Pete Seeger
Ellen Harper Verdries grew up in a music store! Her parents, Dorothy and Charles Chase, formed their first store in Massachusetts before moving to Southern California in 1958. The Folk Music Center of Claremont has served the community for over 50 years providing an amazing variety of unique and...
Roger McGuinn got a transistor radio from his parents as a young kid and was never the same after hearing Elvis Presley. He instantly picked up the guitar and it changed his life forever. Roger co-founded The Byrds in 1964 with David Crosby and Gene Clark and recorded amazing versions of “Turn!...
Joe Chambers was inspired by his older brother George to play guitar and write songs. The brothers, Joe, George, Willie and Lester, formed The Chambers Brothers and began singing gospel music. They went on to perform in clubs, folk festivals and large concert venues after adding songs with rock,...
Willie Chambers and his brothers fell in love with gospel music while growing up singing in church. Even though they received some strong criticism, they expanded the places where church music was heard, including night clubs and bars in the late 1950s and early 1960s. With the support of Pete...
Peter Yarrow is the Peter in the wildly successful popular folk music trio Peter, Paul, and Mary. During his often musical NAMM Oral History interview, Peter spoke of the role music played during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, as well as the anti-war movement during the Vietnam War. The...
Tom Paxton spoke eloquently about the role folk music played during critical events in American history, such as the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s for which he was involved with. Tom marched, wrote songs, and played the songs of others, such as Pete Seeger, in order to bring about...
Pete Seeger was the American folk icon who made it a personal goal to bring peace to the world by getting people to sing! His role in the folk music movement, beginning in the 1930's, forever changed the role music played in protest, celebration and sorrow. Within the music products industry,...
Kim Breedlove began building banjos in the 1960s, during the Folk Music movement and the popularity of such performers as Pete Seeger. After working with his brother for a few months he moved to the east coast while his brother moved to Oregon to form Breedlove Guitars. As Kim moved to Oregon, his...
Grit Laskin grew up in Toronto and as a teen had his mind set on playing the guitar during the folk boom of the 1960s. He performed, recorded and wrote music, some of which was recorded by the likes of Pete Seeger. Along the way he found a few ways to adjust the guitar to suit him better and thus...
Happy Traum began his musical career in the 1960s, greatly influenced by the folk movement that had gripped the culture in America. He and his late brother, Artie, helped establish a New York scene for folk music along with some of their friends and fellow-musicians such as a young Bob Dylan. After...