7/2/1981 Clairseach Ceili with The Rinnce Mor Dancers; 4/17/1981 Terry O'Neal Silly Wizard 7/9/1981 4/19/1981 Bluestein Family Roy Harris 7/12/1981 4/23/1981 Kate Wolf Lenny Anderson and Martine Habib Pete Cooper 4/26/1981 7/13/1981 Faith Petric Sheila na GIG 4/30/1981 Brad Foster
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7/19/1981 Reilly & Maloney Caswell/Carnahan 9/20/1981 Judy Gorman-Jacobs and Joady Guthrie Ned Clamp and Marguerite & Sylvie 7/23/1981 with special guests Julie The Ethnophonic Orchestra Searles/Matthew Allen 7/26/1981 9/24/1981 Israeli Dance with Alan Rothchild Open Mic Dance 7/30/1981 9/27/1981 Oak, Ash and Thorn Van Rozay 7/31/1981 10/1/1981 The Harmony Sisters Return Bruce Hamilton 8/1/1981 10/2/1981 Harmony Sisters Joe Burke 8/2/1981 10/4/1981 Joe & Antoinette McKenna Electricity 8/6/1981 10/8/1981 Rosie's Bar and Grill Arkansas Sheiks; Karana Hattersly 8/9/1981 calling Anabel Graetz 10/15/1981 The Fiction Brothers Kirston Koths 8/13/1981 10/18/1981 Contra Dance with Bob Fraley Ruth Barrett & Cynthia Smith 8/16/1981 10/22/1981 Old Mother Logo Open Mic Dance 8/20/1981 10/25/1981 Square Dance with the Arkansas Sheiks. Jean Redpath Karrana Hattersly calling 10/26/1981 8/23/1981 Bill Staines Jerry & Bev Praver 10/30/1981 8/27/1981 Surprise Guests at Concert Western Swing Dance Party with Lone 10/31/1981 Star Halloween Party 8/30/1981 11/1/1981 Jewish Songs of Celebration & Struggle Benefit Weekend Dance with Charly Nimovitz, Linda 11/5/1981 Hirschhorn, Eli Lahav, Todd Silverstein Country Dance w Christine Helwig 9/3/1981 11/6/1981 Brad Foster Jim Ringer & Mary McCaslin 9/10/1981 11/8/1981 Arkansas Sheiks; Karana Hattersly Robin Flower calling 11/12/1981 9/12/1981 Square Dance w Karana Hattersley- Sam Rizetta Drayton & the Arkansas Sheiks 9/13/1981 11/15/1981 Lou Killen Cathy Fink 9/17/1981 11/19/1981 Kirston Koths Contras with Kirston Koths 9/18/1981 11/20/1981
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Eric Thompson & Susie Rothfield 12/6/1981 11/22/1981 Larry Hanks Peter Kessler & Gail Fratar 12/10/1981 11/29/1981 Square Dance w Karana Hattersley- Roy Bookbinder Drayton & the Arkansas Sheiks 12/3/1981 12/13/1981 Am. Squares & Contras w Sandy Art Peterson Bradley & The Small Wonder String The Isles of Prydain Band 12/17/1981 12/4/1981 Contras with Kirston Koths Elizabeth Cotton 12/18/1981 Grant Street String Band Sukay Jane Voss & Hoyle Osborne 12/20/1981 Jethro Burns and Tiny Moore Steve Seskin
1982
1/7/1982 Van Rozay English Country with Brad Foster 1/24/1982 1/9/1982 Hurricane Ridgerunners Klezmorim 1/28/1982 1/10/1982 Community Country Dance Debby McClatchy 1/29/1982 1/14/1982 Blue Flame Stringband Square Dance with Karana Hattersley- 1/31/1982 Drayton & the Arkansas Sheiks Holly Tannen & Deborah Sandler 1/15/1982 Rick & Lorraine Lee U. Utah Phillips 2/4/1982 1/16/1982 English Country with Bruce Hamilton Caswell/Carnahan 2/5/1982 1/17/1982 Harmony Sisters Teresa Tudury & Eric Park 2/6/1982 1/21/1982 Kate Wolf with Nina Gerber & Ford New England Contras with Kirston James Koths 2/7/1982 1/23/1982 Jean Ritchie Any Old Time 2/11/1982 Art Peterson Square Dance - Guest Caller Clayton Street Singers 2/14/1982 Eric Park John McCutcheon Faith Petric 2/17/1982 Holdstock & Macleod Kapelye Isles of Prydain 2/18/1982 Liz Browder Contra Dance with Kirston Koths Mother Pluckers Peter Kessler & Gail Fratar Tom & Gwen Hunter
