By Tom Yeager (concert presenter in Houston, TX)

About 7 years ago at Kerrville, I was talking to Arthur Wood, the publisher of Folkwax magazine, trying to pick his brain about who to invite for our concert series. After hearing my requirements, he opened his billfold, and nestled among the 100s was a single business card, faded, dirty, and tattered. Arthur handed it to me and said that I should find the guy whose name was on the card. I didn't even know the name. It was Tom Pacheco.

Man about town Pete Cronquist, a long-time friend of Arthur's, was in on the conversation, and when he heard Tom's name, he swooned low. For Pete was in attendance with the small crowd in a bar that single time Tom played in Houston many years earlier. Afterwards, Pete drove to Austin to hear Tom, again. Pete knows. Pete always knows.

Regarding my need to see a live performance of our artists before engaging them, Arthur gave a little laugh because Tom was playing more in Europe than the U.S., and Tom hadn't played in the south in ages. But knowing that he was planting the seed of an oak, Arthur let me keep the card. He and Pete parted, leaving me thinking of all the things they had told me about Tom and with me staring at the card wondering if this was to be my grail-quest.

What impressed me most about that encounter was that though Arthur has interviewed and published articles about several hundred folk performers, he had only a single recommendation for me, and he had only that single faded card that had been stored deep in his wallet for countless years. And he knew it was there. I still have that card. It may have been buried in the pile at times, but it has never left my desk.

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Tom Pacheco began studying Flamenco and classical guitar at age 10 from his father, Tony Pacheco, a jazz guitarist who played with Django Reinhardt and performed solo throughout the clubs of Europe. At 19, Tom released his first album of original folk songs and began playing in the Greenwich Village basket house clubs in New York City. That was in 1965 and well before the arrival of Jack Hardy or David Massengill, our other heros of the post folk revival era in the Village, who are no less diminished in my mind by not being there first.

That dangerous folk scare of the late fifties had died down or rather had morphed into folk rock. Tom rode that wave then and still does, but he has always keep one foot firmly cemented in the early part of that period embracing the influences of Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, and early Bob Dylan. Tom's compassion for our world and for what it should be and his condemnation for those who prevent that while pocketing the proceeds guides a strong current of Tom's work. Two of Tom's best lines in this style come from "Rebel Spring" and speak well to this: "Somewhere we've lost the reigns of our destinies/to the sweet songs of shepherds we don't see". We must think of Tom as one of the great protest singers, but he is much more than that in the same way that Woody Guthrie was much more.

• "A Master craftsman... In many ways [Tom's] is a voice crying in the wilderness, just as Guthrie's was back in the time of the great depression, and Seeger's was in the fifties - and Dylan's was, when he gave voice to those unable to express their own fears and frustrations in the early sixties. In many ways, Tom Pacheco is continuing that great tradition of putting into words those thoughts and emotions which many of us feel but are unable to express with the eloquence and conviction that he does." - Maverick Magazine, United Kingdom

Tom's populist approach and his condemnations of the clueless also contribute to the comparisons with Woody Guthrie and with Bruce Springsteen. Note these words from "Nobodies": "I'm nobody. Who are you? Maybe you're nobody, too. The world was made for the fortunate few. Nobodies just struggle on through. I'm nobody. Who are you?" And from "South Beach": "Everybody's beautiful on South Beach. Tan bodies that will knock you out, / Everyone is going to have their teeth bleached or get silicone tits that shout. / The bartenders pose like Greek gods. The waitresses are all sublime. / Everyone lives to be looked at. They've got only one enemy, TIME."

Tom excels in several styles and musical forms but some of his most compelling songs are his story songs and folk ballads. Some are well-researched histories. Others are speculative. Pete Cronquist says Tom can write a song about anything and the canon of Tom's stories proves it.

The Journal of Graeme Livingston is about the man who killed Jack the Ripper, and Jessica Brown is about the woman who killed the grassy knoll gunman. The friendship of Woody Guthry and Jack Elliot is chronicled in Woody and Jack, and there are fun tributes to Jerry Garcia and the "Last Rolling Stone." Tom takes a mind expanding ride with Hunter Thompson in Riding with Mr. Thompson. There is a dramatic 10 minute epic about Che Gueverra, a heart tugger about the bus boy who served Robert Kennedy's last meal, and an exposé on the expansionist campaigns of Teddy Roosevelt. I wish those clips were longer for each of those songs leaves you satisfied like good read from Harper's or The Atlantic.

