Larry Mohr
My Dad, Larry Mohr, played the 5-string banjo for much of his adult life. He loved playing, and when I was growing up it was a big part of his identity outside of work. I remember him singing and playing when we had friends over, and working out new songs and tunes on his own.
Larry's Good Time Music
In the mid-1970's his lifelong friend Bill Broder badgered Larry to make a recording, and arranged a session in San Francisco. Larry recorded 17 tracks, with songs he had picked up from different sources over the years. You can listen to the tracks here, or download the album. I'm so grateful to Bill and my Dad for preserving these musical memories!
Odetta and Larry
Earlier in life Larry played as a duo with Odetta. Both lived in San Francisco in their early twenties (1953-54), and they recorded an album as Odetta and Larry. I remember him telling me "We thought we knew all the folk songs there were!"
From the album notes:
During most of 1953 and early 1954 a small informal night club, The Tin Angel, on San Francisco's waterfront, was the scene of some of the best folk music to be heard. Odetta Felious, a tall sturdy girl, looking a bit like a 22-year-old Bessie Smith with a crew cut, and a slim young singer from Detroit, Larry Mohr, were singing, night after night, the songs that make America's musical folk stream ever new.
Odetta, who was born in Montgomery, Ala., and who has lived most of her life in Los Angeles, just "sort of drifted" into folk singing. She was a member of the chorus of "Finian's Rainbow" and, on tour in San Francisco, became interested in folk music after attending a folk music party in North Beach.
Larry Mohr, after a childhood in Detroit, has traveled over much of the country as an itinerant singer and met Odetta while the latter was appearing at The Tin Angel, sang with her and was immediately hired to appear with her at the club.
Pete Seeger heard them at that time, and contacted Larry years later to publish their duo rendition of "I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago", as "Historical Bum Medley" in Sing Out! magazine (v.32 #1 p.48, 1986).
Odetta of course went on to become a famous singer, while my Dad served in the army and started his life as a university professor and family man. But I love picturing them as young adults passionate about folk music, singing their hearts out night after night together.
The album (Spotify, YouTube) has both solo and duo tracks. Here are the ones where Larry sings and plays:
From the album notes:
Old Cotton Fields at Home, a tune previously recorded by Huddie Ledbetter, is sung as a duet by Larry and Odetta and it reaches a peak of intensity and rhythmic motion unequalled by anything else in their repertory.
Old Blue, a plaintive requiem for a good dog, is probably Larry's best number. It has a tremendous feeling of sadness.
I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago, also known as "The Swagger Song," is an old, traditional college undergraduate drinking song. The other part of this number, The Biggest Thing, was written and recorded first by Woody Guthrie. Odetta and Larry, alternating here, give it a rousing rendition.
Payday at Coal Creek, a solo by Larry, was first recorded for the Library of Congress by Pete Steele and it tells of the trouble at Coal Creek when pay day comes no more.
Rock Island Line is a train blues, one of the most popular mixtures of Negro folk music with jazz. Huddie Ledbetter, that giant of a folk singer, recorded it at least twice and there may have been earlier versions. This is, as far as is known, the first recorded duet of the song.
Epilogue
I last heard my Dad play at his 75th birthday celebration. It became harder as he got older, and a few years ago he decided he was done and gave me his banjo. I learned to play a few tunes.
Rest in peace, Dad.