John Bassette

A longtime luminary from the Cleveland folk picture, singer/songwriter John Bassette was among the 1st regional artists to record and make music for his personal independent label. Created Dec 28, 1941, in Hampton, VA, Bassette was the boy of the Baptist preacher. After participating in Virginia Union University, he relocated to NEW YORK in search of a music profession, and became a fixture from the growing Greenwich Community folk picture during the middle-’60s. After showing up on Broadway in 1968 in the Sammy Davis, Jr. automobile Golden Boy, Bassette agreed upon to United Performers, at least based on the launch to “How exactly to Copyright, Publish and Record a Melody,” an article he released in the newspaper Mother Earth Information in 1970 — no public releases had been forthcoming, however, and finally he resolved in Cleveland, developing his very own Tinker Too Information and self-releasing some wry and frequently eccentric folk LPs including 1972’s THESE TIMES, 1976’s Another Choice, and 1978’s John Who?, the last mentioned having a bizarre acid-fuzz rendition from the Fleetwood Macintosh pop smash “Don’t End.” A normal on Cleveland radio place WMMS, Bassette appreciated several regional hits, including “Hessler Road” and “Weed and Wines,” but as punk permanently changed the city’s membership landscaping and folk’s reputation plummeted, he discovered himself relegated towards the night clubs lining Coventry Road, the fading epicenter from the northeast Ohio hippie lifestyle. During the past due ’90s, Bassette was beset by some economic and medical complications, culminating within a heart stroke that still left him homeless. Friend and poet Daniel Thompson ultimately helped him transfer to an area men’s shelter, and in 2002 folksinger Alex Bevan arranged a tribute concert in his honor. EXPERIENCED So Much Jointly, an all-star Bassette addresses collection featuring efforts from Michael Stanley and Marti Jones & Don Dixon was released in the springtime of 2006 — on November 9 of this year, Bassette passed away of heart failing at age 64.