Back in the sixties.
On Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood there was a folk club called the Ash Grove.
Most weekends during my high school years you could find me there. Unlike the time I spent in my classes at Fairfax High School it was at the Ash Grove that I received my real education.
John Lee Hooker. Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Ponies (Linda always barefoot). Son House. Ry Cooder. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The Chambers Brothers. Taj Mahal. Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee. Josh White. Doc Watson and Earl Monroe, Barbara Dane. Odetta.
Ed Pearl ran the place. I would buy a ticket and Ed would let us sit and listen for as many sets at there were. Sometimes two. Sometimes four.
In the front, by the guitar shop Ry Cooder would be hanging out just playing.
My high school buddies, Danny Fefferman and Dave Elson, they of the Pseudo-Mountain Boys would play along.
Pickin’ and strummin’.
One rainy night in 1964, just sixteen years old, I pushed my way in through a crowd for a fund-raiser for students that had been arrested at Sproul Plaza in Berkeley during the Free Speech Movement. I don’t even remember who all was playing.
I just remember knowing I had to be there.
Next April, Ed Pearl is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Ash Grove at UCLA.
I just know I have to be there.
Fred Klonsky 