Tom Paley Archives - Bluegrass Today

Tom Paley funeral arrangements

His musician son, Ben, has announced arrangements for Tom Paley’s funeral and wake.

His message is as follows ….

“My dad’s funeral will be at Golders Green Crematorium at three o’clock in the afternoon on the 24th of October.

Afterwards there will be a celebration of his life at Cecil Sharp House, from five to eight o’clock.

These will be public events, with no dress code: come as casual or as dressy as you feel appropriate. Please tell others who you think would like to come — I know there are many people who would like to attend whose email addresses I don’t have.

There will be a session at Cecil Sharp House, so do bring instruments if you fancy playing.

Please don’t send flowers. If you would like to make a donation to charity instead you might consider the English Folk Dance and Song Society, or Help Musicians, which used to be the Musicians Benevolent Fund — or donate to your local folk festival, or folk club, or just spend it on going to watch live music. Or buy yourself a pint of cider, or a large glass of red wine.

We will have a book of remembrance at Cecil Sharp House for people to write any comments they want, or limericks. If you can’t make it but still want to be included, then please send something in good time by private message and we’ll print it out and stick it in the book.

Similarly, if you have a message you would like read out, please keep it short, send it to me by private message the 20th October and we will do our best to read it. We’ll print it and stick it in the remembrance book anyway.

We’ll be displaying photos of Tom and other memorabilia — if you have anything you’d like included, please scan it and send it to me by private message by the 20th October and we’ll do our best to include it.”

The Goldersgreen Crematorium is at 62 Hoop Lane, Goldersgreen, London NW11 7NL. Cecil Sharp House, the home of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, is located at 2 Regents Park Road, London NW1 7AY.

The Music Shines On…Remembering Tom Paley

Tom Paley (top left) with the New Lost City Ramblers

This remembrance of the late Tom Paley is a contribution from James Reams.

I first met Tom Paley at a jam session during an old-time fiddle festival in Brooklyn. I didn’t recognize him until he started playing. That was about 1990, and I had just started performing in the NYC area with a terrific fiddler named Bill Christophersen. I was so blown away that I had just gotten to jam with one of my long-time idols from the New Lost City Ramblers, that I almost let the opportunity to talk with him slip through my fingers. Somehow I got up the courage to ask him if he wanted to grab a bite to eat (little knowing that curry was this super hero’s Kryptonite!). He must have seen my passion for this music as we talked over plates of great Indian food, because that’s the only explanation I have for why he agreed to record some songs with two young old-time bluegrass musicians from Brooklyn.

Even though Tom was living in England by then, he did make regular trips back to the States and we were able to gather enough songs over a six-year period to put together an album, and The Mysterious Redbirds was released by Copper Creek Records in 2000. The recording sessions were definitely not up to the standards for a legend like Tom Paley. We recorded live with minimal manipulation.

Our first recording session took place in the basement of an old brownstone. During winter months, the radiators would kick on with clanks and bangs causing us to have to stop recording until they went off again. The next two sessions were at Hank Bones’ studio on the 6th floor of a walkup (the elevator was permanently broken!). There was no A/C or fan in the studio and it was hot! We had this tube going between the engineering room and the recording room and during breaks in recording the engineer would hold up a desk fan to the tube to blow fresh air into our area. But Tom never complained and, in fact, kept us all laughing with his incredible talent for puns.

When Tom would come to New York, he would often stay at my house in Brooklyn. He wasn’t much for taking in the culture, preferring to stay “home” and play his music. I learned so much from those daily sessions. He would sit me down and teach me some of his favorite Swedish fiddle tunes. These polskas featured ¾ time, non-tempered intervals that made accompaniment on the guitar particularly difficult. I think those practices gave me a love for the crooked tunes of old-time music.

Tom’s three-finger style banjo picking was a rarity among old-time musicians and a nod to his inspiration, Uncle Dave Macon. Like Uncle Dave, Tom had some quirky habits too, like using a bungee cord for his banjo strap, stuffing his banjo head with undergarments, and carrying around extra picks in an old banged up tin box. But when he picked up that banjo and started playing, you knew you were in the presence of greatness. Tom’s rhythmatic picking had a snap to it – it was always clean and crisp. Although his first love was definitely the banjo, not many folks know that Tom also sold fiddles. In fact, Bill Christophersen, my long-time friend and collaborator on The Mysterious Redbirds, bought one of Tom’s fiddles and still uses it today.

Although I kept in touch with Tom, I hadn’t had the pleasure of getting to sit down with him personally since I moved to the southwest. The last time I saw Tom was in 2008 when he flew to NYC for a special concert that I had organized as part of the Park Slope Bluegrass and Old-time Music Jamboree. It just so happened that the Jamboree was scheduled for the exact date that the New Lost City Ramblers had performed together for the very first time, 50 years ago. Tom was joined by fellow bandmate, John Cohen and accompanied by Bill Christophersen on fiddle for this special 50th Anniversary Reunion. The concert was pure magic and transported all of us back to that wonderful hey dey of folk music.

It was truly an honor to be able to perform and record with this legendary folk hero. He taught me so much and I am grateful for the blessing of his friendship. One of the things that Tom continually pressed upon me was that performers should use themselves to present the music and not the other way around. I’ve tried to live by that creed throughout my 25-year career as a bluegrass musician. I hope I’ve done Tom proud.

Tom Paley passes

Tom Paley, guitarist, banjo and fiddle player, best known for his being a member of the New Lost City Ramblers, passed away in Brighton, England, on Saturday afternoon, September 30, 2017. He was 89 years old and had been in a care facility for about a week.

Allan Thomas “Tom” Paley was born in the Bronx, New York City, on March 19, 1928, a pioneering figure in the traditional music revival, being a founding member of the New Lost City Ramblers with two other singers and multi-instrumentalists, Mike Seeger and John Cohen.

Paley played with the New Lost City Ramblers from 1958 to 1962, a prolific period during which the group released 11 albums and made more than 150 public appearances. During those years he helped spearhead an old-time music revival.

Paley’s son Ben told British fRoots magazine …

“He [died] peacefully, surrounded by family, after a brief decline in health. He was active and independent until only three months ago, pursuing to the full the sociable and musical life he had lived for so many decades; visiting his friends, folk clubs and sessions, playing and listening to the music he loved, at the heart of the musical life of so many of us.”

As well as being a member of the New Lost City Ramblers, Paley enjoyed a solo career during which he collaborated with others on various recording sessions.

He became interested in folk music from attending left-leaning summer camps, and learned to play guitar in his teenage years.

Paley graduated in 1950 from City College of New York and received a master’s degree in mathematics from Yale in 1953. He taught the subject for many years.

In 1952, at the age of 24, he made his first solo recording with the subsequent release of Folk Songs From the Southern Appalachian Mountains on the newly-started Elektra label. By that time, he had already introduced urban audiences to Depression-era rural music, sharing what have become staples of the genre like Little Maggie and Shady Grove.

A passionate enthusiast and promoter of folk music, Paley also worked with other American folk music legends, Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter).

Paley moved to England, from Sweden in 1965 shortly after which he formed the New Deal String Band.

Also, he influenced Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia and the young Ry Cooder, teaching the last two some of the finer points of the acoustic guitar.

In recent years Paley performed and recorded with his son Ben, a fiddle player.

Paley’s death leaves only John Cohen as a surviving founder of the New Lost City Ramblers. Mike Seeger passed away in 2009.

R.I.P. Tom Paley