By CAROL WASILOK
Big Shout Magazine, March 1992

If the laws of supply and demand are any indication, real musicians — you know, those pre-MIDI creatures who manipulated instruments to make sounds and used their imaginations, not their computers to create melodies — will soon be a very rare commodity.

The folks at Philadelphia’s North Star Bar, sensing that audiences are tiring of pre-packaged, synthetic pop, recently introduced a new Wednesday-night concert series dedicated to presenting the finest in local, regional, New England and Southern contemporary folk music. According to Ben Arnold, the North Star’s booking agent, who is himself an accomplished musician, “there is a definite resurgence of the singer/songwriter tradition, and the North Star is the perfect venue to showcase this type of music.”

Not coincidentally, the North Star has enlisted veteran folk DJ Gene Shay to host the series, aptly titled “Gene Shay Presents.” For the past 30 years, Shay has been as much of a Philadelphia institution (in folk circles, at least) as soft pretzels, Rocky, or the Mummers.

“Ben Arnold got the whole thing started and got me involved,” says Shay. “Music by contemporary singer/songwriters was the basic idea, and I guess he recognized that it’s sort of one of my specialties. too.”

Shay is being just a bit humble about his credentials. Long considered Philly’s “Godfather of Folk,” Shay is co-founder of the Philadelphia Folk Festival, which he has emceed since it’s inception. He also emceed young Bob Dylan’s first Philadelphia concert in 1963. Since then, he has interviewed, introduced, or has otherwise been involved with virtually every significant singer/songwriter to draw breath in these parts.

Indeed, everybody who is anybody in folk music has crossed Shay’s path at one time or another.

“Doing this folk show,” he says of his longstanding radio folk program, the latest incarnation of which is his WHYY show Folk Music with Gene Shay, “Most of the contemporary singer/songwriters who have made a name for themselves — everyone from Joni Mitchell to John Denver to Ritchie Havens to John Prine, Steve Goodman, David Bromberg, Jackson Browne — they’re all people who visited me on my program when they were first starting out.”

Shay’s ear for raw talent and his willingness to work with unknown and up-and-coming musicians has contributed largely to his success and longevity, and has also endeared him to the folk music community. His genuine love and commitment to music and musicians — not “names” — is especially apparent when he talks about some of the artists being presented in his new series.

“Most of the people in the series I have admired from afar; I know their work,” says Shay. “Catie Curtis had been on my program when she first came through Philadelphia, and I was very impressed with her.”

Other artists in the series include Beth Williams, McDonnell/Tane and Brooks Williams. Shay feels that they all have a great deal of talent and potential, but it’s the songs that are the most important thing to him.

“It’s not their guitar; it’s not their voice,” he says. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s just solid material — a song that, after you hear it, you want to hear it again… And that’s what I look for — good use of language, no cliches.”

Shay gives most of the credit for choosing artists to Ben Arnold. “In most cases, it was Ben’s judgment based on what he heard,” Shay says. “He had gotten tapes from some of these people and he recognized that they were good. It just so happened, coincidentally, that in most cases, they were the people that I would have chosen.”

Shay believes that the renewed interest in roots and folk music has little to do with nostalgia. The renaissance in what he likes to call “singer/songwriter music” is due to many factors — including, he says “the shape the country’s in. Every time we get in a bad time, when people are out of work, where there’s oppression, when people are fighting, when there’s a war, there are people who want to express their feelings about it, and the feelings are very mixed these days.”

Besides the political and social climate of the country itself, there is, says Shay, “the costs of the technology. People can now record albums in their own houses and do a fairly good job because the cost of the technology has come down.”

In addition, he says, artists are realizing that “it’s possible to make real good music just with a guitar, and maybe a bass player. You don’t need a band all the time.”

The stadium and large arena shows of the often-excessive and flamboyant ’80s are becoming increasingly rare in the ’90s. Club concerts, says Shay, “are more convenient, less expensive, and you don’t have to fight with crowds.”

Compared to the astronomical price of most concerts, the North Star series is definitely a bargain. Admission to most shows is $5 — less than the cover charge of many clubs. This series presents quality music in an intimate setting, reminiscent of the Greenwich Village coffeehouse hootenannies of the early ’60s.

The series, which kicked off February 5 and runs indefinitely, is sure to gain momentum as word spreads of the impressive roster of talent already booked. Upcoming acts are still in the works. And with the combination of Gene Shay and Ben Arnold, the possibilities are endless.

Editor’s note: Gene Shay died from COVID-19-related complications in Lower Merion Township, PA on April 17, 2020, at the age of 85.