Apr 17 2008
John Herald: Roll On Buddy, One Day At A Time
Fifteen year old John Herald was at summer camp in 1954 when Pete Seeger came by, during Seegers long exile from the public eye, thanks to Red Channels and the House Un-American Activities Committee. Pete was performing for children in schools, camps and recreational programs, because he couldn’t get bookings anywhere else. Herald was inspired by Seeger to become a full time musician. Five years later Herald Bob Yellin and Eric Weissberg formed a band, calling themselves The Greenbriar Boys, a nice name for three kids from Manhattan. Here is a clip of The Greenbriar Boys on Pete Seeger’s Rainbow Quest show.
Herald wrote some very familiar songs “Stewball,” which I thought was a traditional song, is one of his. Joan Baez recorded the song and ired the Greenbriar Boys to play on her second album. The Greenbriar Boys made three LPs for Vanguard before breaking up. John Herald worked as a studio musician on records by Ian and Sylvia, Bonnie Raitt, Doc Watson, Tom Rush and many others.
Here is a later video. This is the John Herald Band. Cindy Cashdollar is playing the dobro. The John Herald Band, in one form or another, stuck together for 35 years.
Herald had terrible luck with record companies releasing his albums just as they went bankrupt, having fires which destroyed his master recordings and just missing the big break, time and time again. Never achieving commercial success and living precariously from one project to another,Herald died in 2005 in his home, near Woodstock New York.
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[…] the opportunity to shamelessly promote Clark’s Picks, where I have just posted a piece on John Herald, an undeservedly obscure musician from the 60’s folk […]