Paul Kaplan
Paul Kaplan | |
|---|---|
 Paul Kaplan performing in 2016 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Paul Henry Kaplan |
| Born | July 30, 1948 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Genres | Folk |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, guitarist. |
| Instruments | Guitar, vocals, harmonica, cuatro |
| Years active | 1966–present |
| Website | http://www.paulkaplanmusic.com |
Paul Henry Kaplan (born July 30, 1948) is an American folk singer-songwriter whose musical career began in the mid-1960s.[1] He is also a music educator and producer. He is best known for his songs “I Had an Old Coat,” “Call Me the Whale” and “Henry the Accountant,” which have been covered by dozens of professionals and sung by thousands of others. His songs can be deeply serious and moving, while others are side-splittingly funny. In either case, he enjoys a reputation as a masterful lyricist.
Early life[edit]
Kaplan was born to Samuel and Ruth Schmidt Kaplan in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1948, during the presidential race where his parents favored Henry Wallace, hence his middle name “Henry.” The “Paul” is a result of his parents’ admiration for Paul Robeson. His parents were members of the American Communist Party until they were expelled in 1950 for questioning the leadership. After refusing to answer questions before the HUAC in 1953, Sam was fired as a public school English teacher. This event threw the family into poverty, from which they did not recover for several years. The music played in the house was mostly folk music, particularly Pete Seeger and The Weavers and later Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Ramblin' Jack Elliott.
Early career[edit]
Moving with his mother to Chicago in 1964, Paul took up the guitar and immediately began writing songs. His first performances came in 1966. The summer of 1967 saw Paul participating in the Summer of Love in San Francisco, where he had his first paid gig at the Haight Street Cafe.
In 1967 he visited the offices of Broadside Magazine in New York, where his song “I’ve Been Told” impressed the publishers, Gordon Friesen and Sis Cunningham. They put the song in the magazine and also had Paul record it for Folkways Records. After moving to New York City in 1968, Paul sang in coffeehouses and established a home guitar studio, while also teaching from 1970-1980 at the Guitar Workshop in Roslyn, Long Island.
He attended Hunter College, from which he graduated with a degree in music theory in 1976, magna cum laude. While there, he met Dan Milner, who recruited him to create the musical transcriptions to 150 songs, which became the book Songs of England, Ireland and Scotland—A Bonnie Bunch of Roses. Music Sales Group. January 1983. ISBN 978-0-825-60256-6. Search this book on 
. He also joined Dan’s band The Derby Ram in 1978. This lasted until 1982 and, together with the book, gave Paul an invaluable education in traditional music from England, Ireland and Scotland.
Phil Ochs[edit]
Soon after the political songwriter and activist Phil Ochs died, Sis Cunningham enlisted Paul to help her finish putting together her LP, “Sundown,” on Folkways.[2] This was a job Phil Ochs had pledged to do. Paul played on a couple tracks, then spliced together the songs. He thus became a record producer. Sis then asked him to produce some records for Folkways with tapes Broadside had of Phil Ochs songs and interviews. The result was Phil Ochs Sings for Broadside, Interviews with Phil Ochs, and Phil Ochs—The Broadside Tapes 1. Volume II of “The Broadside Tapes” and a second interview album were “produced” but never released, due to legal action by Phil’s brother Michael Ochs.
New York and Fast Folk[edit]
In 1980 Paul began frequenting Greenwich Village clubs and was booked into Gerde's Folk City. He also played at The Bitter End and The Village Gate. He was an original member of the Musicians’ Cooperative at Speak Easy in late 1981. In February of 1982, Jack Hardy started the CooP, later called the Fast Folk Musical Magazine. Paul’s song “The King of Hearts” was included on the first record, along with songs by Suzanne Vega (her first recording), Ed McCurdy, Dave Van Ronk, Frank Christian, and David Massengill. The Fast Folk platform was key in bringing music from the Greenwich Village scene into the world, and Paul was one of the beneficiaries, both with covers of his songs and with performance opportunities in major clubs and festivals in the US and abroad. Paul also became a member of the Hudson River Sloopsingers, led by Pete Seeger, and was often featured in their concerts.[3]
Since New York[edit]
In 1988, Paul moved to Amherst, Massachusetts with his wife, writer Lisa Kleinholz, and their two young daughters, Siena and Brittany. He continued to write, teach and perform. Since 1994 he has been teaching in public schools, and currently teaches at Sumner Avenue Elementary School in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he established a celebrated ukulele program.[4] Since 1999 he has been the host of the monthly Song & Story Swap of the Pioneer Valley Folklore Society in Amherst MA.[5]
