Roll On Roll On

tom paley is a legend of american folk music. he was in a duo with woody gutherie, a founder member of the new lost city ramblers,an influence on bob dylan and has collaborated with jean ritchie and peggy seeger. he's lived in london since the mid sixties and continues to tour and play in his 80's. joining tom are ben paley, johnny bridgewood (the stingrays, morrissey), fiddler robin gillan, jason steel (rif mountain records, the owl service). the cd is produced by dave morgan (the rockingbirds). artwork by ski williams. tom met woody guthrie in 1949 and played with him at his home. he also visited lead belly regularly at his apartment for music sessions. he accompanied woody at the lead belly memorial concert in early 1950, then did gigs with woody as a duo before enrolling at yale to study mathematics. he made his first record for elektra in 1953. it was the very first revivalist recording of old-time southern mountain guitar and banjo music and was influential in the folk revival to come. he met and/or played with many other musicians in the folk revival scene, including pete seeger, sonny terry & brownie mcghee, doc watson, sam mcgee, clarence ashley, reverend gary davis, peggy seeger and ewan mccoll. formed the new lost city ramblers together with mike seeger and john cohen in the summer of 1958. this group recorded widely and generated a great revival of interest in old-time string music. he left the group in 1962 but made many other recordings including those with the old reliable string band, the new deal string band, jean ritchie and peggy seeger.