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Sue Draheim ( ; August 17, 1949Larkin, Colin (2006). The encyclopedia of popular music The encyclopedia of popular music.] London: Oxford University Press. p. 100. see also californiabirthindex.org and old time birthdays for August for verification of birthdate – April 11, 2013)The Mudcat Café, R.I.P. fiddler Sue DraheimNews of Sue Draheim's passing reached across the Atlantic Ocean; fRoots, a UK monthly music journal, reported the news immediately (see Sue Draheim RIP ), and an article memorializing her appeared in The Independent, a major UK newspaper (see: Hunt, Ken (29 May 2013), Sue Draheim: Widely admired folk violinist). An obituary article for Draheim appeared also in Folkwales, an on-line journal based in Wales. That she was appreciated and loved outside the English speaking world is indicated by a tribute to her (including a link to a recording of her playing Little Sadie) on the Spanish language blog of Yesternow, a radio station originating in Madrid (see "...ese gran sonido al violín de Sue Draheim. Descanse en Paz."). was an American fiddler, boasting a more than forty year musical career in the US and the UK. Growing up in North Oakland, Draheim began her first private violin lessons at age eleven, having started public school violin instruction at age eight while attending North Oakland's Peralta Elementary School. She also attended Claremont Jr. High, and graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1967.
Originally trained as a classical violinist, Draheim became involved in many other genres and recorded albums with groups representing Cajun, Old Time, country, Zydeco, folk jazz, Irish and British folk music. Early on in her career, Celtic fiddle became Draheim's major focus.
While Draheim was primarily a fiddler, she never lost touch with her classical training, and was a member of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and the Bay Area Women's PhilharmonicYoung Fogies Gazette, Sue Draheim biography (scan courtesy of Susie Goehring, Field Recorders Collective) as well as UC Berkeley's University Chamber Chorus;UC Berkeley, Dept. of Music - Past Performances, University Chamber Chorus Draheim, along with fiddler Kerry Parker, also "augmented" the harp trio "Trillium".San Francisco Early Music Society - Three Harps and Two Fiddles... She also played in the US premiere of Frank Zappa experimental orchestral piece A Zappa Affair.Berkeley Symphony Orchestra - A Zappa Affair She was described by Gael Alcock, cellist/composer with whom she performed one of Alcock's pieces, as "fiddler extraordinaire".gaelalcock.com - "Minor Excursions"
Draheim quickly got involved in American mountain string band music, forming a group called the "Diesel Duck Revue" in 1967 with Mac Benford, Hank Bradley, Sue Rosenberg, and Rick Shubb,Smithsonian Folkways - liner notes for BERKELEY FARMS , p.5 performing with them at Berkeley's Freight & Salvage in 1968.chickenonaunicycle.com - Freight and Salvage
At about the same time she started playing with a Colby Street group that, when she performed with them at the Sky River Rock Festival (Tenino, Washington in 1968 and 1969), called themselves "Dr. Humbead's New Tranquility String Band and Medicine Show". The band consisted of Sue Draheim, Jim Bamford, Mac Benford, and Will Spires and owed its name to their manager and sound man Earl Crabb (aka "The Great Humbead"); by the time Mike Seeger arranged for them to be recorded for the Folkways Berkeley Farms album in 1970, they'd shortened the charming but cumbersome name to simply "The New Tranquility String Band".Malone, Bill C. (2011). Music from the True Vine: Mike Seeger's Life and Musical Journey. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p.153. Performing with the band, her photograph appeared on the poster for the 1968 Berkeley Folk Music Festival. Draheim and Dr. Humbead's New Tranquility String Band also appeared at the 1969 Third Annual San Diego State Folk Festival; links to recordings of their performance there are provided on folkartsrarerecords.com's website.folkartsrarerecords.com - (links to 1969 recordings of Dr, Humbead's New Tranquility String Band): Sally in the Garden, Goodbye Liza Jane, Flying Clouds, and Bully of the Town.
