Thursday, May 18, 2006
GOODNIGHT, DICK
The Phoenix folk music community lost one of its true originals yesterday. Dick Charland was a magnetic, hilarious performer who had been playing folk music around the Valley literally since the folk boom of the late '50s and early '60s. He had incredible stage presence and a perpetual smile on his face. I don't think he was capable of doing a "serious" folk song, so he always kept it light. Always self-deprecating to the point of hilarity, sometimes disgusting (his version of Tom Lehrer's "Folk Song" {rickety tickety tin} was an absolute highlight of his shows), he was ever funny and entertaining.
I shared the bill with Dick a few times at Fiddler's Dream, and I absolutely loved it. Because I knew, if I was lucky enough to follow him, that he was going to leave me with a room full of smiling, happy people. A FULL room of smiling, happy people. That makes a fellow funny entertainer's job so much easier.
I hope you got the chance to see Dick before he passed. Even more so, I hope you got to know him. But if not, just know that a very special light has gone out on the folk music stages of Phoenix. And we're all gonna miss him.
TT
The Phoenix folk music community lost one of its true originals yesterday. Dick Charland was a magnetic, hilarious performer who had been playing folk music around the Valley literally since the folk boom of the late '50s and early '60s. He had incredible stage presence and a perpetual smile on his face. I don't think he was capable of doing a "serious" folk song, so he always kept it light. Always self-deprecating to the point of hilarity, sometimes disgusting (his version of Tom Lehrer's "Folk Song" {rickety tickety tin} was an absolute highlight of his shows), he was ever funny and entertaining.
I shared the bill with Dick a few times at Fiddler's Dream, and I absolutely loved it. Because I knew, if I was lucky enough to follow him, that he was going to leave me with a room full of smiling, happy people. A FULL room of smiling, happy people. That makes a fellow funny entertainer's job so much easier.
I hope you got the chance to see Dick before he passed. Even more so, I hope you got to know him. But if not, just know that a very special light has gone out on the folk music stages of Phoenix. And we're all gonna miss him.
TT
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