A great man is gone.  My friend Sandy Paton, who, with his wife Caroline, founded Folk Legacy Records in 1961, has passed. Coincidentally I waxed on about Sandy and Caroline on my Saturday show.  I finer man I have never met.  The folk world has lost one of it’s great champions. 

“When We Gather Once More” -Rick Fielding

  Be well, be safe, be kind, be strong
  For the times will test us sore
  And to gladden our hearts,
  Our bodies, our souls
  Oh, be here when we gather once more.
  Oh, be here when we gather once more.

  Now if I find a resting place
  Before I’m back this way
  Or if the road be just too long
  And my feet have turned to clay
  If from tonight you do recall
  Just one line from this song
  Then even if our roads do end,
  This song will travel on.

Max,

  How did you meet him,  and what do you count as his major contributions to the folk music world?

Mel

Sandy Paton was born on January 22, 1929. Due to his father’s work in the Coast and Geodetic Survey, Sandy’s family moved quite a bit. Sandy eventually found himself in Washington D.C. where he studied art, but the classroom wasn’t for him and soon he was in Seattle where he continued to paint and also took up acting. While in Seattle during the late 1940’s, Sandy was introduced to folk music and became enamored with the style.

During the 1950’s Sandy traveled the country playing guitar, and in 1957 he was in Berkeley, California when he met the woman who would become his wife, Caroline. The couple would travel to England where Sandy performed in clubs and coffeehouses. They also recorded as a couple as well as some solo recordings from Sandy. Their interest in folk music continued to grow, and they became friends with noted collectors Hamish Henderson and Jeanie Robertson. The Patons were on their own journey collecting and learning folk songs.

They returned to the United States and Sandy continued to perform and record. Caroline would sing with Sandy, but she was raising the couples two boys. Sandy also felt the responsibility of raising his family and settled down to a “real” job in Chicago. He began working in a record department of a Chicago department store, where he introduced and began selling commercially released folk recordings.

The life the couple were leading in the Chicago area was nice, but they wanted more for their family. After vacationing with friends in Burlington, Vermont during the summer of 1961, the Patons decided to pack up and move to New England.

Sandy also took some time to go on a collecting trip to the Appalachians where he collected and recorded songs from Frank Profitt (the source of “Tom Dooley”) and Horton Barker. Sandy played these recordings for a folk music friend they met in Chicago, Lee Haggerty. Lee was impressed by the recordings and suggested that they form a record company to release their own LP’s of traditional music. With financial backing from Lee and his sister, the Folk Legacy label was created.

Folk Legacy Records first release came in 1961 “Frank Proffitt, of Reese, North Carolina”. The company, now located in Sharon, CT, is still issuing new recordings as well as keeping the original catalog alive on CD. Many of the releases were field recordings such as the ones Sandy collected from Frank Proffitt and Horton Barker. The cornerstone for Folk Legacy has been the preservation of traditional music, but they also provided a home for a number of songwriters who shared a passion for the tradition. The list of artists who have recorded for Folk Legacy include Rosalie Sorrels, Gordon Bok, Art Thieme, Joe Hickerson, Bill Staines, Jean Redpath, Michael Cooney and many others.

Over the years, that Patons have continued to make music and performing with their family at festivals and events in New England. They were also named Connecticut’s “Official State Troubadours” in 1993.

In an age where “number of units sold” seems to dictate what and how music is made available, it is refreshing to see a company that looks at quality and maintains a vision for the future. Lee Haggerty passed away in 2000, but Folk Legacy continues to be operated with a hands on approach by Sandy and Caroline and their children. Their hard work, reputation for quality, and ability to share their music has created a unique recording label. We are grateful. Please visit their website at www.folk-legacy.com .

In addition to being a “folk icon” is one of the nicest people you will ever meet!

Originally written by RON OLESKO on Sandy’s 78th birthday.

Please consider supporting Folk Legacy with your business, if you can.

