Friends of the late Dick Nevell of Hancock remember him for his love of music, a love through which he made many friends in the Monadnock region and around the world.
Nevell, who died May 12 at the age of 76 at Pheasant Wood Center in Peterborough, was heavily involved with The Folkway in Peterborough from its inception in 1975, where he not only frequently performed, but helped with operations.
The Folkway was a coffee house and cafe that hosted folk performances until it closed in 1996.
“Dick and I almost immediately hit it off because of our common musical interests,” said Jonathan Hall, who started The Folkway with his wife Widdie. “Because of his interest in music, he hung around [The Folkway] a lot.”
Folk musician David Lord of Harrisville and his wife Susan knew Nevell for more than 50 years, even before he moved to the Monadnock region. Lord described Nevell as “a quiet force of culture in the region.”
“As a musician and songwriter, he was key figure in the founding of The Folkway in Peterborough,” Lord said.
Hall’s daughter, Sasha Duverlie, said that aside from performing at The Folkway, he also helped “write the ‘ditties,’” which was her mother Widdie’s word for the blurbs about each performing artist that were printed in The Folkway’s programs. Both Hall and Duverlie noted that Nevell was integral in picking out the musicians who would perform.
“One of his biggest talents was – he just had an ear for up-and-coming music,” Hall said, noting that Nevell introduced him to the music of James Taylor just as he was becoming well-known in the folk music scene. While Taylor never played at The Folkway, Nevell was key in getting James’ brother Livingston to perform, in addition to several other well-known folk musicians from the Monadnock region and beyond.
Nevell and Hall eventually formed an unnamed, informal band and began playing together. On nights at The Folkway when a performing artist would have to drop out, they would fill in for them, often coming up with impromptu names based on whatever the dinner special was that night. A humorous event that sticks out in Hall’s mind is when the pair performed as “Glazed Ham.”
Hall said he had given Nevell a book about an Indonesian dancer that eventually led him to Bali, one of the many places across the world where he traveled.
“Dick was a good friend and professionally helpful to me with what I was doing at the time,” Hall said. “He will be missed.”
Aside from music, Nevell taught briefly at the Dublin School, ran a program for developmentally disabled adults through New Hope New Horizons in Keene and was a resident artist at the Harrisville School. Nevell was also a writer, having published “A Time to Dance: American Country Dancing from Hornpipes to Hot Hash” in 1977. He produced two films alongside documentary director Robert Fiore, “ Country Corners” in 1976 and “Full of Life A-Dancin’” in 1978, based on his book.