53 f JO ANN KELLY from Page 33

She formed rockier bands herself; in the early ’70s there was Spare Rib, alongside Bruce Rowland (who worked with Joe Cock- er) and Roger Brown of Stealer’s Wheel and, later on, The Jo Ann Kelly Band released an eclectic album, 1983’s Just Restless. Jo retained an interest in soul and R&B; while performing on German TV with a big band, Jo persuaded them to perform Esther Phillips’ cutting-edge Home Is Where The Hatred Is, for example.

The Watersons – No.1 folk album of 1966, and retiring

“not a guitar or banjo in sight”… Ravi Shankar guests at the Islington Fox (with Bill Monroe among the audience)… there are reports of “pilgrimages” to hear Harry Cox sing… Jack Elliott, the Watersons, Dubliners, Bert Jansch & John Renbourn, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Julie Felix and Shirley Collins star at the Beaulieu Folk Fes- tival… Rev Gary Davis, Spider John Koerner, Dubliners, Hedy West, Cyril Tawney, Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick, and Lou Killen head the guests at Cambridge.

he American migration contin- ues to the end of the year. Eric Andersen is a big success, and Arlo Guthrie arrives for his first visit saying that the only Woody Guthrie songs he knows are learned from records… Young Tradition, Louis Killen, Rod Stradling, Al Stewart and Roy Harper link up to play a benefit for the ill Cyril Tawney at Les Cousins… at St Pancras Town Hall there’s a Folk Singers For Peace In Vietnam concert with an experimental group involv- ing John Renbourn, Dave Swarbrick and Trevor Lucas… Maureen Kennedy-Martin is hailed as Britain’s answer to Joan Baez.

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The best-selling folk album of 1966 is the Watersons’ Frost And Fire.

1967: “THE WATERSONS RETIRING AT THE END OF MARCH”. A nasty shock that, to one and all, with their Yorkshire Garland LP sweeping to the top of the folk charts, but various other groups are rising to assume their supremacy. Everyone’s going bonkers over the eccentric performances of the lncredible String Band… Bruce Dunnet opens a new club at the Horseshoe in Tot- tenham Court Road which Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and Jacqui McShee use to form a regular though as yet un-named group… a young gentleman called Ralph May is adver- tised around the clubs (though in some places he’s strangely referred to as Ralph McTell)… Barry Dransfield guests at Not- tingham Traditional Music Club.

Judy Collins tops the folk chart with In

My Life, followed by Roy Harper’s Sophisti- cated Beggar… “IS ROY HARPER THE MAN TO SUCCEED DYLAN?” enquires MMand a nation shakes its head… Jansch, Renbourn and McShee surface from the Horseshoe and call themselves the Pentangle.

“NOW IT’S SYMPHONIC FOLK” declares

Tom Paxton as Al Stewart goes into the stu- dio to record his debut LP complete with

orchestra and band, and the Incredible String Band are described as “a folk Sgt Pep- per”. Roy Harper is universally declared star of the Cambridge Festival, while Yorkshire singer Robin Dransfield wins the folk song contest there.

Cornwall once again proves itself a hotbed of acoustic music – Ralph McTell makes a big name for himself there this summer, along with the duo of Pete Stanley & Wizz Jones (to part company in Septem- ber). Other emergent acts include Irish singer/comedian Noel Murphy, Sandy Denny (planning to record with Alex Camp- bell) and John Martyn (signed by Island with a debut LP released in October).

Clarence Ashley dies in September, and

Woody Guthrie finally gives up the ghost after his long battle against Huntington’s Chorea a few weeks later. An advert appears in MMin October: “Roy Guest look- ing for a beautiful girl to dance among a 32- piece Sinfonia of London Orchestra at Al Stewart’s concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on November 3rd.” As we hurtle towards the end of the year, Roy Harper is putting the finishing touches to his Come Out Fighting Genghis Smith album and Mar- tin Carthy teams up with Dave Swarbrick for a tour, though Swarb says he can’t face the grind of folk clubs and will open a poster shop in Copenhagen.

The Watersons announce they will make their final, final farewell tour in February next year, and there are huge rows about the BBC radio programme Country Meets Folk following vicious criticisms of its musical poli- cy by MMcolumnist Tony Wilson (the theory is that while Country may wish to meet Folk, the feeling is definitely not mutual).

Even more seminal is the publication of

a book, Folk Song In England, written by AL Lloyd and acclaimed as the most complete text book (cost three guineas). In the book he describes Bob Dylan as a “cabaret artist”.

And guess what? The end of 1967 is spent with the folkies at each other’s throats, furiously debating the same old issues, hopelessly trying to define folk music and draw boundary lines, and tearing each other to bits with their prejudices and their rigid preconceptions. Nobody gives an inch and nobody gets anywhere.

The folk revival appears to have

peaked. Melody Maker is about to announce a Blues Boom.

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Although Jo’s own albums saw limited sales, a compilation she appeared on – Immediate Records’ Anthology Of British Blues – was a heavy seller throughout Europe. Thus, she was never short of a gig on the Continent, and spent much of the 1980s there. “It was 1988,” says Pete. “Inter- estingly, Jo was just beginning to get a hint of revived interest.” Her talent was phe- nomenal – as her set that year, from the German festival, Women In (E)Motion (since issued on CD) attests. “She had flown back earlier that day, from – I think – Norway. She came back home and she started fitting in bed. That was the start of what turned out to be a malignant brain tumour.”

Operated on and complying with radio- therapy and drug treatment, Jo’s condition initially looked hopeful. Perhaps somewhat ghoulishly, or perhaps because people feared that they might lose a great talent, Pete recalls Jo being in demand once again in Britain. “More headline spots started to appear,” he remembers, “including at the Cambridge Folk Festival. It was an interest- ing story that brought her into the public view again.” She planned a record with her brother: the track Ramblin’ Gal survives from rehearsals. But the medical treatment ceased being effective. On October 21st 1990, Jo Ann Kelly died.

She is still very much an underground name, and perhaps one ripe for rediscovery. In the way that Karen Dalton has been taken to the hearts of a new generation who relate to her mixture of tradition and modernity, Jo Ann Kelly’s music resonates like this, and surely could find a similar audi- ence. Although she has been anthologised, it has been by specialist outfits that lack the cachet of hipper reissue labels like Light In The Attic, Numero, or Soul Jazz. A well- curated compilation could do the trick.

For this writer, gorging myself on Jo

Ann ’s music has been something akin to what she herself must have felt when first uncovering the blues: a shower in an embarrassment of riches. It is visceral, emo- tional, sometimes playful, always heartfelt. Just like the blues itself.

F Singing with Fred McDowell in 1969

Photo: Pete Gibson

Photo: Brian Shuel