Plank Road Folk Music Society

Spring - April, 2026 www.plankroad.org

Annual Log Cabin Party is back!

Music, snacks, and camaraderie . . . 

and, oh yeah, lots of music! 

On Sunday afternoon, March 15, Plank Road’s Log Cabin party returned after a one-year hiatus due to our big 40th Anniversary celebration last summer. An estimated 37 people attended, including members old and new. It was a chance to make music, socialize and catch up with folks we hadn’t seen for awhile. 

"Thanks to everyone who made our Cabin Party a success. I believe everyone there had a great time and it was due to all of your efforts (and also to your respective spouses). Also, it was great to hear Dave back on the bass!"

- George Mattson

The main attraction was the music, with George Mattson leading us in song. A special treat was listening to the Plank Road string band performing several lively old-time tunes.

During a break, president Bob O’Hanlon briefly reviewed the status of our finances, memberships and our schedule of events — and was happy to report Plank Road is in great shape!

A big thank you to the Plank Road board of directors for organizing the event, setting up chairs, tables and food items before the meeting, and for cleaning up afterwards — including Mimi O’Hanlon and Jenneine Gilroy.

Here's a selection of photos . . .

Click here to watch the string band in action!

PHOTO & VIDEO CREDITS: 

Jen Shilt, Christine Buik, George Obregon, Bill Lemos.

"Good turnout, good music and many good side conversations. Thank you George for your usual great song leading. And special thanks to Jim and Jenneine, for the extra work they put in setting up and tearing down.”

       - Bob O’Hanlon

“It was a fun afternoon for sure. Another thank you to Bob for coordinating this year!”

       - Jen Shilt

“Great job George and everybody else.”

       - Jim Gilroy

“Agree! It was great to see everyone, including several new faces. Thanks to all. A little rain never hurt anyone — and we did leave before the snow!”

      - Bill Lemos

Don Robertson – songwriter extraordinaire!

By Andy Malkewicz

Don Robertson, was a country and pop songwriter and pianist, and also a one-hit wonder pop star.  He was born in Beijing China on Dec. 5, 1922, and passed away in California on March 16, 2015 at the age of 92.  

His father, a noted physician and medical scientist (developer of the first Blood Bank), and was the head of the Department of Medicine at Peking Union Medical College. His mother was a talented pianist, and a poet/playwright. She noticed Don's interest in the piano, and started him on lessons at the age of four. He began composing simple songs around age seven. When they moved to Chicago, Don was fascinated by music from cowboy, to symphonic (his father had a large record library), to the church choir hymns he sang on Chicago’s South Side.

He was renowned for many classic songs:

- Please Help Me I’m Falling – 1959 Hank Locklin

- I Don’t Hurt Anymore – 1954 Hank Snow, 1954 Dinah Washington

- I Really Don’t Want To Know – 1954 Eddy Arnold, 1960 Tommy Edwards

- Born to be With You – 1956 Chordettes, 1960 Bonnie Guitar & Don, 1968 Sonny James, and many more    

- Not One Minute More – 1959 Della Reese

- The Happy Whistler – 1956 Don Robertson

- Hummingbird – 1955 – Les Paul & Mary Ford, and also Frankie Laine

- I Love You More and More Every day – 1964 Al Martino

- Ringo – 1967 Lorne Green

- and over 10 Elvis Presley covers

He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972. His songs were simple, graceful, and heartfelt. In the early 1950s he was instrumental in bringing sophistication to country music with the many smoother songs and singers he worked with, continuing the cross-over of country song of famous writers and singers before him (Hank Williams, the Carter family, etc). 

Robertson meets Carl Sandburg . . .

In the early 1930s, the Robertson family began spending summer vacations at Birchwood Beach in Harbert, Michigan, near the home (and farm) of the Carl Sandburg family, on the dunes overlooking Lake Michigan. The families became friends. Don and Carl Sandburg’s middle daughter, Helga, sometimes went horseback riding together. 

At the time, the three-time Pulitzer prize-winning poet and author was working on a collection of folk songs, which later was published in a book called “The American Song Bag.”  A noted singer and guitarist, Sandburg was possibly the first American

urban folk singer, accompanying himself on solo guitar at lectures and poetry recitals, and on recordings.

Carl would often sing and play guitar in his home for friends and relations, and took time out to show young Don a few chords on the guitar. Carl was a big influence on Don's future career as a songwriter, singer and pianist. During high school and college he played piano in local dance orchestras and was earning regular money at it by the age of 14.

From backup musician to songwriter . . .

