Clarence “Tom” Ashley
Image No. 63-6N-39 Clarence Ashley at Newport workshop 1963 Newport Folk Festival At a daytime workshop on old-time music, Clarence Ashley sings a song accompanied by John Cohen on banjo and Mike Seeger on guitar. Behind Ashley, Dock Boggs plays along. Mrs. Boggs is sitting against the far wall.
Image No. 63-11-4: Clarence Ashley New York City, October 1963 Harry Smith included two of Clarence Ashley's early recordings on his Anthology of American Folk Music ("The Coo-Coo Bird," 1929, and "The House Carpenter," 1930). In 1960, Ralph Rinzler had to persuade Clarence, who was called "Tom" by his friends, that people in the cities really wanted to hear the old-time music before Ashley would pick up his banjo again. None of the "rediscovered" traditional musicians had more fun in the folk music boom than Tom Ashley. Here, he's playing in a loft party in Greenwich Village after a concert.