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2/19/1982 4/18/1982 Si Kahn Margaret MacArthur 2/21/1982 4/22/1982 Georgia Sea Island Singers Community Country Dance 2/25/1982 4/25/1982 Community Country Dance Marguerite Millard, Sylvia Herold & 2/28/1982 Others Tracy's Family Band 4/30/1982 3/4/1982 Priscilla Herdman English Country Dance Terry O'Neal 5/2/1982 calling Sammy Vomacka 3/5/1982 5/6/1982 Jane Voss & Hoyle Osborne English Country Dance Bruce Hamilton 3/7/1982 Claremont Country Dance Band Linda Allen/ Marion Wade 5/7/1982 3/11/1982 Joe & Antoinette McKenna Contra Dance - Brad Foster calling; with 5/9/1982 Lauri Andres & Cathie Whitesides Tom & Gwen Hunter playing 5/13/1982 3/14/1982 Contra Dance Charlie Fenton calling Sally Rogers Music Cathie Whitesides/ D. Steinberg 3/18/1982 5/16/1982 Contra Dance, Kirston Koths calling Troika Balalaikas/ Miriam Dvorin 3/19/1982 5/20/1982 Sandy Bradley & the Small Wonder Contra Dance Kirston Koths String Band 5/21/1982 3/21/1982 Irish Extravaganza of Music & Dance Golden Bough 5/23/1982 3/25/1982 Holly Tannen & Deborah Sandler Community Country Dance 5/27/1982 3/26/1982 Last Dance of the Season Tannahill Weavers 6/4/1982 3/28/1982 The Tim Ware Group Mariposa 6/6/1982 4/1/1982 Don Coffin Trio / Paul Smith English Country Dance 6/19/1982 4/2/1982 Larry Hanks Elizabeth Cotton 6/20/1982 4/4/1982 Square Dance with Pam McKeever of Bob Carlin & Randy Wilson Albuquerque 4/8/1982 7/11/1982 Contra Dance with Tod Wittemore & Jerry & Bev Praver/ Lenny Anderson Rod & Randy Miller 7/16/1982 4/11/1982 Great Gala Extravaganza Benefit!!! Rod & Randy Wilson in Concert 4/16/1982 Jean Redpath
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7/18/1982 10/24/1982 Sandy Bradley & the Small Wonder Isle of Skye plus Dogwatch Nautical String Band Band 7/25/1982 10/29/1982 Grupo Raiz Aeolus plus Cyderman's Fancy 7/30/1982 10/31/1982 The Bluegrass Band Bill Staines 8/1/1982 11/5/1982 Duck Baker/ John McCormick Jody Stecher & Krishna Bhatt 8/6/1982 11/6/1982 Society of Folk Harpers Benefit Contra Dance at California Hall 8/8/1982 11/7/1982 Tonga Islanders Band & Dancers Priscilla Herdman 8/15/1982 11/9/1982 Teresa Tudury / Eric Park Peggy Seeger & Ewan MacColl 8/20/1982 11/14/1982 Mooncoin Storytelling Festival 8/22/1982 The Folktellers Apes of Wrath/ John Palme 11/19/1982 8/29/1982 Blue Flame String Band Festival of the Saws Benefit 11/20/1982 9/12/1982 Contra Dance at California Hall Golden Bough 11/21/1982 9/17/1982 Ellis Island Cheap Suit Serenaders 11/28/1982 9/19/1982 Orrin Star & Gary Mehalick Le Soleil 12/3/1982 9/26/1982 De. Anniversary Show Gold Ring 12/4/1982 10/1/1982 Contra Dance at California Hall Matante Alyse 12/5/1982 10/2/1982 Dale Miller and/or Gerry O'Beirne Contra Dance 12/14/1982 10/3/1982 NA Cabarfeidh Canta Tierra 12/18/1982 10/15/1982 Contra Dance at California Hall Kevin Burke & Jackie Daly 12/19/1982 10/16/1982 Second Generation Contra Dance 10/17/1982 Judy Gorman-Jacobs plus Rosie's Bar & Grill
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1983