When Chuck Brodsky was here last month he told our audience that all it took to be a Tom Pacheco fan was one listen to "There was a Time". There are some short clips of that song on the internet, but there's also this You-Tube video showing Tom playing the entire song live: There was a Time live video. The sound is poor, but you can see that Tom looks like a lot like Ray Wylie Hubbard, though not as well groomed.

In his 40+ years as a professional songwriter, Tom has issued 23 LPs and CDs. His songs have been recorded by Richie Havens, The Jefferson Starship, The Band, Rick Danko, Norwegian superstar Steiner Albrigtson, and others. Last November to commemorate his 3000th!! copywrited song, Scotland's Loudon Castle hosted Tom in a splendid celebration concert. Tom wrote many of his songs in the years he lived in Europe, and he is far better known there than in our country. Tom's long association with The Band include them indeed being his band on one of his records, and it brought forth some co-writes and production credits by several members on Tom's recordings.

• "Tom Pacheco deserves to be mentioned in the same tones of reverence as John Prine, Townes Van Zant, Guy Clark and Steve Earl...Tom Pacheco is one of the most impressive singer/songwriters of our times." - Hugh Gregory, Folk Roots For a year I have been collecting stories about Tom from various sources. Most are from early in his career, but I'll share one with you I've pieced together from the Spring of last year. It's quite a tale.

It seems the worker bees in a bull-pen office of a southside Chicago organization were playing what's on your I-Pod one day and got a bingo when it was discovered that everyone had a copy of Tom's 2005 song Rebel Spring marked as a favorite. They thought this beautiful song about our devolved culture but which includes a hopeful and encouraging ending explained exactly why that organization existed. Apparently the boss's wife walked through and was so impressed upon hearing the song that the idea came up to use the song in their work.

So someone called Tom and told him that they wanted to use the song. He agreed. Then they told him that they needed him to come play the song. Not hesitating a moment, he agreed, again. Easing into it like that, they then dropped the kicker and told him to start packing. They needed him tomorrow.

In the middle of the night a black Suburban picked Tom up and whisked him to a New York airport. Tom is not certain where they landed, but he thinks it was in Pennsylvania. Tom was led into a busy hotel room so he could play the song for the boss's wife. Being a very polite group, introductions were made before hand: "Mr. Pacheco, may I present to you, Michele Obama?"

Tom played Rebel Spring and the room was stunned. "Will you wait here a moment, Tom", Michele asked, they all being on first name basis by that time. She returned in a minute with a calm but very busy Barack Obama. Instead of repeating "Rebel Spring", Tom played "The Man from Illinois" a song he had just completed on the plane. The jaws dropped. The song is a classic hero ballad and captures the whole mood of Barack's life and campaign including the minutia from his books and the overall hopeful message that the Obama campaign represented. Barack and David Axelrod decided right then that Tom would accompany the campaign through a few states to warm up the crowds with his songs and to finish off with "The Man for Illinois" before Tom introduced Barack to the cheering crowds.

Here's a pretty picture slide show video of Rebel Spring. Here is one of the inspiring versions of The Man from Illinois, but Tom had a grand time revising the song at every turn of events while he was on the campaign trail.

Jack Hardy, the bard of folk music in New York for so many years said that when he arrived in New York's Greenwich Village following the scent of the Roche sisters, the whole singer-songwriter community was centered around Tom Pacheco's apartment above the Olive Tree club. While munching his blackened amberjack, he explained that Tom's place was where everyone tried out their new songs on each other. He and David Massengill were regulars as were those Roches, Dave Van Ronk, Steve Forbert, and Rob McDonald. The prominence of Tom's apartment lasted for years as a lounge for the locals and a destination for touring artists. Roger McGuin of the Byrds came by once to play "Chestnut Mare". In 1976, Phil Ochs dropped by in a fragile state. Tom handed him his guitar and asked him to play "Pleasures of the Harbor". He played, but added, "Inspiration used to strike. It doesn't strike anymore." Three month later, Phil hung himself, shattering Tom and the whole folk scene. Tom's move to Woodstock in 1978 left a hangout hole in the Village folk scene that gave an opening for Jack and David and others to build up the famed Cornelia Street Coffeehouse and the Fast Folk record label. Now, 40 years later, Jack's own Houston St. apartment continues what Tom initiated for the singer/songwriters of the Village in the '60s.

