Tom Paxton and The DonJuans
In concert March 7 at 7:30 PM
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner and folk icon, Tom Paxton, teams up with the Grammy winning singer/songwriter duo The DonJuans – Don Henry & Jon Vezner. Collectively, their songs have been covered by: Harry Belafonte, John Mellencamp, Miranda Lambert, Neil Diamond, Ray Charles, Nancy Griffith, Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Janis Ian, Kathy Mattea, John Denver, Faith Hill, B.J. Thomas, Blake Shelton, Peter, Paul & Mary and Bob Dylan.
Concert producer David Zaslow says, “Tom Paxton has composed some of the great folk songs of all time: The Last Thing On My Mind, Ramblin’ Boy, I Can’t Help But Wonder, Bottle of Wine, and Whose Garden Was This. He’s been a folk music hero of mine since 1965 and it really is an honor for us to host him in what promises to be a fantastic evening of music, memories, and inspiration.”
After 56 years of performing around the world and writing and recording innumerable songs and recordings, Tom Paxton has found yet another outlet for his creativity; he has joined his friends and song-writing colleagues Jon Vezner and Don Henry –– known collectively as The DonJuans. About their concerts their agent Jim Fleming humorously says that “in writing and performing the experience of Tom with the DonJuans is calculated to keep them too busy to get into trouble. A trembling world awaits the results.”
Tom’s career has taken him from his days as a drama student at The University of Oklahoma to thousands of concerts in a variety of venues––from coffee houses in Greenwich Village to The Albert Hall in London to Carnegie Hall in New York; from festivals in Hong Kong to Denmark, from Tokyo to Oslo.
He has done over 50 concert tours of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland and has recorded over 50 albums of his own songs. Recordings of his songs by other artists number in the hundreds and include artists such as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Judy Collins, John Denver, Joan Baez and Peter, Paul & Mary, to name just a very few.
He began his performing career in Greenwich Village in 1960, coming in on weekends from Fort Dix, New Jersey, where he was toiling away in the Clerk Typist School. (He used his typewriter one day to compose his famous song for children, The Marvelous Toy, later a hit for The Chad Mitchell Trio and Peter, Paul & Mary). Upon his release he stayed in New York and put in several years playing in now-legendary coffee houses like The Gaslight and befriending other singers like Dave Van Ronk, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, and Eric Andersen.
His shows with The DonJuans have him on his toes. Paxton says; “These guys are long-ball hitters and if I don’t want to get smoked I’d better do a little rehearsing. I probably need to do that anyway,” he says, laughing. “It certainly couldn’t hurt.”
Tickets are available at the Music COOP in Ashland and online at www.brownpapertickets.com. $35 Premier seating, $25 General Seating. The Havurah is located at 185 N Mountain Ave. in Ashland. Call 541-488-7716 for more info.
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