When The Folk Minute Faded-With The Music Of Erick Saint-Jean In Mind.

CD Review

By Zack James

Urban Folk Blues, various artists including Erick Saint-Jean, Astra Records, 2006

It was bound to happen if one lived long enough was Seth Garth’s immediate impression after a first listening to the Urban Folk Blues album Sid Daniels, the key producer of the compilation as it was in its  pre-release stage for comment by various music critics, send him. Despite the fact that he was in semi-retirement, had not written for the natural publication to place the review The American Folk Newsletter for years and had pretty much he thought exhausted his supply of worthwhile comment on the folk minute of the 1960s since it was, well, only a minute guys like Sid, seemingly a thousand guys like Sid who remembered his work from Rock magazine and Rolling Stone and it seemed every week would bring some memory CD trying to cash in on the hard commercial fact that after a certain age people tended to want to listen to the music that brought them to the music of their generation. So everybody was trying to cash in on the big baby boomer demographic that had a fair amount of discretionary income before the extra dough as he was beginning to become too familiar with would have to go to medicines and doctors’ bills.  

That “bound to happen” moment he had after listening to Sid’s CD had been the realization that some of the songs on the CD had been covered by guys like Dave Von Ronk doing his version of Cocaine Blues and Erick Saint Jean doing his cover of Railroad Bill which they had “discovered” in their travels through the earlier American songbook they were all crazy, Seth too, to find out about in order to break out of the vanilla existence that was their growing up times when their parents’ generation wanted to bury the past. Didn’t want to go back any further that Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee who helped them get through World War II. And now here he was being asked to review a compilation of works which were now seen as classics for his aging generation. Yeah, what goes around comes around.   

The second impression that Seth got though had more to do with who was on the compilation, and what they hell had happened to them. Everybody knew that the “king of the hill” bob Dylan had embarked on what would eventually be a never-ending tour and that prior to his death Dave Von Ronk would show up regularly on the dwindling folk circuit, the few places scattered in the universe where there were enough old folkies to sustain a coffeehouse-you know Ann Arbor, Berkeley, the Village, Harvard Square- or if away from those old-time centers then some thoughtful monthly coffeehouses at UU churches or places like that. But Seth was not thinking about the fates of those guys which was well documented but a guy like Erick Saint James who back in the day looked like he would threaten Dylan for that king of the hill title.  

Erick Saint James had it all going for him, a strong baritone, good basic guitar skills, knew a dozen chords or so, which as one wag mentioned at the time was all you needed to get a place in the folk universe, better, have all the girls hanging around you. Erick in addition was a good-looking guy who graced many covers of Rise Up Singing Folk, the original “must read” publication that got many young folkies their first look see. He had big hits with covers like Railroad Bill but also with his own compositions like Falling Light Rain and Panama Special. Then a few years later he fell off the folk map, Seth who spent many hours tracing the whereabouts of every possible folksinger in order to keep up with the movement, and grab free-lance jobs once editors like Benny Gold and Sam Lawrence knew that he had enough knowledge to write quick reviews when they were pressed for publication time-lines.   

So Seth worked his way back. Found out that Erick had had a streak of bad luck, bad management, a bum agent both things besides talent which you need to have working for, not against, you. Had a few songs, a couple of albums that went nowhere. Of course that was around the edge of the folk minute, the point where folk rock was the place to be or get off the boat. That was the fact of life. Part of Seth’s loss of Erick’s whereabouts had been that he was on the envelope of what would later be called the “acid” rock moment and so had let whatever he knew about folk kind of fall off of his planet. That was where his career was heading, where he was getting assignments and so the fate of stray folk guys like Erick faded in the background. That too was a hard fact of life just ask Benny or Sam. 

Then Erick hit some skids, got caught up doing too much alcohol and later too much grass, then heroin. As far as Seth could trace that decline into the late 1980s that was what had happened to Erick. One source said he went down to Mexico to study painting while he was trying to dry out. Another said that he was down in some Jersey Holiday Inn doing a lounge lizard act for coffee and cakes. In any case the trail ended around 1990 so who knows what happened to him. All Seth knew was that back in the day Erick could cover the old time folk songs, worked at it and added a few gems to the folk section of the American songbook. Yeah, if you want to know what it was like when guys and gals sang folk for keeps, when Erick Saint James sang folk for keeps grab Sid’s compilation. Listen to Dave, Tom, Geoff, Tracey and Jesse too but weep a tear for Erick and your lost youth too.