John Cohen, the Last of the New Lost City Ramblers, Dead at 87
John Cohen, the last surviving member of the New Lost City Ramblers, died Sept. 16 at 87, The New York Times reported.
Happy Traum remembered Cohen as a “musician, folklorist, photographer, filmmaker, collector, thinker and friend.
“What a loss for us all,” he tweeted.
Believed to be the inspiration for the Grateful Dead’s “Uncle John’s Band,” Cohen formed the New Lost City Ramblers with Mike Seeger and Tom Paley in 1958. The band was active into the 1970s.
Smithsonian Folkways Records called the Ramblers “one of the most iconic groups in the history” of the label.
“Many of us here have had close personal relationships with John, and we’re all going to miss him,” Folkways said on Facebook.
Former Carolina Chocolate Drop Dom Flemons had known Cohen for more than a decade and marveled at his prolific output - via new projects and archival releases - into his ninth decade. He called Cohen “a great friend and mentor” in a lengthy Facebook post.
“As a musician, we have now lost the last of the original New Lost City Ramblers,” he wrote. “As a human being in this world, we’ve lost one of the great explorers of folk music who curated a world of music that connects musicians from the city and the country, pop and folk on stages that range from the front porches of the South to Carnegie Hall.”
9/21/19