In the coming years, Don had many musical jobs, backing up groups on piano, was signed to a publishing company in 1945, and was musical arranger for WGN. His career as a professional songwriter began in 1953, when he began collaborating with Hal Blair. Don’s first big songwriting success was with his co-written I Really Don’t Want to Know, which became a number one country hit for Eddy Arnold in 1954, as well as a simultaneous pop success for Les Paul & Mary Ford. The near-perfect country song, it has since been recorded by more than 200 artists worldwide and been a hit several times over, most notably by Tommy Edwards (1960), Solomon Burke (1962), Esther Phillips (1963), Ronnie Dove (1966) and Elvis Presley (1971).

Following the success of I Really Don’t Want To Know, Don visited Nashville and in a writing session with Virginia-born Jack Rollins, co-wrote I Don’t Hurt Anymore. Recorded by Hank Snow, the song topped the country charts for 20 weeks in the summer of 1954 and Dinah Washington’s cover version made number three on the R & B charts that same year. Snow became a good friend to the songwriter and over the years recorded more of his songs including the hits Ninety Miles an Hour (Down a Dead End Street) (1963), I Stepped Over the Line (1964) and The Queen of Draw Poker Town (1965) plus several albums tracks. 

From Faron Young to Elvis to John Prine...

Other notable Don Robertson country songs of the 1950s include Go Back You Fool (Faron Young, 1955), Condemned Without Trial (Eddy Arnold, 1953), You’re Free to Go (Carl Smith, 1955) and I’m Counting on You (Kitty Wells, 1957). The latter song was the first of Don’s to be recorded by Elvis Presley in early 1956 for his first RCA album. Over the years Presley was to record 14 of Don’s songs, six of which were featured in the singer’s movies.

In 1984 he also arranged, performed and recorded sound tracks for two short films, in one of which he appears as a piano bar entertainer. As a session musician he played on numerous recordings for such diverse performers as Johnny Cash, Nat 'King' Cole, Duane Eddy, Chet Atkins, Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, Bonnie Guitar, Charley Pride, Al Martino, Kay Starr, Jack Clement, John Prine, Ann Margaret and Sheb Wooley.

One last note: On Don's demo of Please Help Me I'm Falling, he started a style of piano play called "slip-note."  Floyd Cramer copied this style, and had such hits as "Last Date", San Antonio Rose", and others!

Bob Weir  

Guitarist, songwriter and founding member of the Grateful Dead, Bob Weir, died January 10. He was 78.

The band, was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1965. They pioneered psychedelic rock, later blending rock, folk, blues, country, bluegrass and jazz — and they did it with mellow ease and a gift for improvisation that became its trademark. The Grateful Dead created a niche for meandering, exploratory performances, each of which seemed to have its own personality.

Bob Weir rose from folk and jug band origins, helping shape the Dead’s sound into what many called the “most American” band — selling millions of records and inspiring a small nation of loyal “Dead Heads.”

Even after the hippie culture faded, the band retained a gigantic fan base, called Deadheads, a term worn with pride. They followed the group wherever it played, traded recordings of its concerts and set up mini-encampments, complete with craft bazaars, oceans of tie-dye and no small amount of drugs.

Weir, like Jerry Garcia, had an early fascination with folk music. But Weir also developed a reputation for inventive timing on the rhythm guitar, his chords alternately grounding and contending with the melodic chaos of the other members of the band. Although Garcia and Robert Hunter, the group’s lyricist, were the Dead’s primary composers, Weir wrote key songs like “Playing in the Band” and “Sugar Magnolia.”

He also sang lead on many songs, including “Truckin’,” a 1970 single that became a signature hit, embodying the band’s achievements as road warriors and as witnesses (and survivors) of 1960s acid culture. “What a long, strange trip it’s been . . .”  And so it was.

“I’m hoping that people of varying persuasions will find something they can agree on in the music that I’ve offered,” he said, “and find each other through it.”

John Hammond  

Blues guitarist and singer, John Hammond, who was one of the first white American interpreters of traditional blues, died February 28 at age 83. 

Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village. He gained a following there by playing classic blues songs in clubs and coffee shops. In 1963, at age 20, he began a 60-year recording career that would include collaborations with some of the most important and acclaimed artists of all time. 

By high school he was a fanatic, consuming any blues recording he could get his hands on and seeing Jimmy Reed — who became his idol — performing at the Apollo Theater. At 18, he got a guitar of his own and “drove all my friends nuts for about a year-and-a-half.”

