The Gate of Horn was a 100-seat [1] folk music club, located in the basement of the Rice Hotel at 755 N. Dearborn St. at the corner of Chicago Avenue, on the near north side of Chicago, Illinois, in the 1950s and 1960s. It was opened by journalist Les Brown [2] and Albert Grossman in 1956. [3] It was where Odetta, Bob Gibson, Roger McGuinn and others made their name. Also appearing at the club were Theodore Bikel, Josh White (Sr. and Jr.), Oscar Brown, Jo Mapes, Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry, Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, the New Lost City Ramblers, Judy Collins, Hoyt Axton, Jim Croce and Bonnie Dobson. Bill Cosby and George Carlin also performed as comedians at the club. [4]
Bob Gibson was its frequent Master of Ceremonies (M.C.) and often introduced new talent at the Gate of Horn. He met a quiet, shy singer with a great voice named Joan Baez at the Newport Folk Festival and persuaded her to perform at the Gate of Horn after the festival. Many of those who performed at the Gate of Horn were interviewed by Studs Terkel for his radio show Studs Terkel's Wax Museum which also helped build the folk music revival in Chicago. Gibson was also one of the forces behind the influential Old Town School of Folk Music for several decades after the 1960s.
In April 1961, Gibson and Bob Camp recorded their folk album Bob Gibson & Bob Camp at the Gate Of Horn at the club. [5]
The Gate of Horn outgrew its basement and moved to a larger venue on Rush Street near Oak. This was also one of the clubs at which stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce performed, in December 1962, before his arrest and trial for obscenity. [6] When the Gate of Horn folded, its space was filled for several years by Second City. The original Gate of Horn site at 755 N. Dearborn is now a hi-rise rental apartment building; a similar fate befell the building which last housed the 1950s and 1960s free-speech coffee house "The College of Complexes" which was at 515 N. Clark Street—a few short blocks away.
McGuinn later wrote the song "Gate of Horn" about the venue and the way it affected him. [3]
The Gate of Horn appears in the 2013 film Inside Llewyn Davis ; its exterior as a visual effect with a set construction interior. [8]
The Clancy Brothers were an influential Irish folk music group that developed initially as a part of the American folk music revival. Most popular during the 1960s, they were famed for their Aran jumpers and are widely credited with popularising Irish traditional music in the United States and revitalising it in Ireland, contributing to an Irish folk boom with groups like the Dubliners and the Wolfe Tones.
Odetta Holmes, known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, lyricist, and civil rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals. An important figure in the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, she influenced many of the key figures of the folk-revival of that time, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mavis Staples, and Janis Joplin. In 2011 Time magazine included her recording of "Take This Hammer" on its list of the 100 Greatest Popular Songs, stating that "Rosa Parks was her No. 1 fan, and Martin Luther King Jr. called her the queen of American folk music."
Patrick Michael Clancy, usually called Paddy Clancy or Pat Clancy, was an Irish folk singer best known as a member of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. In addition to singing and storytelling, Clancy played the harmonica with the group, which is widely credited with popularizing Irish traditional music in the United States and revitalizing it in Ireland. He also started and ran the folk music label Tradition Records, which recorded many of the key figures of the American folk music revival.
Liam Clancy was an Irish folk singer from Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary. He was the youngest member of the influential folk group the Clancy Brothers, regarded as Ireland's first pop stars. They achieved global sales of millions and appeared in sold-out concerts at such prominent venues as Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall.
Thomas Makem was an Irish folk musician, artist, poet and storyteller. He was best known as a member of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. He played the long-necked 5-string banjo, tin whistle, low whistle, guitar, bodhrán and bagpipes, and sang in a distinctive baritone. He was sometimes known as "The Bard of Armagh" and "The Godfather of Irish Music".
Albert Bernard Grossman was an American entrepreneur and manager in the American folk music and rock and roll scene. He was famous as the manager of many of the most popular and successful performers of folk and folk-rock music, including Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Peter, Paul and Mary, the Band, Odetta, Gordon Lightfoot, and Ian & Sylvia.
