Also this issue: Lefty Hooks Lefty’s Deceiver picks up new tricks and throws down the rock on Cheats. -John Vettese Mallard Rising Synth music avatar David Borden updates the Moog cookbook. -A.D. Amorosi Mary Bichner -Patrick Rapa Haley Bonar -M.J. Fine Mastodon -Paul Burress Fruit Bats -Sam Adams Adrian Crowley -Sam Adams The Party of Helicopters -John Vettese

May 8-14, 2003

music

The Folksman

A MIGHTY MAN: Shay, a Philly radio personality for the last 40 years, also co-founded the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

The music world pays tribute to Philadelphia’s living legend Gene Shay.

by Mary Armstrong

Imagine doing one thing, anything, every Sunday for the last 40 years. Or the next. Something besides dinner with the in-laws. Imagine doing something you absolutely love every Sunday for four consecutive decades, and oh yeah, living, breathing and prepping for Sunday all week long.

There, you've imagined yourself as Gene Shay.

Many are the people who have grown up around here living and breathing folk music thanks to Shay. When Richard Corliss wrote recently in Time about attending concerts at the Second Fret and Town Hall, chances are he learned about them from Shay's Sunday-night Folklore radio show. After recording a World Café segment at WXPN studios recently, Steve Berlin of Los Lobos made a point of introducing himself to Shay, telling him what an educational and inspirational experience it was listening every week as a Philly youth.

Back then, if you had to go out on a Sunday you'd make sure to get back in time for every minute of the 10 p.m.-2 a.m. show. These days, The Folk Show with Gene Shay is on from 4 to 8 p.m. Shay was, and is, renowned for filling his four hours with the latest recordings and live music from touring or local artists looking to build careers.

The funny thing is, the folky focal point of Shay's life snuck up on him while he wasn't looking. He was a jazz broadcaster at WHAT-FM. But he always had broad tastes, which led to his Mostly the Blues, a show specializing in jazz versions of old blues by the likes of Jim Rushing and Joe Turner.

A lucky phone call from local folk performer Tossi Aaron changed his life. "She said, ŒHey, this is pretty good stuff! Have you ever heard the original?' No, but I'd like to!" Shay ended up taking guitar lessons -- "Not a bad way to meet women for a single guy, right?" -- and mixing with the Folksong Society crowd.

Eventually, Shay and some like-minded people founded the Folk Festival. If you love that sunny, smiling banjo logo, you can thank him for that, too.

Through Aaron, Shay met one of his great friends and biggest influences, Kenny Goldstein, then the head of U Penn's folklore department. In addition to all of his fieldwork researching old ways fast disappearing, Goldstein produced more than 300 albums. Shay took his course on ballads and resolved to do his best to encourage others to learn to love this music as well.

He likens visiting Goldstein's Hatboro home -- a "treasure-trove of tapes" -- to letting a kid loose on a box of chocolates. You just have to try them all. Taking that image a little further, Shay compares his programming scheme to the creation of a chocolate. The sweet stuff on the outside is the contemporary sound that lures the uninitiated. Next comes something a little more rooty, and in the center, the real deal, something full of flavor, now that your taste buds are ready for it.

That's how the records are picked. But even casual listeners over the last 40 years know that live performances have at least equal billing. In the early days, Shay's late-night show was ideal for artists to dash over to the studio after a set at the Main Point or the Second Fret. Now, with the late-afternoon time slot, you are just as likely to get a foretaste of a Cherry Tree or Folksong Society show coming later that same night. Either way, the live spots have been critical for a world of artists.

All told, Shay has had residencies at a half-dozen area radio stations. Local folk performer Susan Werner recalls with fondness Shay's days at WHYY: "We'd all be lined up in the hallway, Ben Arnold, Bet Williams, John Flynn, myself, waiting for a turn with Shay. He encouraged us to come in with new stuff, ready or not. Sometimes he'd look at me like, ŒWhere the hell is that going?' Other times he'd smile and it would be like pleasing this very wise teacher."

Werner is among the many guests turning up at the Keswick this Monday to pay tribute at Gene Shay's 40th Anniversary Concert. (Proceeds go to charities close to to the honored guest's heart: Philadelphia Folksong Society, WXPN, Sing Out!, Appel Farm Arts and Music Center.) Also scheduled to perform: David Bromberg, Arlo Guthrie, Tom Rush, Tom Paxton, Chris Smither, Eric Andersen, Christine Lavin, SONiA, Julie Gold, The Kennedys, Skyline, Tony Trischka, 4 Way Street, Full Frontal Folk and Saul Brody.

Reached while working on a tribute concert to her late mentor, Dave Van Ronk, New York singer/songwriter Lavin is thrilled to do a tribute for a guy still around to enjoy it. She says, "When Gene plays your record, you've made a quantum leap in your career."

Some people have been coming by for so long, they can't really put a date on their earliest appearances on one of Shay's shows. "I've been in more damn studios with that guy. I've followed him from station to station," laughs New York folk revivalist Paxton. "I can't remember how far back, it just seems like I've always been dropping into his show and doing a few songs." Getting serious, he continues, "We need more guys like Gene. In his quiet way he supports this music. You just can't thank a guy like him enough." Plus, he adds, "Gene is my joke source. I dine out on jokes that I learn from Gene."

Jokes, the bigger the groans the better, are Shay's stock cover for set changes at the Folk Festival. Yet Phyllis Barney, executive director of the Folk Alliance, notes, "He's not just the guy with the bad jokes." She feels that his work as a board member was invaluable in the early years for FA, helping it to grow to the serious business/cultural organization it is today, drawing thousands from around the globe to its annual conference.

Fellow FA board alumnus Rich Warren, host of Chicago's legendary Midnight Special folk music radio show, is flying in especially for this show. Here's why: "Although I have been involved with folk radio for 35 years, I did not enter the wider community until my first Folk Alliance Conference in 1993. Gene was the first person to acknowledge me and invite me to participate. I think there is one word that truly describes Gene: mensch."

As second-generation Folksong Society kids, the members of Full Frontal Folk looked up to Shay, literally, for years. Now, despite the platform shoes, they still look up to him. "He was the first person not directly related by marriage or blood to persuade us to take our interpretation of folk seriously," says Lolita Frontal, a.k.a. Jen Schenck. "Like a favorite push-up bra, Gene pumps the ego, supports without chafing or constricting and damn it, makes you look good."

Gene Shay’s 40th Anniversary Concert takes place Mon., May 12, 7:30 p.m., $27.50-$67.50, Keswick Theatre, Easton Rd. and Keswick Ave., Glenside, 215-572-7650.