Charles Alexander "Sandy" Paton (22 January 1929 — 26 July 2009) was a folksinger and folksong collector, a recording engineer, and a record label executive. As a performer, Paton was hailed by critic
John Greenway as "the best interpreter of traditional singing in the English-speaking world, with the possible but not probable exception of
Ewan MacColl." As a song-collector and field-recorder, Paton recorded folk singers in both the US and the UK, including
Jeannie Robertson
Jeannie Robertson (1908 – 13 March 1975) was a Scottish folk singer.
Her most celebrated song is "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day", otherwise known as "Jock Stewart", which was covered by Archie Fisher, The Dubliners, The McCalmans, ...
(assisting
Hamish Henderson
Hamish Scott Henderson (11 November 1919 – 9 March 2002) was a Scottish poet, songwriter, communist, intellectual and soldier.
He was a catalyst for the folk revival in Scotland. He was also an accomplished folk song collector and dis ...
, a noted Scots folklorist),
Jean Redpath,
Horton Barker, and
Frank Proffitt
Frank Noah Proffitt (June 1, 1913 – November 24, 1965) was an Appalachian old time banjoist who preserved the song " Tom Dooley" in the form we know it today and was a key figure in inspiring musicians of the 1960s and 1970s to play the trad ...
, whose song "
Tom Dooley" later became a million-selling record by the
Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, ...
.
Paton believed that modern
high fidelity recording technology offered listeners the chance to experience the "richness" and "musicality" of folk music performances in a way that earlier, less-sophisticated recording technologies did not.
With his wife Caroline Paton and friends Lee and Mary Haggerty, Paton founded
Folk-Legacy Records
Folk-Legacy Records was an independent record label specializing in traditional and contemporary folk music of the English-speaking world. It was founded in 1961 by Sandy and Caroline Paton and Lee Baker Haggerty.
The label recorded Frank Prof ...
, a premier folk music recording label. One of his obituaries notes Paton's wide-ranging work on the label's releases, including not only in production and engineering but also in photography.
Sandy and Caroline Paton also wrote liner notes for many of their label's recordings, contributing "a wealth of cultural knowledge" to the printed materials accompanying these albums.
Sandy and Caroline Paton appeared three times on the
Studs Terkel radio show on
WFMT
WFMT is an FM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, featuring a format of fine arts, classical music programming, and shows exploring such genres as folk. The station is managed by Window to the World Communications, Inc., owner of WTTW, Chicago ...
. Recordings of these programs are in the
Studs Terkel Radio Archive.
For their accomplishments in performing, recording, and preserving folk music, in 1993 Sandy and Caroline were named "official State Troubadours" by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. They also received awards from the California Traditional Music Society as well as folk festivals in Tennessee and Massachusetts.
Sandy Paton was born in Florida, USA on 22 January 1929, and died in Sharon, Connecticut USA on 26 July 2009.
References
External links
* Discography at Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/artist/1524993-Sandy-Paton
* Sandy Paton sings "
East Virginia Blues"
{{authority control
American folk singers