For 20 years, Peterborough Folk Music has carried the legacy: brilliant artists, intimate venues and a love for the music.
These are the things that made Peterborough Folk Music’s predecessor, the Folkway, what it was.
This year, for Peterborough Folk Music’s 20th year, those that still remember the Folkway will be able to re-experience some of that magic, with three headliners who were regulars on the Folkway stage, and have since become standard favorites on the Peterborough Players stage: Tom Rush, Jonathan Edwards and John Gorka.
The Folkway was founded by Widdie and Jonathan Hall in 1975 as a coffeehouse and music venue, and it attracted some of the biggest names in folk music. But when Widdie died of cancer in 1988, the Folkway closed down. But not for long.
The Folkway was reestablished in 1990, under a board of directors that tried to keep the music alive. And for five more years, they did. But eventually, the Folkway saw its second and final closing with a final performance by John Gorka on Jan. 1, 1996. Fittingly, Gorka will also close the main stage performances for Peterborough Folk Music this year, as the organization crosses the two-decade mark.
Nine days later, the then-called Peterborough Folk Music Society held its first concert at the Unitarian Church in Peterborough.
“This kind of thing is very difficult to start from scratch,” said Deb McWethy, president of Peterborough Folk Music, and former board member of the Folkway. “But we’re really the legacy of the folkway.”
The true legacy of the Folkway, said folk singer Tom Rush, who will be kicking off the Peterborough Folk Music season this fall, is the feeling of the space and the audience.
”It was a very cozy, homelike feel,” said Rush. “It was more of an atmosphere. Everyone appreciated Widdie’s dedication to bringing great music to the place.”
Jonathan Edwards, who will be coming to Peterborough in November, is a former resident of the town, and said before he ever played at the Folkway, he was a fan of the space.
”I always said, this might be a nice place to play at some point, and soon enough, some point came around,” said Edwards.
On Oct. 15, Rush will be returning to Peterborough Folk Music to give his audience a mix of the old and the new.
Rush is a 50-year veteran of the folk music scene who has worked with some of the biggest names in the business. His album “The Circle Game” became one of the precursors to the singer-songwriter genre.
In his career, Rush said, he has mostly recorded music written by other artists. But in the last few years, he’s been focusing on producing more of his own songs, which he hopes will culminate into an album in the future.
“I’ve probably written more songs in the last couple of years than I have in the last couple of decades,” joked Rush.
Rush said he’s been making more of an effort to carve out time for his songwriter, saying for him, it’s a matter of getting into the routine of a cup of coffee and his guitar.
“If I can put my mind in neutral, and accept whatever floats by, that’s when the good stuff happens,” said Rush. “I don’t know where they come from. they just pop up and come out of the ether somehow. I find that the better songs come all in one piece. the more you work at a song, the less good it gets.”
And like his musical tastes, the songs he has produced bounce all over the scale when it comes to influence and tone.
“There’s some pretty serious, soul-searching stuff, and there’s some stuff tht’s just for fun,” said Rush.
And while he always is looking to grow and produce new favorites, Rush said his show in October won’t neglect the classics that many of his fans come to the shows to see.
On Nov. 11, artist Jonathan Edwards will be showcasing works from his 2015 album “Tomorrow’s Child,” some new, unrecorded works as well as his old classics.
Edwards said he feeds off the energy of a live performing. Even his recording of “Tomorrow’s Child” was done in the way of old-school records – with all the artists performing live around the microphone, instead of layering individual tracks.
That’s the best way he knows how to make music, he said.
“I will hopefully never do an album any other way,” he said. “Doing that way has a strength, and magic, and special sauce, that doesn’t happen when you’re working in isolation.”
“Tomorrow’s Child” has a mix of his own songs and some of his collaborators, of which there are many on the record, said Edwards, but all have an overarching theme of connection – to family of blood and by choice, of friends and loved ones.
“It just seemed to happen that way,” said Edwards. “It came to us in a real organic way. There was not question about which songs to do, only which ones we had to leave out, and in the end, we had 11 really loveing and energetic, and yet really personal songs.”
Many of Edwards own personal stories are behind the songs – “Gracie,” which is unsurprisingly about his daughter, Grace Young, or “Sandy Girl,” a “fun little poetic romp” inspired by his wife, or “Johnny Come Home,” which expresses the emotions that he had when reconnecting to his birth mother.
Rush will perform with special guest Seth Glier on Oct. 15 at the Peterborough Players Theater. Edwards will play on Nov. 11. For a full list of shows and to purchase tickets, visit www.pfmsconcerts.org.