DAVE VAN RONK (1936-2002)

 DAVE VAN RONK (1936-2002) 

DAVE VAN RONK (1936-2002) was a gifted guitarist and singer known for being part of the Greenwich Village folk music scene, from the 1950s on. He was a true character; I got to know him and his wife Andrea a bit back in the 1980s when I did some shows opening for him in California and New York. He was encouraging, kind, and funny to me. He spoke his mind and was known as "The Mayor of MacDougal Street," which was the title of his memoirs completed after his passing in 2005 by Elijah Wald.

Robert Shelton said: "he resembled an unmade bed strewn with books, record jackets, pipes, empty whiskey bottles, lines from obscure poets, finger picks, and broken guitar strings. He was Bob [Dylan]'s first New York guru. Van Ronk was a walking museum of the blues."