Hot Times at Old Town

Appearing below are selections from the hard copy Hot Times. The objective is to highlight activities at the School and in the larger community, especially those featuring or of special interest to teachers and staff. Your suggestions are welcome. Enter a comment (under any item); it will come to me rather than automatically appearing.

New, old, wonderful Mark Dvorak Album

Neat idea!

What a Wonderful World: A Family Folk Sampler brings together some of Mark’s best tracks, plus four new ones. In one place you’ll find eleven songs from Mark’s 1995 award-winning CD Old Songs & New People, three from the 1996 Just Something My Grandma Used to Sing, three more from 2000’s Weavermania! LIVE and one track from Use It Up, Wear It Out released in 1992 — plus four new tracks recorded with The Sons of the Never Wrong. Other musicians on the tracks include Michael Smith, Tom Dundee and Barbara Barrow, Rick Sherry from Devil in a Woodpile, old-time fiddle master Steve Rosen and John Williams on whistle and accordion.

In July, Mark was recognized for his broad, long-term contribution to the local and national folk community with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Woodstock Folk Festival. In receiving this award, he joined past winners Art Thieme, Ella Jenkins, Larry Penn, Amy Beth, Holly Near and Jim Post. in her letter to Mark, Festival Board Vice President Annemarie Serra wrote:

“[We are giving you the Seventh annual Woodstock Folk Festival Lifetime Achievement Award] in recognition of your work as a performer, teacher and folk historian. You are a vibrant part of the local and national folk community. Not only have you contributed to the Old Town School of Folk Music as a teacher but you have also kept the history of the school and its founders alive. It seems especially appropriate that we honor you as OTSFM has just completed its 50th Anniversary year in which you played a key role.”

As has been noted elsewhere, “A touring musician since 1981, Mark’s travels have led him to Okemah, Oklahoma, for research on Woody Guthrie; to Lead Belly’s grave near Mooringsport, LA; and back home to Chicago’s Maxwell Street with its living blues tradition. Dvorak’s “Streets of Old Chicago” CD led to a meeting with Frank Hamilton, co-founder of Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, now of Atlanta: “Frank and I have become friends over the years and in many ways he remains a great mentor. Frank and I have played some concerts together, but mostly have fun jamming and talking about music; talking about learning and teaching.” Mark also credits Art Thieme and the late Fred Holstein for early encouragement. As part of “Weavermania”, since 1999, with Michael Smith, Barbara Barrow and Tom Dundee, he performed at the Philadelphia Folk Festival and the Ann Arbor Folk Festival, where the group sang “Blowin’ In the Wind” with Peter Yarrow and jammed with Richard Thompson for 4,000 people. They swapped old Weaver arrangements with Pete Seeger at a Chicago concert in 2002.”

Perhaps the best characterization of Mark was by the late U. Utah Phillips, who referred to him as “One of a vanishing breed… Although all of us benefit from the tradition, Dvorak is one of the few who keep it alive. Listen. Join in.”

This album is a wonderful celebration of Mark’s music and of the rich traditions which he keeps fresh.

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Filed under: Interesting at Old Town by Skip | August 27, 2008 |


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