Remember our Gate of Horn exploration? Well, shortly after that post we were honored when Frank Hamilton, one of the founders of The Old Town School of Folk Music and who was a part of the early folk scene in Chicago, dropped by to share his personal experience at the historic venue:
I was there. House Musician for the Gate for about a year. Played with Gibson, Mapes, behind Bud and Travis, Brother John Sellers, Alan Mills and John Carignan, Barbara Dane and others.
Grossman wanted to team me up as Odetta’s accompanist but I declined. Just as well. Bruce Langhorne did a great job. Gibson, Mapes and I were a folk trio there for a while before Hamilton Camp teamed up with Bob.
We’re excited to continue our exploration by sharing news via Chicago Tribune about the Old Town School School of Folk Music celebrating 55 years with a new music venue and expansion of it’s current Chicago home.
Next month, Old Town will open its fourth facility across from the school’s main buildings on the 4500 block of North Lincoln Avenue. The new 27,000-square-foot, $16 million, three-story facility and 150-capacity concert hall is scheduled to open Jan. 9, kicking off a 55-day series of events celebrating Old Town’s 55th anniversary.
You can get more info about the celebration here, a list of concerts here, and a special collection of live archives here.
We’re also pumped about the news because Colleen will be starting her guitar lessons there in January too. And we hope to have Hamilton on a future episode of Live Fix Radio to talk about his live experiences at Gate of Horn and the new venue and expansion.