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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

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