Songs in Broadside Magazine[edit]
- 1967 “I’ve Been Told”
- 1972 “Vietnam”
- 1976 & 1984 “Phil”
- 1980 “I’m Not Broke, Only Bent”
- 1981 “Henry the Accountant”
- 1981 “Money”
- 1985 “Call Me the Whale”
- 1985 “I Had an Old Coat”
- 1985 “Christmas Morn”
Songs in Other Magazines[edit]
- 1983, Come for to Sing *http://fvfs.org/CFTS/cfts_index.html , Vol. 9, No. 3,"Call Me the Whale"
- 1984, New City Songster *https://wcml.org.uk/maccoll/music/new-city-songster/ Vol. 19 (London), "Henry the Accountant"
- 1984, Sing Out! *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sing_Out! )Vol. 30, No. 1, 1984, “Just Another War”
- 1986, Sing Out! Vol. 32, No. 3, “I Had an Old Coat”
Broadside Recordings[edit]
- 1967 Broadside Ballads, Vol. 4 “I’ve Been Told” *https://folkways.si.edu/broadside-ballads-vol-4-the-time-will-come-and-other-songs-from-broadside-magazine/american-folk-struggle-protest/music/album/smithsonian
- 1973 Broadside Ballads, Vol. 7 “Vietnam” *https://folkways.si.edu/broadside-ballads-vol-7/american-folk-struggle-protest/music/album/smithsonian
- 2000 Best of Broadside *https://folkways.si.edu/the-best-of-broadside-1962-1988-anthems-of-the-american-underground-from-the-pages-of-broadside-magazine/folk/music/album/smithsonian (5 CD set, nominated for two Grammies) Grammy Award, “Vietnam”
Fast Folk Recordings[edit]
- February 1982 “The King of Hearts”
- Dec. 1982-Jan. 1983 “I Will Keep You Warm”
- May 1982 “Call Me the Whale” (sung by Geoff Kaufman)
- May 1983 “We Shall Stay Here” (sung by Jon Stein)
- July/August 1983 “The Lambs on the Green Hills” (trad.)
- September 1983 “Just Another War” (sung by Lydia Adams Davis)
- January 1984 “Call Me the Whale”
- January 1985 “I Had an Old Coat”
- October 1986 “Christmas Morn”
- November 1986 “Johnny of Hazelgreen” (trad.)
- Fall 1988 “I Need You”
- January 1991 “So I Could Get to You”
- 2002, Fast Folk: A Community of Singers & Songwriters, Smithsonian Folkways, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_Folk:_A_Community_of_Singers_%26_Songwriters “The King of Hearts”
LPs on Hummingbird Records[edit]
- 1982 Life on This Planet
- 1985 King of Hearts
Cassette Recording on Hummingbird Records[edit]
- 1992 So I Could Get to You
CDs on Old Coat Music[edit]
- 2003 After the Fire
- 2008 The Folk Process
Selected Artists Who Have Covered Paul Kaplan Songs[edit]
- Carla Sciaky
- Claudia Schmidt
- Dave Sear
- David Massengill
- David Roth
- Ed McCurdy
- Iain MacKintosh
- Jay Ungar and Molly Mason
- Jim Couza
- Len Chandler
- Sally Rogers and Claudia Schmidt
- Sharon, Lois, and Bram
- The Singing Kettle (Cilla Fisher and Artie Trezise)
Publications[edit]
- 1983 Songs of England, Ireland and Scotland—A Bonnie Bunch of Roses, co-author with Dan Milner, Music Sales Group *(https://www.amazon.com/Bonnie-England-Ireland-Scotland-Songbooks/dp/0825602564)?tag=everybodywikien-20
- 1982 The CooP Songbook, editor
- 2015 Rise Again Songbook, Hal Leonard: lead chord checker.
Songs in Publications[edit]
- 1968, Best of Broadside, volume 2, Oak Publications, “I’ve Been Told”
- 1982, The CooP Songbook, Fast Folk Publications, “King of Hearts,” “Call Me the Whale”
- 1987, Discovering Mass Communication, Scott Foresman, “Just Another War”
- 1993, For the Beauty of the Earth, Folk Project, “I Had an Old Coat”
- 1994, Sing Us a Story, H. W. Wilson, “I Had an Old Coat”
- 1995, The Music Connection, Silver Burdett, “I Had an Old Coat”
- 1996, Teacher’s Book, Houghton Mifflin, “I Had an Old Coat”
- 2002, Making Music, Silver Burdett, “I Had an Old Coat”
- 2003, Kass, Leon, ed. (2004). Being Human: Core Readings in the Humanities. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-92639-2. Search this book on , “Henry the Accountant”
- 2015, Rise Again Songbook, Hal Leonard, “Call Me the Whale” and “I Had an Old Coat”
References[edit]
- ↑ "All Music Bio".
- ↑ Cunningham, Sis. "Sundown" (PDF). folkways. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
- ↑ Paul Kaplan—Call Me the Whale (brief video clip from from the first concert Pete Seeger gave in Peekskill after the 1949 riots) on YouTube
- ↑ Elizabeth Roman, "More than just music: Springfield elementary school students learn to play the ukulele", The Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), May 23, 2018. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
- ↑ Aviva Luttrell, "Carrying on an oral tradition: ‘Song and Story Swap’ opens new season", Daily Hampshire Gazette, October 30, 2014. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
- ↑ "Broadside Magazine Author Index to Issues 1-144" (PDF). Retrieved 24 August 2018.
- ↑ "Broadside Magazine Index to Songs in Issues 146-186" (PDF). Retrieved 24 August 2018.
External links[edit]
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