This is Ms. Jean Ritchies self titled album from 1957.
This is Ms. Jean Ritchie's self titled album from 1957.

Jean Ritchie, "The Mother of Folk," died on Monday. She was 92. Ms. Ritchie was perhaps one of the most important folkies ever. She brought us history AND a working context of the now ancient oral/song storytelling tradition. And she also brought her famous Dulcimer.

Ritchie was born into one of the two "great ballad-singing families," the youngest of 14 siblings. (Yes, 14.) Eventually, she left them Kentucky hills for school where she earned a bachelor’s in social work and, after graduating, settled in New York to teach music at the Henry Street Settlement. Now, obviously she was already a deep folk collector/singer when she landed in New York—she knew song's origins, performance practice, and most regional variants—but then she met, or rather was discovered, by folk collector Alan Lomax. He recorded her for the Library of Congress and led her to Mitch Miller, who signed her on Elektra Records. Her first record, Jean Ritchie Singing the Traditional Songs of Her Kentucky Mountain Family, was released in 1952.

Over the next 60 years she made at least 30 more albums—including a handful with her husband, which they issued on their own label Greenhays Recordings. She also became a fixture on the Greenwich Village coffeehouse scene; made many appearances on Oscar Brand's Folksong Festival radio show; played and recorded with some of the big folkies, like Pete Seeger and Doc Watson; was a mainstay at the Newport Folk Festival; wrote songs sung by Johnny Cash and Emmylou Harris; and authored The Swapping Song Book, The Dulcimer Book, and Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians.

Oh, and in 1996 she was featured in the biographical documentary film Mountain Born: The Jean Ritchie Story. DAMN. She only returned to Kentucky after her husband of 60 years died in 2010.

English guitarist Richard Treece died last Tuesday, May 26th. Treece got his start in a London group who called themselves Help Yourself.

Treece's most notable playing was spread over the course of Help Yourself's four album catalog, and although they were a solid band—lysergic laced rural American rock similar to later Quicksilver—they never got anywhere. It's a bummer considering their narrative was threaded through many bands and players, including label mates, Man, Sam Apple Pie, and even Eire Apparent/Brinsley Schwarz. But even with a few big shows—they played Glastonbury Festival in '71—and nods from critics, the punters didn't care. After Help Yourself fell apart Treece played in Deke Leonard's Iceberg, the Flying Aces, the Splendid Humans, and then joined ex-Man members in progressive pop group, the Neutrons.

In 2000, he released a solo album, Dream Arena East, and then joined the Archers, which evolved into his current band the Green Ray. The Green Ray released three records in the oughties.