Hammond attended college but quit after a year to become a blues musician — it was 1962, and the American folk music revival was reaching its peak. He hitchhiked to California, where he busked on the L.A. streets before finding work in clubs. He then made his way back east, amassing enough experience to get a gig at the Newport Folk Festival, followed shortly by his first album for Vanguard Records.

Hammond settled into Greenwich Village, where he was able to hobnob with musicians like Bob Dylan, Mississippi John Hurt, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. He was instrumental in Dylan’s connections with The Band. Hammond’s third album, 1965’s So Many Roads, featured three of the musicians who would soon become known as The Band. He recommended them to Dylan — and the rest is history. 

Hammond continued recording and touring with peers until 1976, when he decided to go solo. It was his solo guitar (mostly acoustic) and vocals that remained his primary orientation for the remainder of his career. He won a Grammy for his 1984 album, Blues Explosion, and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011.

Chuck Negron

Founding member of Three Dog Night, Chuck Negron, died February 2 at age 83. In the early 1970s, the band was selling more records and concert tickets than any other artists in America, scoring 21 consecutive US Top 40 hits, including three No.1s. 

Born in New York, Negron sang in doo-wop groups, and also displayed talent as a basketball player, eventually winning an athletic scholarship and a move to California. He also was getting into music, releasing a couple of singles locally, and eventually signing a deal with Columbia Records. 

Negron and bandmates Danny Hutton and Cory Wells became Three Dog Night — which referred to Indigenous Australians’ habit of judging temperature by how many dogs they needed to sleep with to keep warm. 

They were then signed to Dunhill Records and recorded their debut album in 1968. The opening track was “One,” a song by Harry Nilsson, sung with “anguished emotion” by Negron, leading to a No. 5 hit and their first million-selling single. 

The band agreed to share lead vocals between them — but it was Negron’s powerful voice and four-octave range that made him a crucial component of their sound, singing lead on the hits “Easy to Be Hard,” “Old Fashioned Love Song,” and “Joy to the World.”  

Written by Hoyt Axton, “Joy to the World” was an exuberant expression of the group’s strengths, with Negron singing the lead with gleeful abandon. It topped the US chart in 1971, and would later feature on the soundtracks of the films “The Big Chill” and “Forrest Gump.”

But even while they were outselling other top acts such as the Rolling Stones or Creedence Clearwater Revival, Negron’s worsening drug habit was driving the band apart. In 1976 the group split up, largely because Negron had developed a crippling heroin addiction. 

In 1991, after countless visits to rehab, Negron launched a solo career, releasing seven studio and live albums between 1995 and 2017. In 1999 he published an autobiography, and continued to perform live.

Neil Sedaka

Songwriter and singer Neil Sedaka, died February 27 at age 86. He was a piano prodigy as a child and later attended the Julliard School of Music — before discovering rock & roll and becoming one of rock and pop music’s pioneers. 

At the age of 13, he met and befriended Howard Greenfield. They became a team and began a regimen of writing a song a day, a routine they continued for nearly two years. At the same time, they began making the rounds together in Broadway's legendary Brill Building. 

They enjoyed their first major hit in 1958, when Connie Francis recorded their song, "Stupid Cupid."  In 1959, Sedaka signed with RCA as a singer. His fourth single, “Oh, Carol!” a lament to his former girlfriend Carole King, established Sedaka as a performer. 

Other hits included "Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen," "Calendar Girl" and "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do." Sedaka had three No. 1 hits, and nine Top 10 hits. He wrote songs and collaborated with Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, Elton John, Clay Aiken, The Fifth Dimension, Sheryl Crow, Cher, Abba, Andy Williams and the Monkees.

Between 1959 and 1963 he sold 40 million records, making him the second-highest selling recording artist after Elvis. But with the arrival of the Beatles, the music business changed — and Sedaka’s popularity faded.

He experienced a career resurgence in the '70s with No. 1 songs like "Laughter in the Rain" and "Bad Blood." He also penned hit songs for other artists, including "Love Will Keep Us Together" (Captain & Tennille) and "Solitaire" (the Carpenters). 

Sedaka released over two dozen studio albums and wrote over 500 songs across his career. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983 and was nominated for five Grammys — but strangely, is not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Dash Crofts

Musician and songwriter Dash Crofts, who teamed with Jim Seals to form Seals and Crofts, died March 25 at the age of 85.

Seals and Crofts arrived at a moment when pop music was reaching for something quieter and more introspective. The duo was at the vanguard of the emerging soft rock genre in the early 1970s, with hits like "Summer Breeze" and "Diamond Girl." 