I met Sandy in the mid-90s shortly after founding mudcat.org and getting into the folk “business”.  Anybody that has done something so silly knows that “getting into the folk business” essentially means spending all your money rather than making any.  My dad was 11 years old when he founded Folk Legacy, so I am not exactly sure why he did so, but I do know that when I knew him he did it because of a profound love of the music and a great service to humankind.  Real altruism if I’ve ever seen it.

I was invited to The Folklore Society of Greater Washington‘s annual “Getaway” because many of their members had started to use mudcat.org as a way in which to keep in touch between events and to expand their membership base.  Sandy and Caroline were members and attended many, if not all, of the events.  I was just a kid, and just learning about folk music from library books, my dad’s records and the CD’s that you had to special order from Smithsonian and Folk Legacy because they didn’t sell them in the big music stores that are now all dead.  Actually meeting the people that put these records out was amazing to me.  When you are learning in school, you don’t often get to meet the folks that wrote your textbooks. 

I formed some great relationships with the FSGW and Sandy and Caroline because we all had the same goals.  Appreciate and preserve folk music and make sure that it survives after we’re long gone.  I was, and still am, honored to be a part of it all, because they were so old and wise and all I had was enthusiasm and a Web site.  Sandy and Caroline took me under their wings and taught me much of what I know, introduced me and treated me like I had accomplished as much as them.  At a time, I thought I was special, but it turns out they’re such great people that everyone that walks away knowing them gets the same treatment. 

About his impact on the folk world, I’ll quote my friend Dan Schatz, “Sandy did more than any other person to create the music that I have known and loved my entire life. I grew up, like others in my generation and after, on Folk Legacy records. Today, a significant portion of the albums in my LP collection are the familiar black sleeves with the photographs on front. Sandy gave us the music of Gordon Bok and Rosalie Sorrels and Bill Staines and Jonathan Eberhart and Helen Schneyer and Joe Hickerson and Cindy Kallet and Kendall Morse and Frank Proffitt and Hobart Smith and Archie Fisher and Ed Trickett and so many others. This is a monumental loss to the folk music community and to music at large.”

To read more about Sandy from the people that knew him, visit our memorial thread at mudcat.org.  There is some real touching stuff in there.

From Sing Out! today on the news.

A post by Gene Shay on the FolkDJ list:

Date:  Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:57:38 -0400
From:  Gene Shay <gene.shay@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Sandy Paton ande Folk Legacy

How sad to hear that Sandy Paton has passed away.
He was one of my early heroes and the kind and gentle man who—-during one
of the very first Folk Alliance meetings in Philadelphia in 1999, (before
the group became an official entity) took me by the arm and said,
“Gene…why don’t you put your name up for the Board Of Directors?”
At Sandy’s urging I put my name on the blackboard and it was a move that
changed my life significantly.
I was elected that very same day to the Charter Board of The National Folk
and Dance Alliance. One of the proudest moments in my career.

But even before his show of confidence in me, Sandy and Caroline were
recording and releasing some of the best folk music recordings in my entire
library: The Golden Ring, Gordon Bok, Ed Trickett, Joe Hickerson, Sara
Grey…folk music that had all the richness, humanity and sense of community
that made me cherish them—-and often overplay them.
These were “real” folk music recordings without the frills and four color
slipcases, just a plain-jane black and white cover with a lyric and info
booklet that would make Moe Asch proud.

Years later, whenever I needed a new CD copy of a scratchy old Folk Legacy
LP, Sandy and Caroline would come through. Later their son would handle my
requests—and let’s not forget that Sandy and Caroline sang beautifully
together and had the recordings to prove it.

Another feature that made the Paton’s albums so special—-for the most part
they were recorded in the Paton’s home in Sharon, Connecticut. I remember
listening to the very first Golden Ring album and wishing that I could have
been in that living room with that talented circle of friends.
Now that was folk music—-still is. Thank you Sandy.

Gene Shay / Philadelphia, PA