Colby Street housed other groups as well, one of them being the "Golden Toad", featuring mandolinist and guitarist Will Spires; she joined them for the summer solstice concert at Grace Cathedral in 1970. In 1970, Joe Cooley, Irish people button accordion player who was living in San Francisco at the time, visited the Colby Street house and that was the beginning of Draheim's lifelong attachment to Irish music. She and others joined Cooley to perform Saturday nights at San Francisco's long-standing Irish pub, the Harrington Bar, making up the band which they called "Gráinneog Céilidh." Will Spires p.4 , see also Sue Draheim pp. 4-5 A note on the origin of the band's name: Gráinneog Céilidh translates literally as Hedgehog Party. The word céilidh has become more specifically associated with Irish dance bands, practically all of whom include Céilidh (or Céili) Band in the final part of their names (see Modern ceilidhs and The Ceili Bands of the 60's and before ). A gráinneog ( hedgehog) is a much maligned creature in Ireland (see The Folklore and Traditions of The Irish Hedgerow) and has a reputation for being dirty and unkempt; Joe Cooley may have had the somewhat ragged appearance of the Colby Street people in mind when the name was suggested but, having a friendly little joke at their expense, admitted only that the hedgehog was "just the warmest, furriest little creature" (see The Joe Cooley Tapes). (Special thanks to Jody Stecher for the story behind the name). Years later, Draheim's command of the Irish folk music idiom as well as her versatility in other genres would prompt one fan to comment: "And that is a very apt illustration of the point: Sue Draheim, a classically-trained violinist who has been mistaken for a real-deal Sligo fiddler who nowadays has a chair in a San Francisco symphony orchestra as well as playing in old timey bands".
In 1970 Draheim also got involved with several musicians at what was known as Sweets Mill Music Camp, about 200 miles east of Oakland on the edge of the Sierra National Forest. It was there that she played with legendary Delta blues guitarist Sam Chatmon in a group called the "California Sheiks" (named after Chatmon's back-home group, the "Mississippi Sheiks". Some recordings of Draheim and Sam Chatmon from that period are known to have survived: one, a 7-inch monophonic tape reel holding eighteen songs and labelled "Box 3, Item 2007.04sdff070" in the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive (which misspelled her name as "Drahiem"),UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive (Lou Curtiss San Diego Folk Festival Collection 1962-1987) - Box 3, Item 2007.04sdff070: Sweets Mill Music Camp - The original musical meeting of "The California Sheiks" 1970 and the other, one song (which is not found in UCLA's collection) which was released in compact disc form in 1999 as part of a Sam Chatmon retrospective.discogs.com - Sam Chatmon 1970-1974
In 1972, Draheim debuted live with the then unknown Albion Country Band. The band (sometimes known as Albion Mk 1,Steveashley.co.uk. - Steve Ashley - musical biography and described by Spain film and music critic Antonio Méndez as being "traditional British folk with an electric infusion"), appeared on John Peel BBC Radio 1 program called "Peel Sessions" which introduced up-and-coming musicians. In June 1972 Draheim and the Albion Country Band also recorded and had broadcast a piece ( Four Hand Reel/St. Anne's Reel) for the BBC radio show called Top Gear,mainlynorfolk.info - Ashley Hutchings: The Guv'nor Vol 1 which also featured contemporary musicians; the recording was later released in 1994 on Ashley Hutchings's compilation The Guv'nor vol 1. Two tracks on The Guv'nor vol 2 released in 1995 are from that same 1972 broadcast.mainlynorfolk.info - Ashley Hutchings: The Guv'nor Vol 2 Also in Albion at this time was Steve Ashley, who later referred to Draheim as "the great American fiddle player".folkradio.co.uk - An interview with Steve Ashley (For a photo of Draheim with the Albion Country Band, see The Peel Sessions: The Albion Band).
Not confining herself to the folk rock genre, she recorded the album Solid Air in 1973 with John Martyn, who has been described as blurring "...the boundaries between folk, jazz, rock and blues".johnmartyn.com - John Martyn's Obituary When Draheim worked briefly in 1973-1974 with Albion's incarnation as the Albion Country Band which included Steve Ashley, they backed up Ashley on his first album Stroll On, which Folk Review named "Contemporary Folk Album of the Year" in 1974.Gregory, Andy (ed.) (2002). International Who's Who in Popular Music 2002. London: Europa Publications. p. 18. Just before leaving the UK to return to the US in 1977, Draheim recorded again with John Renbourn to produce the album A Maid in Bedlam."Ruhlmann, William, A Maid in Bedlam - review, Allmusic.com"
One of Draheim's hallmarks was her eclecticism, and the first half of the 80s found her recording with a variety of artists including ethereal, new wave pagan/wiccan Gwydion Pendderwen, the more solidly traditional Cajun and country Delta Sisters,Thomson, Ryan J. (1985). The Fiddler's Almanac: A Wealth of Fiddling Lore and Illustrations. [New|New Market, N.H.]]: Captain Fiddle Publications. p. 116. and Rory McNamara with his blend of Irish and American music.rorymcnamara.com - Biography Page
In 1998 Draheim collaborated with John Cohen, David Grisman, and Jody Stecher on tracks included in Stories the Crow Told Me, Cohen's only album released without the New Lost City Ramblers.Allen, Ray (2010). Gone to the country : the New Lost City Ramblers and the folk music revival. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. p. 238. Dicaire, David (2001). The folk music revival, 1958-1970 : biographies of fifty performers and other influential people. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co. p. 201.
