Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame to induct an inaugural class of 28
It’s been about six years since Boch Center CEO and President Joe Spaulding and chairman of the board Mark Weld had what would amount to a fateful discussion about music. Both acoustic guitarists, and both in agreement that Boston had long been a hotbed of folk music, they created a folk-Americana music performance series.
But that turned out to be just a hint of what was to come. The following year, they began development and fundraising efforts for the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame (FARHOF), a project that would be delayed by the pandemic.
FARHOF opened in the fall of 2022 at the Wang Theatre, with renovated spaces, plenty of visual and aural exhibits, and tours. But it’s taken until now for Spaulding and his team to get around to something they’d been planning from the start: an official induction of the inaugural class of the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame.
The festivities on April 19-20 will include a ceremony honoring 28 inductees in the categories of solo legacy artist, solo living artist, duo or group of musicians, and non-performer, along with a Paul Robeson Artist/Activist Award.
Among the musical artists being recognized are Lead Belly, Johnny Cash, Gordon Lightfoot, Odetta, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Mavis Staples, Peter, Paul & Mary, and the Byrds. Though the celebration is not open to the public — invites went only to inductees and their families — the event is being covered by PBS and American Public Television for broadcast in November.
“This was supposed to happen a few years ago, and it’s an amazing relief that it finally is,” Spaulding said. “We had mapped out how we were going to do it, and then everything went to hell in a handbasket with COVID. So, to resurrect it, we had a committee of about 30 people — our board members and artist industry advisers — going through it. In our first pass, 187 artists were nominated. We spent about four months getting it all organized, and ended up with 28.”
Spaulding said that during the back-and-forth of the nominating and voting process, much of the discussion had to do with the cultural impact made by the contenders, along with social causes they were involved in, diversity issues, “and, of course . . . the contributions they made in music.”
FARHOF board member Noel Paul Stookey, who is being honored as a member of Peter, Paul & Mary (he recused himself from voting for the trio) spoke to the Globe by phone from his home in California.
“I think it’s the authenticity of intent that really binds us together,” he said of the honorees. “Are these issues that face humankind contemporary? Are they surmountable? Do they require — in the words of [folksinger] Anne Feeney — going to jail for justice? Do they require being out on the picket lines or writing op-eds? Yes, all of those. And if you go down that list of people, I think you’d find that they all, at one point or another, participated in all of those aspects of making a difference.”
Musician, producer, and Blue Note Records president Don Was — a FARHOF adviser — has worked with honorees Raitt, Nelson, Cash, and Staples. “I think all [of the inductees] are authentic artists,” he said by phone from Los Angeles. “They’re people who have the special gift — to be able to communicate on a higher level with audiences. They step up, they write, they say things in the songs that other people can bring into their own lives: how to cope with a troubled world, how to appreciate beauty around you. The four I produced or played with stand out because they’re not playing a character, they’re not part of a charade. They’re just being real.”
Stookey and Was both have a history of performing in the area.
“I was there with Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros, and again on the Last Waltz Tour,” Was said. “We played at the Wang and at the Shubert, and that’s how I met Joe Spaulding.”
“I played in Cambridge even before Peter, Paul & Mary,” said Stookey. “I had a girlfriend, Betty Bannard, who I later married, who worked at a publishing company in Boston. I was playing solo at that time. I lived in New York, and on my days off I would go to Boston to be with Betty, and I worked at Club 47.”
Along with the awards ceremony and presentation, plans for the event include a casual get-together among the inductees and their families, and some mostly unstructured performances. Among those scheduled to take part are Joan Baez, Stookey and Peter Yarrow, Amy Helm, Tom Rush, Livingston Taylor, Meredith Lightfoot, Josh White Jr., the Mammals, and Will Dailey.
Asked to address the rumor that Baez might be called up by Stookey and Yarrow to sing parts of songs that were once handled by the late Mary Travers, Stookey chuckled and said, “I think when you put folkies into the same room, there’s a historical probability to that.”
What’s definite is that the FARHOF folks are already champing at the bit to plan next year’s event.
“We’ll start right away,” Spaulding said. “On April 22, we’ll get ready to launch a bigger committee, with more nominators, and we intend to have 12 new inductees each year.”
Of additional note at FARHOF, a new photo exhibit — “The All Seeing Eye: Blue Note Records Through the Lens of Francis Wolff ” — is going up on May 1. And Spaulding recently announced that his last day leading the Boch Center will be May 31.
“But I don’t like to use the word retirement,” he said. “I’m stepping down from the job I’ve had for the past 38 years, but I’m not walking away. I’m hoping to be involved in a consulting position at FARHOF, and as a senior advisor to the [Boch] Center.
“And I’ve been playing my guitar a lot and have begun writing songs again.”