From the Charles to the Thames

It’s amazing what you find when you clean up. I had totally forgotten that I owned a copy of this one.

In July of 1961, the Charles River Valley Boys (Bob Siggins, Ethan Signer, Clay Jackson) found themselves in London. They did a couple of recording sessions in the basement of the legendary Dobell’s Record Shop on the 20th and 21st. Twelve songs from those sessions, along with six previously recorded by WHRB back home in Cambridge, Mass., became this album, issued by Folklore Records. (Later the label was known as Folklore 77, Dobell’s being at 77 Charing Cross Road.) It was a limited pressing, most estimates being 500 or less. I believe it was probably less as, at the time in the UK, a pressing of 500 kicked in some taxes. Here’s the title song:

While in London they became friends with Martin Cathy and ended up introducing Martin to Dave Swarbrick…. and we know how that turned out. But that’s a story for another time. Hopefully I’ll eventually digitize an interview with Martin I did in the early 70s and you can here the story from him.

The music on the album is not a rare as it once was as it, along with several selections from one of the CRVB Prestige albums has been reissued on CD. You can get more information and buy it here.