2020: The year of the Quarantine. Musicans off the road, poets not gathering, festivals canceled, clubs and coffeehouses closed, and our cherished social patterns and chances for sharing broken.
A time for creativity and adaptation. Inspired by Don White’s weekly interactive concerts and the epic Ding Ho 40th Anniversary Reunion spearheaded by Jimmy Tingle that transformed the Zoom platform into a truly interactive performance space, Timothy Mason and Dom Flemons decided to celebrate their shared birthday with a creative gathering that would transcend time and space and reconnect with the creative community that was embodied in The Old Vienna Kaffeehaus and the Poetry Slam scene of the 1990’s as well as the collaborative spirit of the 2008 Ottawa Folk Festival where they met and first jammed together.
DOM FLEMONS – GRAMMY Award Winner, Two-Time EMMY Nominee, 2020 United States Artists Fellow- Dom Flemons is originally from Phoenix, Arizona and currently is relocating to Chicago, Illinois with his wife Vania Kinard and their daughter Cheyanne Love. He has branded the moniker “The American Songster” since his repertoire of music covers over 100 years of early American popular music. Flemons is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, actor, music scholar, historian, and record collector. He is considered an expert player on the banjo, guitar, harmonica, jug, percussion, quills, fife and rhythm bones. Flemons was selected for the prestigious 2020 United States Artists Fellowship Award for the Traditional Arts category which was generously supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
TIMOTHY MASON – For decades from the early 1980’s through 2008 Tim was the Artistic Director for a number of clubs in Eastern MA and active Performance Poet. As a poet he has appeared in clubs and festivals including the Tupelo Music Hall, the Tin Angel, The Iron Horse, Caffe Lena, The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Oregon Country Fair, Ottawa Folk Festival and Old Songs. He often collaborates with songwriters and poets, Bone Collectors with Tom Begich, Trio of Poets with Regie Gibson and Jena Kirkpatrick and Bones and Breath with Geoff Bartley. Currently based in Santa Fe NM he maintains a residence and presence in Cambridge MA. He is an Enrolled Agent and maintains a robust bookkeeping/financial management business for artists and small businesses and is a professional tax preparer. Thus he lives up to the titles of “Most Ambiguous” and “Most Standardly Deviated” awarded him when he received his Masters Degree in Management from Antioch New England.
THE CLUBS:
COFFEE KINGDOM 1982 – 1984 (Worcester MA) – the unassuming little expresso joint that became a touchstone for a generation of Wormtown youth and where it all began. A monday and tuesday pass the hat gig, Tim would serve the coffee and wear the hat between introducing that acts and arranging the visual art. Working with local talent like Michael Barrett, Rich Falco, Duke Levine and Dave Jacques and enticing touring artists like Peter “Madcat’ Ruth, Scott Alarik and Tony Bird he was able to build a loyal following and to begin to branch out helping produce the JazzWorcester Festivals and notably to work with Tiny Stacey and Jack Powers to bring Lawrence Ferlinghetti to the Blue Plate in Holden and to provide Jacob Knight the space to create his “Poetry in Old Shoeleather” body of paintings. When the owners decided they wanted to try something a bit more in their hometown of Westborough MA Tim went with them.