Cafe Wha? is a music club at the corner of MacDougal Street and Minetta Lane in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The club is important in the history of rock and folk music, having presented numerous musicians and comedians early on in their careers, including Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, the Velvet Underground, Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys, Kool & the Gang, Peter, Paul and Mary, Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Joan Rivers, Bill Cosby, and Richard Pryor.
Samuel Robert Gibson was an American folk singer and a key figure in the folk music revival in the late 1950s and early 1960s. His principal instruments were banjo and 12-string guitar.
The Gaslight Cafe was a coffeehouse in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York. Also known as The Village Gaslight, it opened in 1958 and became notable as a venue for folk music and other musical acts. It closed in 1971.
Bruce Langhorne was an American folk musician. He was active in the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 1960s, primarily as a session guitarist for folk albums and performances.
The American folk music revival began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Richard Dyer-Bennet, Oscar Brand, Jean Ritchie, John Jacob Niles, Susan Reed, Paul Robeson, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Cisco Houston had enjoyed a limited general popularity in the 1930s and 1940s. The revival brought forward styles of American folk music that had in earlier times contributed to the development of country and western, blues, jazz, and rock and roll music.
Gerdes Folk City, sometimes spelled Gerde's Folk City, was a music venue in the West Village, part of Greenwich Village, Manhattan, in New York City. Initially opened by owner Mike Porco as a restaurant called Gerdes, it eventually began to present occasional incidental music. It was first located at 11 West 4th Street, before moving in 1970 to 130 West 3rd Street. The club closed in 1987.
The Bitter End is a 230-person capacity nightclub, coffeehouse and folk music venue in New York City's Greenwich Village. It opened in 1961 at 147 Bleecker Street under the auspices of owner Fred Weintraub. The club changed its name to The Other End in June 1975. However, after a few years the owners changed the club's name back to the more recognizable The Bitter End. It remains open under new ownership.
Frank Hamilton is an American folk musician, collector of folk songs, and educator. He co-founded the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, Illinois in 1957. As a performer, he has recorded for several labels, including Folkways Records. He was a member of the folk group The Weavers in the early 1960s, and appeared at the first Newport Folk Festival in 1959. He was the house musician – playing guitar and other folk instruments – for Chicago's Gate of Horn, the nation's first folk music nightclub. After many years of teaching, playing, and singing in California he married a third time, and with his wife relocated to Atlanta, where he performs on banjo, guitar, ukulele, voice, and other instruments and co-founded the Frank Hamilton School in 2015.
"Farewell", also known as "Fare Thee Well", is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Dylan wrote the song in January 1963. He considered it for his third album, The Times They Are a-Changin', but only attempted a few takes during the album's first studio session. Dylan's earlier recordings of "Farewell" found their way onto various bootlegs, and a collection of demos that included the song was released in October 2010 on The Bootleg Series Vol. 9 – The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964.
The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem is a collection of traditional Irish songs performed by The Clancy Brothers with frequent collaborator Tommy Makem. It was their third album and their final one for Tradition Records, the small label that the eldest Clancy brother Paddy Clancy ran. After this, the group recorded exclusively for Columbia Records until 1970. This was the first album for which they used the group name, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Their prior recordings had simply listed their individual names on the cover.
A Spontaneous Performance Recording!: The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, sometimes simply called A Spontaneous Performance, is a 1961 collection of traditional Irish folk songs performed by The Clancy Brothers with frequent collaborator Tommy Makem. It was their first album for Columbia Records. The group would continue to record for Columbia for the remainder of the 1960s. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1962 for Best Folk Recording.
Hearty and Hellish! is a live album of traditional Irish folk songs performed by the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, recorded live at the Gate of Horn in Chicago. It was their second album for Columbia Records. In a January 1963 article, Time magazine selected Hearty and Hellish! as one of the top 10 albums of 1962.
A World of Our Own is the fourth studio album by the Australian group The Seekers. The album was released in 1965. In some countries, the album was titled The Seekers. The album peaked at number 123 in the Billboard 200 and number 5 in the United Kingdom.
Lester Louis Brown was an American "pioneer in television journalism". He was also a publisher and book author, with topics reporting on the business of television. He founded a magazine called Channels of Communications in 1981.
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