While in high school, Crofts was playing drums in a local band when he met Seals, who was playing saxophone in a different band. Crofts joined the band alongside Seals, and a decades-long musical partnership began. Their career got a boost when they joined the Champs, who had recently had an instrumental hit with "Tequila” in 1958. They played and recorded with the Champs for several years, though Crofts took two years off to serve in the U.S. Army in 1962.

When the Champs disbanded in the mid-'60s, Crofts worked for a while as a session musician. But both he and Seals loved to sing — but couldn’t with the instrumental Champs or as session players. They eventually decided to form their own duo in 1969 and released their debut album that same year.

But it wasn't until the release of their fourth album, 1972's Summer Breeze, that they truly made their mark. The title track rose to No. 6 and remains among the best summertime songs. (Crofts' mandolin helped give the song its signature sound.)

Their next album, 1973's Diamond Girl, also scored a No. 6 hit with its title track, while another track, "We May Never Pass This Way (Again)," went to No. 2 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

Crofts called the songs he wrote with Seals "these little, pleasant soft songs, like wandering troubadour kind of music." Among the influences on Seals and Crofts was the Bahá'í Faith that the two shared. 

Country Joe McDonald

While releasing dozens of albums, Joe McDonald, who died March 7 at age 84, is best remembered for just one song: “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag.”

McDonald’s band, Country Joe and the Fish, reflected the political turmoil of late 1960s America, as the country grappled with the Vietnam war, race riots and assassinations. 

Initially the Fish were an acoustic folk group, but within a few months they had evolved into an electric rock band. At UC Berkeley McDonald immersed himself in the Bay Area’s burgeoning early-60s folk music and political protest scene. 

They released their debut album, Electric Music for the Mind and Body, in 1967. A single from the album, “Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine,” gave the group their sole entry on the Billboard singles chart, reaching 98.

“I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” appeared on their second album in 1967 and gained universal exposure and lasting renown when McDonald performed it solo with just an acoustic guitar, at Woodstock in 1969. The song’s stinging black humor struck a chord with the massive crowd — and became one of the best remembered highlights of the subsequent Woodstock movie.

McDonald's introduction to playing music came via a Hawaiian guitar owned by his father, and he began writing songs in his teens. Both parents were Communist party members and named their son after Joseph Stalin, whose nickname was “Country Joe.”

At 17 he enlisted in the US Navy, and was stationed in Japan for three years. The experience prompted him to feel some sympathy for the military, and he would stress that “Fixin’-to-Die Rag“ blamed the politicians and the manufacturers of weapons, not the soldiers.

In 1969 McDonald launched his solo career by releasing the album Thinking of Woody Guthrie, a collection of Guthrie covers. Fish dissolved in 1970 but McDonald continued recording and performing as a solo artist over the next several decades, and was a dedicated supporter of Vietnam veterans.

Tobias Music

www.tobiasmusic.com 

WDCB Folk Festival

Thanks to our loyal supporters!

Fred Spanuello was near perfect again. He gave lots of good info on Don Gibson for #5 which I worded incorrectly, and couldn't really be answered. Below, I give the answers to the question I intended. Thanks for the answers Fred.

Answers to January 2026 Quiz:

Q1.  During the British invasion, British groups looked for Brill building songs they liked, that never became a big hit.  Manfred Mann found "Do Wah Diddy", and the Searchers found "Needles and Pins".  Who sang the earlier non-hit versions of these songs?

A1.  "Needles and Pins" was released by Jackie DeShannon in 1963; by the Searchers in 1964. "Do Wah Diddy" was released by Manfred Mann in 1964; by the Exciters in 1963.

Q2.  Who wrote "I'm Into Something Good"?  Who sang the first release and when?

A2.  Gerry Goffin & Carole King wrote the song. It was released in June 1964 by Earl Jean (McCree) of the Cookies peaking at #42;  Herman's Hermits release was in Sept 1964 and peaked at #13.

Q3.   NAME THAT TUNE! - What song begins with the words "Sleep my child let peace attend"?

A3.   "All Through the Night" is a traditional Welsh song sung by many artists over the years, and is in our songbook.

Q4.   NAME THAT TUNE! – What song begins with the words "I'm Gonna Raise a Fuss"?

A4.   "Summertime Blues" written by Eddie Cochran & Jerry Capehart went to #1 BB100 by Eddie Cochran in 1959.  The most notable covers are; Blue Cheer 1967 #14 BB100;  the Who 1970 #27 BB100; Alan Jackson 1994 #1 BBCW.

Q5.   What Don Gibson's 1st BBCW release.  Which of his other #1 BBCW songs was recorded before this.

