Yes, Judy Collins
and, yes, Buffy.
I spoke w/ a 22yr old guitarist last week who genuinely feels that the world begins and ends w/ Ozzie Ozborne.
I told the folks we were with, "In April, I'm gonna see Gordon Lightfoot!" (obvious awe on my part, of course.) The young mand said, "Never heard of him!" (obvious, cockyness on his part, of course.)
I asked him, "You ever hear of Eric Clapton? He knows well who GL is and JS, too. Further, I asked, "Do you dig Cream?" (He did, of course)and I asked him if he knew Robert Johnson or Willie Dixon were. (He didn't, of course) I just looked him in the eye and said "Crossroads" and "Spoonful" - check your CD.
So it is w/ this folk music stuff. There would have been no Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Poco, Flying Burrito Bros, Mamas & Papas, etc. - no Folk Rock, w/o Woody Guthrie, Pete Seger, Bob Dylan, PPM, and yes Gord and John Stewart. All the folks in those above-revered groups know very well who GL and JS are.
It's just lineage. The "begats." And it's OK not to know the whole family tree, but the music may be even more enjoyed when a person does.
The Spotlight that found John Denver (worthy also, of course) eluded GL and, much more so, JS.
It's not a stretch at all you put these wonderful "folkies" on equal footing as fathers to even (dare I say it?) Ozzie Ozborne. Lineage.
And they all (Ozzie" uh . . .) owe their musical lives to Stephen Foster.
Sometimes it takes some digging to find the bones, but it's worth the archeology. Then you stand back and say, " . . .
And they all know one another - personally or be song.
W/ Thanksgiving for 'em each/all,
The Rez
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It was a Beautiful Rainbow
A Beautiful Time in my Life
A Thing to Share
A Time to Care
To Be Alive
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