Saturday, February 1, 3pm
Hotel Real de Minas Ballroom, Camino Viejo al Panteón 1
$300, $400, $500

Legendary Tom Paxton - concert

After sixty years in the music business, the American folksinger and songwriter Tom Paxton has no shortage of stories to tell. One of his favorites is his account of how he met Pete Seeger in Greenwich Village in 1963, when Paxton was still a relative unknown, and Seeger was the lead singer for The Weavers, a world-famous folk quartet that sold millions of records. Paxton, who had written a new song called "Ramblin' Boy," screwed up his courage and asked Seeger if he could sing it for him. "He gave me his full attention," Paxton recalls today. "A few weeks later he sang it in Carnegie Hall, with the Weavers."

Paxton went on to write and record folk standards such as "The Last Thing on My Mind," "Bottle of Wine," "Whose Garden Was This," and many other classics. A decade ago, his long career as one of America's best-loved folksingers was recognized with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Now 82, Paxton gives concerts far less frequently than he once did, but he remains a compelling live performer.

On Saturday, February 1, at 3pm at the hotel Real de Minas, Paxton will give one of those now-rare concerts, his first-ever in San Miguel. He will be joined by two-time Grammy Award winners Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer. The concert is a benefit for Caminamos Juntos, a charitable organization that assists Mexican nationals who have been unjustly deported.

Paxton arrived in New York City in 1960, just as the American folk music revival was getting underway, producing artists such as Dave Van Ronk, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Odetta, and Bob Dylan. Most of those artists, including at first even Dylan, covered traditional folk songs, while Paxton was already performing his own material.

"Dylan is usually cited as the founder of the new song movement, and he certainly became its most visible standard-bearer,' Van Ronk has said. "But the person who started the whole thing was Tom Paxton."

Unlike Dylan, Paxton has remained throughout his career an acoustic performer, one who has never embraced electrified folk-rock.

Paxton's songs incorporate gentle humor and often touch on themes of social justice. He has written songs for children, alongside many more on adult subjects, such as peace, love, loss, and ecological and political concerns.

His songs have been recorded by artists ranging from Willie Nelson to Neil Diamond to Dolly Parton to Plácido Domingo. "The Last Thing on My Mind" alone has reportedly been covered by more than a hundred and fifty different performers.

Two-time Grammy winners Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer combine superb vocal harmonies with instrumental virtuosity. They will join Paxton in concert, performing their own set, and accompanying Paxton for part of his. The duo's past collaborations with Paxton yielded the 2006 Grammy-nominated album Tom Paxton with Cathy & Marcy Live in the UK.

Reserved-seat tickets are 500, 400, and 300 pesos. Tickets are available at Boleto City, Mercado Sano, Monday through Saturday, 11am to 5pm; and online.

Note: If you're a Tom Paxton fan, don't overlook Seeger, an award-winning multimedia show starring Randy Noojin, taking place between January 19 and 22 at the San Miguel Playhouse.
Visit boletocity.com for details.

Tickets