1/16/1983 4/10/1983 Harmony Sisters Golden Bough 1/21/1983 4/15/1983 Slavyanka Russian Men's Chorus Bruce (Utah) Phillips 1/23/1983 4/17/1983 John McCutcheon Maureen Brennan & Ceil Tarman 1/30/1983 4/24/1983 Holly Tannen/Out of the Rain Dougiel MacLean/Margaret Christl 2/4/1983 4/29/1983 Rick & Lorraine Lee/Cathy Fink Jim Ringer & Mary McCaslin 2/5/1983 5/1/1983 Contra Dance at California Hall Ed Silberman & Toni Gross 2/6/1983 5/6/1983 Randy Wilson/John Berquist Jean Redpath 2/13/1983 5/8/1983 Georgia Sea Island Singers Chris Proctor/Art Peterson 2/18/1983 5/15/1983 Reilly & Maloney Pete Kessler/Gail Fratar 2/19/1983 5/20/1983 Contra Dance at California Hall Juanita y Nayo 2/20/1983 5/22/1983 Danica with Kaba Vence Stan Rogers 2/27/1983 6/3/1983 Rosalie Sorrels/Jacquie & Bridie Android Sisters/Tony Marcus 3/4/1983 6/5/1983 Bluestein Family Magical Strings 3/5/1983 6/17/1983 Contra Dance at California Hall Tony Marcus/Android Sisters 3/6/1983 6/19/1983 Deborah Sandler/Brian Freeman Wild Geese 3/13/1983 9/10/1983 Sally Rogers/Howie Bursen Faith Petric's 68th Birthday 3/18/1983 Celebration: Faith Petric, Gail Fratar, Johnny Moynihan Peter Kessler, Carolo Calabi, Out of the 3/19/1983 Rain & others Contra Dance at California Hall 9/16/1983 3/20/1983 Grand Celtic Bash: Danny Carnahan, J. C. Burris/Tom Ball & Kenny Sulton Robin Petrie, Oak, Ash & Thorn, Terry 3/27/1983 O'Neal Jewish Music Festival 9/18/1983 4/1/1983 Melissa Morgan/Sylvia Herald & Marla Dalglish Larsen Band Fibish 4/3/1983 Sylvia & Carlo/The Mother Pluckers
115
9/30/1983 11/18/1983 Hillbillies from Mars/Le Soleil Jean Ritchie 10/7/1983 11/19/1983 Bill Staines Contra Dance at California Hall 10/9/1983 12/2/1983 Kornog Slavyanka Russian Men's Chorus 10/16/1983 12/3/1983 Bob Carlin Contra Dance at California Hall 10/21/1983 12/4/1983 Gordon Bok Grupo Raiz 10/30/1983 12/11/1983 La Bottine Soulante Ellis Island 11/4/1983 12/16/1983 Sylvia Woods Mooncoin 11/5/1983 12/17/1983 Contra Dance at California Hall Contra Dance at California Hall 11/6/1983 12/18/1983 Whiskey Before Breakfast/Dick Holiday Benefit Show for Plowshares Holdstock & Allan MacLeod 11/13/1983 Canta Tierra
1984
1/15/1984 2/26/1984 Fred Armstrong Park Dalglish & Larsen 1/20/1984 3/3/1984 Gryphon Robin Flower & Crystal Reeves 1/21/1984 3/4/1984 Contra Dance at California Hall Donna Hines, Sandy Bradley, Tony 1/22/1984 Parks, & Sid Blum Golden Bough 3/11/1984 1/29/1984 Stocktons Wing Sam Hinton 3/16/1984 2/3/1984 Berkeley Mandolin Ensemble with Marie Rheins/ Martine Habib Rudy Cippola 2/5/1984 3/17/1984 Frank Farrell & Bertram Levy Contra Dance at California Hall 2/12/1984 3/18/1984 Charlie King with Martha Leader U. Utah Phillips 2/17/1984 3/25/1984 Blues Celebration Patrick Ball & Kevin Carr 2/19/1984 3/30/1984 Tom McCreesh Cheap Suit Serenaders
116
4/1/1984 9/9/1984 Redmond O'Colonies David Maloney & David Rea 4/6/1984 9/21/1984 Kenny Hall and the Long Haul String Sabia Band 9/23/1984 4/8/1984 Peter Kessler & Gail Fratar Jewish Music Festival 10/5/1984 4/15/1984 Sukay Mike Seeger 10/7/1984 4/22/1984 Eric Tingstad & John McCormick Todd Whitamore, Cathie Whitesides 10/14/1984 4/29/1984 La Bottine Soulante Out of the Rain 10/19/1984 5/4/1984 Ruth Barrett & Cynthia Smith Danica 10/21/1984 5/5/1984 Cindy Kallet Contra Dance at California Hall 10/28/1984 5/9/1984 Bill Staines Crann Dara 11/2/1984 5/13/1984 Faith Petric, Laurie Brown & Rob Todd Phillips, John Reischman, Stephen