The first Boston Area Friends show
The first Boston Area Friends show was on a Sunday in December 1969, Fred explained, “at the Harvard Freshman Union, which I had access to as a Harvard freshman. We had to get a permit for ‘Entertainment on the Lord’s Day’ from the Cambridge Police Department. We promoted it through Hillbilly at Harvard and through every bluegrass contact we had in New England. The lineup was the Lilly Brothers and Don Stover; Joe Val, Herb Applin and the Old Time Bluegrass Singers; and the Spark Gap Wonder Boys. I was surprised and pleased that the first concert drew from western Mass, Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. By February we had a 600-name mailing list and by April 900+ names; by April of the next year, it had grown to 1500+ names.” Bar was involved early as well. 7
L to R: Including Julia Sinclair, Skip Gorman, Brian Sinclair, Marian Leighton, Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin
Photograph: E. B. Boatner, courtesy of Fred Bartenstein.
(Click an image to enlarge it)
A Manny Greenhill-promoted show noted in the Harvard Crimson was on March 21, 1970 – Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys in concert with the Lilly Brothers and Don Stover at Harvard’s Sanders Theater. Fred had helped Greenhill promote the concert and had written a Crimson article two days earlier. 8
In 2025, Fred added, “Some of the folks who soon became involved were Barbara Boatner and her boyfriend, Brian and Julia Sinclair, and Nancy’s sister Barbara Perryclear (hospitality queen). Later regulars and helpers included Jack and Alex Tottle, Richie Brown, Maria Gajda, Susan Hershey, and—of course—the Rounders.” The latter was a reference to the Rounder Records label, originally based in Somerville near Porter Square. The three Rounder Founders – Ken Irwin, Marian Leighton, and Bill Nowlin – all attended that first 1969 BAF concert. 9
Footnotes –
- The first show was described by Nancy herself. See Nancy Talbott, “The Boston Bluegrass Scene,” Muleskinner News, March-April 1971.
- Fred Bartenstein, “Father of a Music – Bill Monroe,” Harvard Crimson, March 19, 1970.
- Marian later married bluesman Ron Levy and became known as Marian Leighton Levy.