Updated 04-May-2020.
Mondo shtuff from around the internet, all about TOM PAXTON!
My botty best at summarizing from Wikipedia: Thomas Richard Paxton (born October 31, 1937) is an american folk singer-songwriter . in 2009, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award . he is noteworthy as a music educator and advocate for folk singers paxton’s father died from a stroke in 1948 . he was about 15 when he received his first stringed instrument, a ukulele . in 1948, the family moved to Bristow, paxton was given a guitar by his aunt when he was 16 . he soon began immersing himself in the music of burl Ives and Harry Belafonte . in 1955, he paxton recorded a privately produced live album at the gaslight in 1962 . he published some of his songs in the folk magazines Broadside and Sing Out! he met his future wife, Margaret Ann Cummings, at paxton appeared at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival, recorded by Vanguard Records . a month after Newport in 1963, he married Midge and began traveling the country . paxton became involved with causes that promoted human rights, civil paxton would go on to record seven albums for Elektra . his civil rights song “Beau John” was written after attending a Freedom Song Workshop . paxton’s compositions began to be increasingly recognized within folk music the greenwich village folk community was tied to traditional songs . songwriters would sometimes palm their own stuff off as traditional . paxton made his first tour of the united kingdom in 1965 . the tour was the beginning of a still-thriving professional relationship . he met Bruce Woodley, one of the founding members of the australian folk group The Seekers . they collaborated on the song “Angeline ( paxton released albums like Outward Bound (1966) and Morning Again (1968) in the 1960s, he licensed one of his songs for use in a Ken-L Ration dog food commercial . paxton continued his paxton’s song “Whose Garden Was This” was later recorded by John Denver . he tended to think that the music was becoming too overproduced . paxton: “the acoustic guitar has always paxton released how come the sun in 1971 . the album gave him his highest chart ranking in the u.s. but it only reached number 120 . his next album, Peace Will Come (1972), barely even reached the charts in 1978, paxton released his album Heroes, which contained a song, “Phil” about his friend Phil Ochs . paxton’s 1979 album, Up and Up, contains the song “Let the Sunshine” pa paxton started his own label, pax Records, in 1987 . he continued to suffer from an undiagnosed and deepening depression . paxton was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder . paxton recorded a live album in 1996 with his good friend Jim Rooney . the album was titled Live: for the record . in the mid-1990s, paxton began to give more workshops in songwriting . paxton began writing and releasing his “Short Shelf Life Songs” about current events . he wrote a number of topical protest songs critical of the bush administration’s actions . paxton became one of the founding members paxton is now in “semi-retirement,” though he still performs occasional shows . he did a 10 venue UK tour in 2017 . midge paxton died June 1, 2014 after a long illness . he has been nominated four times for Grammy Awards, all since 2002 . paxton was nominated in 2002 for his children’s album, Your Shoes, My Shoes . in 2004, the Martin Guitar Company introduced the HD-40LSH Tom Paxton Signature Edition acoustic guitar in his honor in 2005, Paxton received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting at BBC Radio 2’s Folk Awards . in 2006, he received an award from the north american folk music and dance alliance . on may 3, 2008,