Gary'sGlimpses

ALAN MACRAE Alan McRae, Ont.: Born in the British Isles, the son of a highland piper, Alan was a gold miner and with ...? was instrumental in organizing Canada's first folk club in Vancouver, BC. He moved to Toronto and became the resident singer at Toronto's first "folk bar" the Steeles' Tavern. he played the Horseshoe Tavern most of the summer of 1975. He was a mentor and friend to many Toronto folk musicians through the 60s and 70s before he passed away. T.C. played the Horseshoe the summer of 75 and hung out at my bar. I admired his drive a real folk star in spite of the lack of natural talent he could entertain. comments: Anonymous said... I remember persuading Basil Steele to book Gordon Lightfoot, give him a try for a week. Gordon was at home there for a long time. Hard to be precise about the year in the 1960s but Brita, Gord's first wife brought their first child to Steeles one night, the first night the child was out of the house. During this perio...

I hung out with Ken for a while at his coffee house in Toronto. The New Gate of Cleve. I was hanging out with him one afternoon. He was working on a poster for Mariposa 63. Ed Cowan came by and through him I ended up with a job at the Mariposa Folk Festival. Somewhere along the way Ken broke a leg and was hobbling along with a cast. A couple of weeks after Mariposa, Goodwood Go track had a big festival weekend with concerts and a tent city. I was a duty bootlegger. I had a tent filled with booze. Ken stayed in the tent with me. When suddenly we were raided by the provincial police. Ken and I sneaked away and sat up on a hill and watched the police check every tent except for mine. Ken was pretty much a wild guy to hang with at this time. I think this was his last hurrah. It was the last I saw of him as he suddenly cleaned up his act and concentrated on his painting. Ken Danby (1940-2007) was one of Canada's foremost practitioners of contemporary realism. Rooted in the Canadian p...