McIntosh Burdick 11/4/1984 5/18/1984 Jean Ritchie Bob Brozman 11/11/1984 5/19/1984 Cyderman's Fancy/Deborah Sandler, Contra Dance at California Hall Robin Lewis & Daniel Hersh 5/20/1984 11/16/1984 Alistair Frasier & Paul Maclis Blue Flame Cajun Orch. with Danny 6/1/1984 Poulard Reit, Petite & Gone 11/18/1984 6/3/1984 Paul Geremia Gold Ring Reunion 11/24/1984 6/24/1984 Kornog Hotzeplotz 12/2/1984 6/29/1984 Gold Ring Lisa Ornstein & Denis Pepin 12/7/1984 9/7/1984 Savina/Nisava Banish Misfortune 12/16/1984 Jane Rothfield, Alan Carr & Martin Hadden 12/21/1984 Holy Tannen
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1985
1/1/1985 4/26/1985 Polka Party Fred Park and the Burning Desire String 1/13/1985 Band Bob Carlin 5/4/1985 1/20/1985 Contra Dance, St. Paul's Church Alistair Frasier & Paul Maclis 5/5/1985 1/25/1985 3rd Annual Jewish Music Festival Robin Flower Band with Chrystal 5/17/1985 Reeves Slavyanka Russian Men's Chorus 1/27/1985 5/18/1985 Tom Sauber Contra Dance, St. Paul's Church 2/3/1985 5/19/1985 Patrick Ball Margaret Christl 2/10/1985 5/31/1985 Golden Bough Frank Ferrel 2/15/1985 6/2/1985 The Old Country Dan Ar Bras 2/24/1985 6/8/1985 Lo Jai Contra Dance, St. Paul's Church 3/1/1985 6/13/1985 Gabriel Yacoub Fuge Imaginea 3/3/1985 6/16/1985 Sally Rogers Cathy Barton & Dave Para 3/10/1985 6/20/1985 Evo & Jemmy Bluestein & "Sprout Lisa Ornstein Wings & Fly" 6/22/1985 3/16/1985 Contra Dance, St. Paul's Church Contra Dance, St. Paul's Church 6/24/1985 3/22/1985 Dance Camp Benefit Special Square Dance: Tod Whittemore 6/28/1985 3/24/1985 Buddy MacMaster, Dave MacIsaac, Robin Petrie and Danny Carnahan Barbara Magone, Alasdair Fraser & 3/31/1985 Paul Machlis Redmond O'Colonies 6/30/1985 4/6/1985 Sparky Rucker Contra Dance, St. Paul's Church 8/17/1985 4/7/1985 Plethyn Happy Easter to you 9/15/1985 4/19/1985 Mother Logo Sam Hinton 9/29/1985 4/20/1985 Dab Hand Contra Dance, St. Paul's Church 10/20/1985 Easy Club
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11/3/1985 11/10/1985 Music Hall a la Mode with Redmond Glenn Ohrlin and Waddie Mitchell O'Colonies and Annie Lore 11/15/1985 Hatsegana
1986
1/12/1986 6/15/1986 MalvinaSong Lo Jai 1/24/1986 6/26/1986 Cajun Dance featuring Danny Poullard Lisa Ornstein 2/1/1986 7/12/1986 La Bottine Soulante Harp Concert: Clairseach & Sileas 2/21/1986 9/27/1986 Neal Hellman and Kim Robertson Laurie Lewis and the Grant Street String 3/1/1986 Band Dougie MacLean 10/4/1986 3/8/1986 Tommy Sands Sally Rogers and Howie Bursen 10/12/1986 3/22/1986 Bill Staines Kieran Halpin 10/26/1986 4/8/1986 John McCutcheon with Buttons & Bows Gabriel Yacoub 11/2/1986 4/12/1986 Steve Hancoff Cajun Dance with Danny Poullard 11/8/1986 4/26/1986 Pete Coe Ruth Barrett & Cynthia Smith 11/16/1986 4/27/1986 Duck Baker & Peppino D'Agostino Sam Hinton 12/7/1986 5/10/1986 Kornog Bleizi Ruz 12/21/1986 5/31/1986 Holly Tannen and Friends The Chrysanthemum Ragtime Band
1987
2/21/1987 5/16/1987 Alan MacLeod & Dick Holdstock Café Society 3/6/1987 9/13/1987 Alan MacLeod & Dick Holdstock Faith Petric, plus Holly Tannen and 3/8/1987 David Morris Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin 9/27/1987 3/20/1987 Magical Strings Peter Kessler & Gail Fratar 10/11/1987 4/25/1987 Bill Staines Redmond O'Connell