THE OLD VIENNA KAFFEEHAUS 1984 – 1996 (Westborough MA) – Larger than the Kingdom but intimate nonetheless the Kaffeehuas (OVK) was a 125 seat room upstairs from the Old Vienna Restaurant which specialized in Austro-Hungarian cuisine. Owner Pam Graves believed in the vision of the Kaffeehaus and stayed the course through the lean early days. Then Ramblin’ Jack Elliot got us noticed by the papers and The Shaw Brothers began filling seats on a regular basis and the club was on its way. Our metrowest location near the Mass Pike and I-495 which made us “close to everywhere and local to nothing” turned into a blessing as we were able to become the farthest western suburb of Boston while maintaining a Worcester identity. Headliners at the club included Arlo Guthrie, The Clancy Brothers, Bill Monroe, Richie Havens, Kris Kristofferson, Ferron, Holly Near, Gil Scott Heron, Peter Rowan, The Pousette Dart Band, John Stewart, Dave Van Ronk and many, many others. The Thursday night Open Mic’s became the heart and soul of the club signing up regularly were folks like Dar Williams, Martin Sexton, Don White, Ellis Paul and Vance Gilbert while the pass the hat features included David Wilcox, Susan Werner and Pierce Pettis, it was a creative and supportive community that helped give the scene an anchor and spawned relationships that endure to this day. The final show was the New Year’s Eve show 12/31/96 with Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters. The Old Vienna was a family business and after 13 years it was simply time for another chapter.
CLUB PASSIM 1995-2008 (Cambridge MA) – The work in Westboro had not gone unnoticed in the big city and in 1995 when Bob and RaeAnn Donlin retired Tim was tapped to pick up the reins and given the task of revitalizing the storied club. Club Passim was carrying on the legacy of the Club 47 that was home to Joan Baez in the 1960’s which the Donlin’s had stamped with their unique style. It was and remains a much loved club. The early support of Rounder Records and The Middle East Rock Club made it possible to rebuild the club and for it to fill the void in the community the closing of The Old Vienna had created. Working with Matt Smith pretty much since day one of the Club Passim era, we were able create new traditions and open the stage to yet another generation of emerging artists. Passim continues to play a vital role in the music community to this day.
CAPO’S 2002 – 2004 (Lowell MA) – Ralph Santosuosso had a vision of bringing the magic back out of the hub and chose a sweet room in downtown Lowell MA to hang out the Capo’s shingle. The club built a solid reputation and headline concerts by the likes of Lori McKenna, Michelle Shocked, Eric Bogle and Peter Mulvey had the club on its way. Late night rock sets helped it carve a niche of offering something for everyone. The vibe was all about the music and when patrons protested the lack of a television over the bar we found an old set, brought to the open mic and Ralph ceremoniously smashed a guitar through the picture tube. Artist Shannon Flattery gave it the finishing touches and the TV above the Capo’s bar was backlit with a guitar neck protruding from the shattered picture tube. It did not get great reception and when the 2004 Red Sox demanded the attention of all New England everywhere for 2 solid weeks of miracle baseball it was too much for the business to take and the doors were closed on that chapter. But wasn’t it a mighty time and how about them Sox.
HEZEKIAH STONE’S COFFEEHOUSE 2009 – 2018 (Rochedale MA) Pete Swanson and Christ Episcopal Church brought me full circle back to the Worcester community with a very sweet once a month concert series held in the colonial era sanctuary of the historic church. I was able to once again present some of the artists I most enjoyed working with in a relaxed low key environment. It was very sweet experience full of special and moving moments and a great way to wrap up what was a remarkable ride through the world of folk music in eastern Mass.
NAKED CITY – Late 80’s into the early 90’s (it is all a bit hazy) (Allston MA) – Run by Chris Dunn and Lee Kidd in a hallway in Allston this smoky, bandit gathering every Wednesday brought together the wildest collection of talent and irreverence that could be imagined. Songwriters, Poets, homeless activists, just plain bums and Berkeley students all mixed up a creative juju that lit sparks that are still burning.
NATIONAL POETRY SLAM 1990 – 1994 – As one of the very few Boston area poets who regularly performed off the page Tim became a member of the Boston Poetry Slam team in 1991 that went to the second National Poetry Slam Championship in Chicago. Working with Michael Brown and Patricia Smith he helped organize the 1992 National Poetry Slam Championship event in Boston, was instrumental in establishing the first print editions of the Poetry Slam Newsletter that Michael edited and which helped solidify the identity of the slam movement. He also found and arranged for the use of the downstairs room at The Cantab that for almost three decades has been the home of the slam in Boston.