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Page Six

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Wednesday, September 2, 1970

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Folk groups invade 'U'

By LESLIE WAYNE
- Ann Arbor has always been a real home for
folk anusic, and last year the long-standing friend-
ship turned into a love affair in a week-long
cielidh (pronounced caylee) at the Ark.
Folk singers from all over the country flew in
for the folkfest, and Ahe audiences could not get
enough of Jenny Haley, Michael Cooney, Larry
Hanks-on and on the list goes, from the familiar
names to the very new.
Ann Arbor seems to be one of those places
where ever present grievances and sorrows pro-
vide the stuff that folk music is made of.
Folk singers-both traditional and. commercial,
known and unknown, can be found in abindance
both on the streets and in long-established coffee
houses.
Catching an original folk poet singing his own
creations is just a matter of walking across the
Diag on a sunny day. But for those who wish to
schedule their folk listening hours or wish to hear
someone with a little polish to their voice, a walk
to either the Ark or Canterbury House any week-
end should satisfy their desires.
Folk music in Ann Arbor can be roughly divided
into two classes-traditional and commercial.
And while' traditionalists may groan when a
member of the audience requests Suzanne, the
commercial artists who meet these requests are
usually the likes of Joni Mitchell or Judy Collins.
Traditionalists are usually found at the Ark
(and if you are really a member of this group you
may be invited to one of their 1 a.m. to 5 a.m.
hoots when artists finishing their act at other
clubs straggle to the Ark's main room.)
Ark manager Dave Seigland says he aims at
Blues festiva

making the audience "relaxed not only with the
singer but also with the guy sitting across the
room." One Ark regular describes the place as
"down-keyed and unorganized, a place where you
can find freaks and straight people together."
Musicians who play at the Ark are concerned
more about perpetuating the ethnic folk tradition
than earning commercial success.
Ann Arbor is also one of the stopping places
for such name folk performers as Len Chandler,
Spider John Koerner or Tom Rush. These singers
usually stop for a three night engagement at the
Canterbury House on Maynard Street. Unlike
artists who frequent the Ark, those flocking to
Canterbury House expand beyond the folk tradi-
tion into folk-rock, blues and soft-sell jazz.
While Canterbury House lacks the calm at-
mosphere of the Ark, it is nevertheless always
packed, with the turnaway crowds often larger
than those who get seated. And unlike the Ark,
its customers receive cider and doughnuts.
Nor does Canterbury House limit itself to the
weekend trade. Like the Ark, it is open all week
with impromptu performances of "whatever hap-
pens to be in town," one Canterbury House regu-
lar says. Traveling drama groups, films-local
and otherwise, political discussion and indescrib-
able acts grace both the Ark and Canterbury
House stages.
And for those few who wish to be on the
bright side of the footlights, "opportunities abound
to display ones musical virtuosities. The Ark has
open house every Wednesday night, and smaller
coffee houses in the dorms-Alice's Restaurant
in Alice Lloyd Hall or Smitty's in South Quad-
often sponsor local talent.

Rock
By ERIKA HOFF
Although the Ann Arbor com-
munity can often hear local
rock groups such as the MC5,
the Bob Seeger System, SRC,
and the Amboy Dukes, it doesn't
have the same access to non-
local rock groups.
Ann Arbor has no ballroom
that can hire a band and net
enough from ticket sales to be
self-sustaining, and free con-
cert programs come under fire
from Ann Arbor residents and
the city administration.
But right now things are gen-
erally good for hearing rock
bands. The Big Steel ballroom
has free or very inexpensive
concerts, and there are regular
free concerts in various parks
around the town every Sunday
afternoon. However, the history
behind both these enterprises is
stormy and the future doesn't
look much better.
The Big Steel ballroom opened
under that name this May. In
other years it has been open for
short periods as the Hullabaloo
and, prior to that, the 5th Di-
mension. The Big Steel's success
matched that of its predecessors.
Within two weeks of its open-
ing its management had incur-
red heavy debts and gave the
Big Steel up for a lost cause.
The audience ~simply was not
sufficient to support the hiring
of bands. The Bjg Steel now

concerts vibrate

city

operates as a place for free or
nearly free concerts - which
eliminates- the possibility of hir-
ing a band from outside of Ann
Arbor.
The free Sunday rock concerts
first started three years ago.
Last year a more organized at-
tempt was made resulting in all
kinds of negative reactions-
citizens complained the concerts
were too noisy, the police pro-
tested that the concert encour-
aged dope smoking, and city of-
ficials worried that their con-
stituents weren't h a p p y. It
reached the point where city
councilmen were getting elected
with platforms promising to ban
the concerts.
But last summer there was
a lot of trouble in the streets
because "the people" wanted a
place they could be, so this sum-
mer the city council acquiesed-
and allowed rock concerts to be