Additionally, during the 1990s nearly a dozen retrospective compilation albums (including three by John Renbourn) were released which featured earlier recordings with Draheim, some of them going as far back as the 1970s (see discography).
Teaming up with mandolinist Lief Sorbye, Draheim completed the other half of the duo known as "Caliban" which led to her joining the Oakland-based Celtic rock band Tempest Tempest from 2002 to 2003 which Lief had founded; she recorded two albums with them on Magna Carta Records (Shape shifter and the 15th Anniversary Collection). Appraisal of Draheim's work with Tempest included such comments as: "The addition of Sue Draheim (Jon Renbourn Group and Sorbye's other unit, Caliban) has added an extra, deeper and (again) more relaxed dimension to the Tempest sound. Her ultra-fluid fiddle lines and soft harmony vocals lend balance...",Beaudoin, Jeff (f5) Review "The harmony vocals, courtesy of newcomer Sue Draheim (who also plays fiddle and viola) are more prominent than ever...",Popke, Michael - Tempest: Shapeshifter (review) "Sue Draheim's fiddle weaves exuberantly wild or exquisitely controlled ...",Holton, Len (KUAR Radio). Review "Sue Draheim's fiddle has a very warm and rich sound ... that just highlights her beautiful playing. Sue really gets to the heart of the song with her playing and makes the melodies come alive, without overpowering the band""A Music Fan from San Jose". Review and "Sue Draheim is a revelation on fiddle, bringing years of playing with her, adding texture and tone."Chris Nickson. review of Shapeshifter One journalist, reviewing a Tempest album released after Draheim had left the group, lamented: "...I miss the blazing elegance of fiddler Sue Draheim...".Chaisson, Bill. Tempest (review)
Draheim and others were founders of a group known as "Stuart Rosh and the Geniuses",stuartr.com - Friends releasing the album Accept No Imitations in 2004. The group was led by Stuart Rojstaczer scientist, writer,(Penguin Press will publish his novel The Mathematician's Shiva in 2014) see goodreads.com - Stuart Rojstaczer and musician performing under the name of "Stuart Rosh".stuartr.com - Music Info Referring to her "flowing fiddle lines and backup vocals", Rojstaczer wrote that "Sue's lessons will set you on the path to musical bliss".
Later in 2004 she worked with the young singer Michael Bannettmichaelbannett.com - Michael's Recordings to produce an album featuring a collection of British Isles songs from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. Draheim got together with Golden Bough again in 2006 for a 25th anniversary reunion concert, which resulted in an album release of traditional British folk music. Moving into a different genre altogether, Draheim joined "Hiss Golden Messenger", which has been described as "alternative country" and "country rock", to produce an album in 2009. An Arhoolie Records retrospective was released in 2013, including some of Draheim's earlier recordings with them, but Draheim's last new release was in 2011, a live recording with Southern country blues singer and guitarist Wayde BlairWayde Blair's albums include Short Term Memoirs, , Live at the Art House, Kentucky Lucky, and Swing with Western. at Berkeley's Art House.
In her later years Draheim settled in Berea, Kentucky, with her partner Wayde Blair, whom she had known and performed with in Berkeley, and quickly got involved in the music scene there, performing at Berea's Center for the Arts as well as with a small contra dance group known as "Sea Change" at Berea's Main Street Café. Berea Center for the Arts Presents Sue Draheim & Wayde Blair, BereaOnline.com, 13 June 2012 At the Main Street Café, msc-berea.com
When she was diagnosed with cancer in March 2013, Berkeley's Freight & Salvage (long a Bay Area center of folk music and a favorite of Draheim's, having performed there many times over the years from the beginnings of her career with Dr. Humbead's New Tranquility String Band and Medicine Showfrom chickenonaunicycle.com's collection of F&S programs: 1968a, 1968b, 1968c, 1969a, 1969b, and 1970 and as recently as 2010) held a special concert to show support for and honor her on April 1, 2013." Announcement of benefit concert honoring Sue Draheim at the Freight and Salvage Coffee House" Among those performing in recognition of her contributions to music were musicians Eric & Suzy Thompson, Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin, and Will Spires (who had played with Draheim in the early years of her career), Tempest, Golden Bough, and Kathy Kallick, (who had played with Draheim when her career had been firmly established), as well as Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum, Tony Marcus & Patrice Haan, Paul Hale String Quartet, Live Oak Ceili Band with the Patricia Kennelly Irish Step Dancers, Don Burnham & the Bolos, Johnny Harper, Delilah Lewis & Karen Leigh, Harry & Cindy Liedstrand, and Gerry Tenney & the Hard Times Orchestra.
Sue Draheim died on April 11, 2013, in Berea, Kentucky, at the age of 63.
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