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There's another story I've been telling around town that was pieced together from various sources and rumors. Some it may be conjecture, but that's what happens when you're a legend. Everyone wants to make you more of one. The story goes something like this:

Tom Puts a Spark into Jimmy James' Career

Back in those basket house days of New York's Village post folk-scare era, folk rock and early acid rock thrived side-by-side, sometimes with shows of each style on the same night in the better clubs like Cafe Wha or The Gaslight. Tom was a leader on the acoustic guitar with his band the Ragamuffins, and he became a close friend to a powerhouse electric guitarist called Jimmy James who fronted the Blue Flames.

In 1966, Jimmy James' new enterprising manager dragged him off to London to gain some experience, leaving Tom pining for his pal. Jimmy made it big in England and helped get some of Tom's music its first English airplay on the pirate radio stations like Radio Luxembourg and Radio Carolina, the only ones that spun rock there and then. But Jimmy was still obscure in the U.S. outside of New York, so he flew over for a gig in California, stopping off first for a visit with Tom at Cafe Wha.

After Tom's show, with the old pals united in private, Jimmy produced a gift from the streets of London which required Tom to break out the matches. During this unspecified recreation, they caught up on old times and dreamed of the future. Tom: "Did you get the experience you were looking for in England?" Jimmy: "You could say that, yes." T: "Tell me about your California gig." J: "It's sort of a festival gig. They say if I give them something to remember, that I could be a star in America." "Don't worry, Jimmy, you'll burn 'em up. You always do." "Now that's an idea." "I'll watch for reviews. What do you call your band, now?" "I've gone back to my real name. I call the trio, The Jimi Hendrix Experience."

Two days later, Hendrix finished his very memorable set at the pivotal 1967 Monterrey Pop Festival by dowsing his guitar with lighter fluid and setting it ablaze - using Tom Pacheco's remaining matches. Click here to see. Tom's friends laughingly call him the Forrest Gump of folk music. He was often at the right place at the right time, with his fingers in many pies accidentally, and his influence over people with his generous loving nature. All these stories aside (and there are many more), the music is really why you'll come and how you will remember Tom.

Pete Seeger invited Tom, his friend of 4 decades, to play at his 90th birthday party in Madison Square Garden last May. Pete backed Tom up on banjo. Buffy St. Marie, Richie Havens, and David Amram were also looking forward to playing with Tom again that night.

Q1: What two folk-rock troubadour balladeers recorded albums with The Band as the backup band?
Answer: Bob Dylan and Tom Pacheco.

Q2: Tom’s song “She Belongs to the Rain” is the favorite song of all time of which mighty potentate?
A) The Sherriff of Nottingham
B) Bob Dylan
C) Queen Sonja
D) Lisa Halaby
Answer: Although an oversight has omitted this fact from the official state biography, it is Queen Sonja of Norway who has the great taste in music. In 2007, as a treat to herself for her 70th birthday, she invited Tom (the song’s author), and Steiner Albrigtsen (who recorded that #1 Norwegian hit in 1993) to first class airfare and the celebrity digs of her Oslo castle for the weekend if they agreed to be honored by the state and to perform the song. It was a great time, Steiner reported. What about Tom, you ask? He had an earlier scheduled gig at a rural New York roadhouse, and trooper that he is, he kept that commitment. Ain't integrity the pits, sometimes?

Snubbing a gracious acknowledgement was never the style of the warm humanness of Tom Pacheco, but the story does has a similar ring to another incident with answer B, and both events show how unimpressed with fame and fortune Tom is. Bob Dylan, the most famous of the answers, finally came to hear Tom play in the late 70s at Gerdie’s Folk City. Musically, he was and is one of Tom’s heroes, but as a media giant, he does not interest.