A5.   "Oh Lonesome Me" was Don Gibson's 1st Billboard Country Western #1 song and was recorded in Dec 1957.  "Blue Blue Day," which also went to #1 later, was recorded in June, 1957. "Sweet Dreams" was also written prior, but did not reach #1 for Don.

Q6.   What future WLS DJ was part of the Clear Lake, Iowa Buddy Holly show?

A6.   Bob Hale joined WLS radio in 1960. At the time, he was a Mason City, Iowa DJ that emcee'd the last show before "The Day the Music Died." He also did the coin flip between Richie Valens and band member Allsup to determine who would fly to their next show.

Q7.   Who was Mary O'Brien, and what was her first big US hit, and her first big solo US hit?

A7.   Dusty Springfield (born Mary O'Brien) had a nice hit with the Springfields in "Silver Threads and Golden Needles" in the US in 1962.  In 1963 she had a solo US hit with "I Only Want to be With You".

TRIVIA SNIPPET:

Nino Tempo & April Stevens.

"Deep Purple" became a #1 BB100 hit for Nino Tempo & April Stevens in Sep. 1963, but it took awhile. Born in the 1930's, Nino & April had separate careers. In the 1950s April was a breathy chanteuse, while Nino was a jazz saxophonist and session man, and a small-part actor.

In the early 1960s, they recorded a duet for United Artists which caught the producer's attention. Their first ATCO single made the BB100 (#77). With 15 minutes left of studio time in that session, they recorded "Deep Purple." The producer shelved the song, not liking it, then twice more. Nino's friend, Phil Spector, told the producer he thought it was a hit and should be released. It was released as the B-side of yet another song. DJ's played the B-side, and it was a hit.

NEW! April 2026 Trivia Quiz:

Q1.  What early 60's song includes a line about a pent-house, a brand new car, and a mohair suit?

Q2.   What was Motown's first #1 Hit, and what did Marvin Gaye have to do with it?

TRIVIA SNIPPET:

The Chiffons, Ronnie Mack,

Jimmy Mack & more.

The Chiffons were high school friends who began singing in their Bronx neighborhood, and sometimes in the school cafeteria.  

Songwriter Ronnie Mack wrote "He's So Fine," and had them, plus one more singer, to do the demo. After shopping the song around, Laurie Records released the demo which went to #1 for 4 weeks.

While at #1, Ronnie died at the age of 23 from cancer, and never saw the gold record. In 1976, George Harrison was found guilty of "subconscious plagiarism" and ordered to pay $1.6 million. This was later reduced to $587,000, the amount paid to Bright Tunes (owner of “He's So Fine”), new owner and plaintiff. 

It is said that Ronnie wrote "Puppy Love" at ~age 17 and sold it for $25, and that he may have written many other hits which never got him listed as the writer.  In 1966, Lamont Dozier wrote the song "Jimmy Mack," a hit for Martha & Vandallas, in remembrance of Ronnie.

Q3.   NAME THAT TUNE! – What song begins with the words "When the Sun Goes Down in the California town".

Q4.   NAME THAT TUNE! – What song begins with the words "How Many Roads Must a Man Walk Down"?

Q5.   Name 3 things that Joanie Sommers is known for.  1=easy; 2= hard; 3=very hard.

TRIVIA SNIPPET: 

 "I Can't Sing!" 

. . . those were Tab Hunter's words when he was asked, and even when he wasn't. In 1957 Dot records president, Randy Wood, while in Chicago visiting his friend, DJ Howard Miller, was told by Howard that a young heart-throb actor Tab Hunter (born Arthur Kelm) had ten thousand kids lined up to see him, and that Randy should record him.  

Tab kept saying he couldn't sing. Randy heard Sonny James "Young Love" (already a hit),  called an arranger (named Milt) to get the song ready for Tab, and teach Tab how to sing it.  

Milt came back saying "Tab can't sing." A few days later, they recorded a well-practiced "Young Love," and an unpracticed "Red Sails In the Sunset" for the flip side. Within 2 weeks of release, it sold a million copies and went to #1 on BB100. 

Warner Brothers, who held Tab's acting contract, was flabbergasted. After 2 more lesser Tab hits, WB threatened a lawsuit. Tab's success was what started Sal Mineo and many other studio pretty-men to start recording.

Q6.   What Everly Brothers hit did they not want to do, and never performed live?

Q7.   What were the Vogues first two hits?

Q8.   What was the first Beatles song played in the US, when, where, and how did it chart locally?

Everyone is invited to respond with answers. Send them to AndyM @ 

pictq@yahoo.com

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Plank Road Folk Music Society

Questions? Please send us an email at:

plankroadfolk@plankroad.org