Preview: La Cave Reunion Festival 6/25-26/10

Carolyn Hester may be the most famous musician you’ve never heard of. She was, essentially, the first female artist to become well known among the then-new generation of folk singers in the early ’60s, before Joan Baez and Judy Collins, both of whom eventually became better known than she.

Hester was instrumental (so to speak) in getting Bob Dylan signed to Columbia Records, when she brought the not-well-known Dylan into the studio to play harmonica on one of her albums and introduced him to the legendary Columbia producer and A&R man John Hammond.

She was asked to form a trio with Peter Yarrow and Noel (Paul) Stookey, but declined, so when Mary Travers joined, instead, Peter, Paul & Mary was born. (That name sounded better than Peter, Noel & Carolyn, anyway.)

She was married to author and songwriter Richard Farina before he married Joan Baez’s sister, Mimi, and he and the latter started singing together as Richard and Mimi Farina. Hester appeared on the cover of the May 30th, 1964, issue of the Saturday Evening Post, a major national magazine at that time.

She even recorded an album that was produced by Buddy Holly’s producer Norman Petty, before she left Texas for New York’s Greenwich Village in the late ’50, and did some work with Holly himself.

So why is all of the significant? Because Carolyn Hester is performing in Cleveland this week, along with other folk legends, as part of the La Cave Reunion Festival, which takes place at Wilbert’s Food & Music on Friday and Saturday, June 25 and 26, starting at 6:30 each night.

La Cave was Cleveland’s folk music venue from 1962 to 1969. The club, in the basement of a now-long-gone building on Euclid Avenue, near East 107th Street, hosted almost every major folk music artist of the time. In its final few years, it also added rock artists to its lineup.

You could go to La Cave and sit at a table in the relatively small club and watch acts including Simon & Garfunkel, Neil Yong, Gordon Lightfoot, Phil Ochs, Arlo Guthrie, Judy Collins, Tom Paxton, Tim Hardin, Linda Ronstadt, John Hammond, Tom Rush, Dave Van Ronk, Doc Watson, Flatt & Scruggs, Jose Feliciano, Richie Havens, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Canned Heat, Blood, Sweat & Tears, the Velvet Underground, Iron Butterfly, and the Youngbloods. At least nine Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees and nine performers who appeared at Woodstock played La Cave. And many local musicians appeared at La Cave as regular opening acts and headliners.

Besides Hester, returning to Cleveland this week to perform at the La Cave Reunion Festival are Friday’s headliner Josh White Jr. and Saturday’s headliner Brewer & Shipley.

After appearing in several Broadway plays as a child, Josh White Jr. began his recording career in the early ’60s, following in the footsteps of his father, the legendary and groundbreaking folksinger Josh White, one of the few African-American folk singers of his era. Josh Jr. played at La Cave, but what makes his appearance at the La Cave Reunion particularly poignant is that his father was the very first performer ever to appear at La Cave when it opened in 1962.

The acoustic duo Brewer & Shipley are best remembered for their #7 1971 single “One Toke Over the Line.” A staple of FM rock radio of the early ’70s, their other best known songs included “Tarkio Road,” “Indian Summer,” and “Witchi Tai To.” Brewer & Shipley also played at La Cave (Tom Shipley is a Cleveland-area native.)

In the spirit of La Cave, which showcased new artists as well as the established ones, opening for Josh White Jr. will be young Cleveland-based acoustic singer-songwriter Tom Evanchuck, who will also be launching his new CD there.

Each night’s concert will begin with short sets by folk acts, some of whom were local regulars at La Cave. One is Jim Glover (Saturday), who was half of the folk, and then folk-rock, duo Jim & Jean, who record three albums for national labels. Glover also taught Phil Ochs how to play guitar and was responsible for helping to get Ochs involved in political matters and into performing.

Others include Alan Leatherwood, Gusti and Toni Dell. Also on the bill are Bobbie & Alexis Antes, Cleveland native Victoria Parks, who now lives in Columbus, and Charlie & Celia Lewis (former Clevelanders now living in Athens, Ohio).

All the artists will be available – when they’re not performing – for chatting about the old days of La Cave, as will several people who were involved in running the club or who worked there.

Also: The Cleveland Museum of Art, in conjunction with the La Cave Reunion Festival, is showing the film Leonard Cohen: Live at the Isle of Wight, 1970, also including Joan, Baez, Judy Collins, Kris Kistofferson and others, at 7PM in the Morley Lecture Hall. Admission is $8; CMA members, seniors 65 & over and students: $6. Advance tickets: 216-421-7350 or 1-888-CMA-0033 or http://www.clevelandart.org. Film attendees will be offered discounts to the concerts.

Tickets and more information are available at http://www.clevelandlacave.com.

David Budin is a freelance writer and a folk and rock musician, whose folk group, Long Road, performs occasionally. He is a former editor of Northern Ohio Live and Cleveland Magazine.

His writing focuses on the arts, and especially on pop culture and pop music history. He is currently working on two pop-music-related books.