Ask Lucinda to confirm this the next time you see her since in a New York Magazine interview she called the night of this tale when she saw Tom Pacheco play at Gerdie’s Folk City (and joined him on a few songs) the only nice thing about New York she experienced in her short chapter there in the late 70’s. Also taking in Tom’s show that night were Linda Ronstadt, the Roches, Steve Forbert, some of Mott the Hoople, and the yet unmet Dylan.

“You gotta to meeta the Bobbya Deelan. Hea comea justa to seea ya,” exclaimed the excitable Italian night manager Mike Porco as Tom continued to push his way toward his green room in the opposite direction when the show ended. Repeated insistences broke Tom down, though - for Mike’s sake. When Tom was finally spun around, it was evident that Dylan had witnessed this battle, and his and Tom’s eyes locked in steely stairs from across the room.

Had Dylan felt slighted? Had it been his mistake to slum in his old haunt with some of the same commoners who constructed his pedestal fifteen years earlier but who adored a successor in a warmer down to earth reciprocal way? Was that successor uncourtly to him?

The crowd parted in a wave as Tom approached, neither man twitching a grin or breaking the stare. For what Tom described as an eternity, the two stood face to face in uncomfortable silence. (“After all, what do you say to Bob Dylan?” Tom asked me.)

Breaking the tension, finally, Tom queried, “So Bob, can you tell me if the Yankees won tonight?” Laughter erupted all around as détente reigned. They talked for a long while about all kinds of things. All, except music and careers.

Q3: Now, back to Steiner. How many of Tom’s songs have topped the European charts has Steiner recorded, so far?
A) 2 more
B) Less than 10
C) Over 3000
Answer: If you thought it was C, you got it mixed up with the total number of songs Tom has written in his 40+ year career and for which a grand commemorative concert was staged at Scotland’s Loudon Castle just last November.

B is correct, I think. I do know that Steiner’s 1998 Now and Then CD of his greatest hits included three #1, two #2, and one #3 songs for Norway that were written by Tom. In all, Steiner has recorded 47 of Tom’s songs. More of those songs may have reached the charts in Norway, Ireland, or other parts of Europe where both men at popular. There’s no doubt, though, that Steiner’s singing Tom’s songs has been a great boon for them both.

Q4: It’s not just Steiner. Which other performers have recorded Tom’s songs?
A) The Band
B) Rick Danko
C) Representative John Hall of New York's 19th Congressional District
D) Levon Helm
E) Tom Russell
F) Jefferson Starship
G) Bob Dylan
H) Ritchie Havens
I) Several European artists I never heard of.
Answer: Well, it’s not C). That champion of progressive causes was a singer/songwriter (and founder of Orleans) long before he put New York’s vote where his mouth was. Tom gave John a song or two, and John produced one of Tom’s records and played backup.

Actually, it’s everyone except Dylan, but there’s still time for him. Bob has included Tom’s “Midnight Waters of the Rio Grande” in his concert repertoire for tours in Europe where the crowds know the song well, and where they cheer loudly for it. They also like many of Bob’s own songs, I’ve heard.

Q5: Which Texas performers has Tom toured with?
A) Butch Hancock
B) Tom Russell
C) Townes Van Zandt
D) Van Cliburn
E) Guy Clark
F) Jesse Taylor
G) Jimmy Dale Gilmore
Answer: Only Van Cliburn was left at home on every Pacheco tour of America and Europe, but perhaps it was because that Kilgore pianist was actually born in Shreveport. (Well, that’s almost a suburb of Marshall.)

Tom and Butch go back to the early 80’s when Tom and the Hellhounds split bills around the Austin area with Butch and his Lucky Tigers. Butch created posters for the shows that rivaled the 60s psychedelic works of Crumb or Kelly. Butch also shot the album cover for Tom’s ’92 CD Tales from the Red Lake at the edge of the blue water by Gruene Hall near New ‘Brown’fels. Some of Tom’s fondest tour memories are of from the early 90’s in a trip through Ireland with Butch, Jimmie Dale, and Jesse Taylor.

Townes and Guy Clark hitched on with Tom in Holland. David Olney was also in their small van across tulip land.

Although Tom only lived in Texas for a couple of years (early 80’s in Austin), his association with Texas songwriters has been an important part of his musical growth.