View Full Version : Fritz Richmond RIP....
Spruce
Nov-24-2005, 1:14pm
A sad day...
Obituary here (http://www.oregonlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/living/1132626320235050.xml?oregonian?lvls&coll=7)...
I first met Fritz exactly 30 years ago at a Thanksgiving in the Bay Area, where he showed up with some homemade sake that he had made...
Quite the day...
A great musician and wit, and a talented collector of music as well...
I remember he did some of the first recordings of Joseph Spence down in the Bahamas...
I last saw him at a NAMM show a few years back, playing jug and washtub with John Sebastian. #He definitely kicked any music he was involved with up a notch for sure...
He will be missed....
Bruce
a true talent. could make that thing sing!
Steve Davis
Nov-30-2005, 3:30pm
I used to go to the Club 47 in Cambridge, MA in the early 60s to see him play with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. Sad to hear the news of his death.
Paul Hostetter
Dec-21-2005, 6:54pm
I was just made aware that I shared the stage with Fritz, Geoff Muldaur, and Eric and Suzy Thompson at the Freight and Salvage which it turned out was one of Fritz's last public gigs. I actually saw him again a few weeks later at (ironically) the memorial service for Charlie Frizzell, a Berkeley guy who'd been one of the main active photographers during the folk boom when he was living in Boston. Fritz was still unaware at the time of a problem, he and Geoffrey sang a beautiful acapella spiritual for Charlie there. A week later I heard he was in trouble and from there things went pretty quick. What a gem of a person. I first met him in 1963 in Boston.
JamesBryan
Dec-22-2005, 2:12pm
Had missed that obituary.. Fritz was a mainstay here in Portland of the Barbeque Orchestra with Stu Dodge [fiddle] Spud Siegel [mando]and Turtle vandemar [guitar]. They lit up many a rowdy night at the Laurelthirst Pub. Jim
Spruce
Dec-22-2005, 3:28pm
I sat in with them a couple of times...
Lots 'o good clean fun....
When Fritz first moved to Portland and met those guys, he didn't want them to know who he was for a variety of reasons...
So he went by the moniker of "Red"...
But everyone of course knew who "Red" really was... #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
Man, no one could drag the tone out of a jug like that guy. #
He also knew how to record the thing. #Not an easy task...
Here's (http://www.cookephoto.com/cfrizzell.html) a great shot of Charlie Frizzel with Bob Dylan, taken by another Bostonian, John Cooke...
He also took the shot of Fritz I posted earlier...
Want to spend an hour checking out the wonderful world these guys inhabited back in the 60's?
Check out John Cooke's website here (http://www.cookephoto.com/rnf.html)...
Man, the folks who came out of that area during that time period sure are an amazing bunch of people...
Quite the era...
Steve Davis
Dec-23-2005, 12:15pm
Thanks for sharing the pictures. Brings back tons of memories.