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10/18/1987 11/1/1987 Music Hall a la Mode featuring Andy M. Stewart & Manus Lunny Redmond O'Colonies, Annie Lore & 11/15/1987 Professor Scrumbly Saviá
1988
1/17/1988 9/11/1988 Guy & Evan Carawan Reilly & Maloney 1/31/1988 9/25/1988 No Strings Attached Bob Bossin 2/7/1988 10/9/1988 Judy Fjell & Betsy Rose Bill Staines 2/21/1988 10/16/1988 Robin Petrie & Danny Carnahan Madeline Eastman & Bruce Forman 3/20/1988 10/23/1988 An Evening of Celtic harp featuring Duck Baker Kim Roberson and Maureen & Ciel 11/6/1988 4/10/1988 David Rea & David Maloney Mark Graham 11/13/1988 4/17/1988 Double Treble & City Folk Ruth Barrett & Cynthia Smith 11/20/1988 5/1/1988 Inkuyo Mayday with the Freedom Song 12/4/1988 Network Out of the Rain 5/15/1988 Judi Friedman & Linda Hirschorn
1989
1/29/1989 4/16/1989 Redmond O'Colonies Dale Miller & Double Treble 2/12/1989 4/30/1989 Golden Bough David Rea & David Maloney 2/26/1989 9/10/1989 Chaskinaqui Reilly & Maloney 3/12/1989 9/17/1989 Lost Weekend Priscilla Herdman 3/19/1989 9/24/1989 Danny Carnahan & Robin Petrie Kats and Jammers 4/2/1989 10/8/1989 Peppino d'Agostino Redmond O'Colonies 4/9/1989 10/15/1989 Judy Fjell & Carol McComb Bill Staines
120
10/28/1989 11/26/1989 Inkuyo City Folk/Peter Lamson 11/11/1989 12/3/1989 Kim Robertson Out of the Rain
1990
2/4/1990 9/30/1990 The Berrymans Benefit for Plowshaes with David 2/11/1990 Moloney & Others Chaskinakua 10/14/1990 2/18/1990 Bill Staines Utah Philips 10/21/1990 3/4/1990 Cats 'n Jammers David Maloney & David Rea 10/28/1990 3/18/1990 City Folk /Rob Laurens Golden Bough 11/4/1990 4/8/1990 Chasinakuy John Carrick, Sarah Campbell & Nina 11/18/1990 Gerber Out of the Rain 4/22/1990 12/2/1990 Judy Fjell David Moloney/John Carrick 5/6/1990 12/9/1990 City Folk Nina Gerber 5/20/1990 Garrison White with "Beneath the Wheel"
1991
2/10/1991 5/12/1991 Carolyn Hester Utah Philips 2/24/1991 5/26/1991 Dale Miller and Solid Air Duck Baker/Molly Andrews 3/10/1991 10/13/1991 Sarah Elizabeth Campbell & Nina Bill Staines Gerber 11/29/1991 3/24/1991 Peter and Gail Mary McCaslin 12/7/1991 4/7/1991 Carol McComb & Nina Gerber City Folk 4/28/1991 Susan Udell/Willy Claflin
121
1992
3/28/1992 10/11/1992 Songwriter's Night Bill Staines 5/9/1992 11/14/1992 Benefit for Beth Weil: Kathy Kallick Mary McCaslin with Nina Gerber & friends and Cats 12/11/1992 and Jammers Eric & Suzy Thompson
1993
2/6/1993 10/15/1993 Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum Utah Philips 3/20/1993 11/13/1993 Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen/Rob Faith Petric/Peter Kessler, Gail Fratar & Laurens Jeff Crossley 4/24/1993 11/21/1993 Hank Bradley & Cathie Whitesides Saul Broudy acco. by Peter Kessler, 10/10/1993 Chuck Aronson & Bill Amatneek Bill Staines
1994
1/29/1994 10/9/1994 Lou & Peter Berryman Bill Staines 3/4/1994 10/29/1994 Golden Bough Robin Flower & Libby McClaren 3/26/1994 11/12/1994 Cats & Jammers Chaskinakuy
1995
2/26/1995 11/4/1995 Tom Paxton Cats & Jammers 10/15/1995 11/18/1995 Bill Staines Duck Baker & Molly Andrews
122
1996
10/13/1996 11/23/1996 Bill Staines Faith Petric, Peter Kessler & Gail Fratar 11/9/1996 Mary McCaslin
1997
3/21/1997 11/1/1997 Gordon Bok Celtic Elvis 5/10/1997 11/15/1997 Charlie King Peter Kessler & Gail Fratar
1998
1/24/1998 Lou & Peter Berryman