held in various city parks on a
rotating basis.-
When the rock movement was
gaining momentum during the
sixties, Detroit was the center
for the midwest. Groups started
recording locally in Detroit and
then selling hits to national re-
cording companies, instead of
going out to New York or Los
Angeles to make records.
With the advent of Detroit's "
Grande Ballroom,'FM radio sta-
tions, and an artists' workshop
set up by John Sinclair-who is
more widely known through his
affiliation with the White Pan-
ther Party-rock became firmly
entrenched in Detroit by the
middle sixties.
Rock in Ann Arbor then con-
sisted mainly of' few fraternity
bands. Bigger groups such as the
Amboy Dukes; who are original-
ly from Ann Arbor, did most of

their performing outside the
city.
In the summer of 1968 the
White Panther Party-formerly
the Trans-Love Energies - and
the MC5 moved here from De-
troit, and Ann Arbor gradually
took over as the rock-youth cul-
ture centerfor the Midwest.
'But the bands who live here
still have to go elsewhere to
make their bread. Facilities for
rock concerts on, campus are
limited and, ballrooms off-cam-
pus have never been too success-
ful from an economic point of
view.

The world is our
warehouse,
you shall not
want.
i4
F)
JStonge.6
Ann Arbor, michigan 48108
no 3-4541
Try Daily Classifieds

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11

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The

By ROB BIER
"It's - the greatest thing in the world,"
organizer Ken Whipple says of the Ann
Arbor Blues Festival. He tells of last year's
three days of blues and how B. B. King
came off stage after playing a set. Ken
asked him if he would come to a jam
session.
"He put his arm around me, asked me
my name and said what a great thing
it was that he was able to be here. There
were tears in his eyes. It's the greatest
thing in the world.
Of course, not too many people get to
actually meet the performers, but there
is a lot more to the Blues festival than
that.
This summer's festival was scheduled for
Aug. 7, 8 and 9, and the program included
five c o n c e r t s in three days with over
32 performers, most of whom are unknown,
except to real stone blues freaks. Bukka
White, Brother Montgomery, Hound Dog
Taylor, John Lee Hooker, Jukeboy Bonner
and many others. And they are all black.
"The blues is a black genre and this . is'
an all black show," says organizer John
Fishel. "The festival is a dream for some
of these guys, not for the prestige, b u t
because they need the bread. We have to

send some of , the checks in ad
they can pay their electric bills
their cars fixed to come up h
And they play their hearts o
of them literally. The field next
Arbor's Huron High, where the fes
be held, will be named Otis Sp
morial Field, in honor of 'the blu
who appeared in '69 at the first
and died since then. Six other pe
from last year have died in the i
The blues, however, keep on
With a bigger budget and the ex
of last year, Fishel says, "We
bigger cross section of blues thi
folk blues, old time blues, moder,
blues, rhythn and blues. We've g
man band and blues people from
and Detroit."
In addition to sufficient toilets
lem last year, and drinking wat
were plans for a campgroun'd
field. As this supplement goes
Fishel expects room for about 20
ple, but "all the organization is i
in is breaking even," he says.;
"We don't want this to be a r
so many such concerts are. T
people's-type festival and we hop
going to come. Because it's going
very mellow festival," Fishel say

best possible
vance so Although some people would like to
and get see a free concert, Fishel says it cannot
ere." be done.
ut, some
to Ann "White groups, like SRC, can go out
tival will and cut a record for, say, $160,000. They
han Me- can afford to give a free concert, but these
ues great guys will play two nights a weekend from
festival, 8 until 5 in the morning and only get $30.
erformers And even if they do get a chance to make
nterim. a record, they usually get screwed.kI feel
coming. we owe them something for all they've
xperience given us and all the exploitation they've
have a gone through.
is year- Then, too, there is the chance that the
n or city sponsoring groups, Canterbury House and
ot a one the University E Activities Center (UAC),
Chicago could be in real trouble if there is a loss,
especially Canterbury House.
, a prob-
er, there "They're morgaged up to the hilt now
at the and a loss could close them down," Fishel
to press, says. "If we do make a profit, it will go to
,000 peo- Canterbury House, so they can continue to
nterested bring us performers as they have in the
past.
ipoff like Warner Brothers Records had plans to
his is a tape part of the festival, which Dan Mor-
e they're gan of Downbeat magazine last year called,
g to be a "the best festival of the year, if not of the
ys. decade."

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