Presenting at The Amos Fortune Forum
The Folkway: Fifty Years Out
In its 20 years in Peterborough, The Folkway presented more than 1,000 performers in more than 3,000 concerts and nourished its patrons with food and drink in a rustic and welcoming setting. Nearly 50 years since its opening, The Folkway remains not only a vivid memory but a continuing influence on life in the Monadnock Region. Hundreds of people – musicians, artists, staff and audience members – have counted The Folkway as among reasons to build lives here.
John Hartford on the Folkway stage, probably before 1980.
After a brief look at what was going on in Peterborough before 1975, we can see how, directly and indirectly, The Folkway ignited an enrichment of already fertile ground. Drawing on the established local arts culture of MacDowell, the Peterborough Players, Monadnock Music and others, The Folkway grew quickly from humble beginnings as a coffee house to an important stop on the national and international folk music scene.
Still, the most remarkable thing is that today, nearly 30 years after it closed in 1995, The Folkway is still a presence. This presentation – a tribute to Folkway founders Jonathan and Widdie Hall and so many who followed their dream – will help us understand how The Folkway came to be part of our lives today.
Garnet Rogers will be contributing to this narrative with observations from a performer’s perspective. And we’re excited to announce that the Peterborough Folk Music Society will be presenting him in concert the next night, August 3, at 7 p.m. in Bass Hall (more info and tickets soon).
Gordon Peery worked as a chef at The Folkway when it opened in 1975 and counts as a prime example of those whose careers were forever influenced. He graduated from High Mowing School in Wilton in 1971, worked as a landscaper and later business manager for Our Town Landscaping, has worked as a freelance writer, in sales and marketing for a magazine publisher, has even driven a school bus. But nothing has affected his life more than the music he has made and played, most recently with fiddler Randy Miller, jazz saxophonist Paul Klemperer and singers Eve Pierce and Jazimina MacNeil.
Gordon was a founding member of the Monadnock Folklore Society, board member of the (then) Peterborough Chamber of Commerce, and board president of the Monadnock Center for History and Culture. He has twice been a speaker at the Monadnock Summer Lyceum.
Gordon is currently the board president of Nelson In Common, where he manages the organization’s website and print newsletter, and is a board member and orchestra leader for the NH Scottish Music Club. He lives in Nelson with his wife Susan.
Folkway Staff - late 1970’s