Chicago folk music stalwart Fred Holstein, 61, died on January 12.Chicago folk music stalwart Fred Holstein, 61, died on January 12.
Raised on Chicago's South Side, Holstein got hooked on music after attending a Pete Seeger concert at Orchestra Hall. He taught himself to play on a $15.00 guitar and started playing the folk clubs in the Old Town neighborhood. Fred was on the bill at the Earl of Old Town when it opened in1966, and became, along with John Prine, Steve Goodman, Bonnie Koloc, and others, a familiar presence at the club during the 1960’s and early 1970’s.
While Fred never quite gained the fame of some of his contemporaries, those performers and thousands of fans would have told you that no performer symbolized the heart of folk music more soulfully than Fred Holstein. He regarded himself as "an interpreter. What I do is about the songs, about the art, about the work." He developed a reputation for being a serious folklorist. "He knew the music – the background and the folk roots," said Frank Hamilton, one of the founders of the Old Town School.
Holstein and his brother Ed, also a folk singer, co-owned and performed in two classic Lincoln Avenue clubs, Somebody Else's Troubles, in the early 1970s, and, starting in 1981, Holstein's. Holsteins had a good long run, closing its doors on New Year's Day in 1988, with the crowd accompanying Fred and his brothers in a rousing rendition of "For All the Good People," Fred’s signature tune.
At the time of his death, he was tending bar – and occasionally singing – at yet another Lincoln Avenue bar, Sterch's. He was genuinely surprised by the interest and enthusiasm generated by the 2001 release of a two-CD release, Fred Holstein: A Collection. It was his first CD, combining remastered tunes from his only two LPs, songs from the archives of WFMT-FM, and snippets of interviews.
Of Fred Holstein, "Midnight Special" host Rich Warren said, “Fred Holstein was Chicago's troubadour. He never sought fortune or fame, because his great joy in life was introducing people to the best singer-songwriters of our time along with traditional music. Fred was the mainstay of the Chicago folk scene for 30 years and his ability to get inside a song and make it real for the audience was incomparable.”
[Photo courtesy of Vancouver folk Festival. Obituary courtesy of the Folk Alliance].
World Music Central
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