Tracy Schwarz, Mainstay of the New Lost City Ramblers, Dies at 86
He was the last surviving member of a retro-minded string trio whose celebration of prewar songs of the rural South put them at the heart of the folk revival.Tracy Schwarz, the last surviving member of the New Lost City Ramblers, an influential folk trio whose reverential approach to the lost music of the rural South stood in contrast to more commercial acts like the Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary, died on March 29 in Elkins, W.Va. He was 86.His death, in a hospice facility, was announced by his wife, Virginia Hawker.The New Lost City Ramblers were formed in New York in 1958, riding the crest of the folk revival. They performed at the first Newport Folk Festival the next year and counted Bob Dylan — whom they jammed with at Gerdes Folk City, the storied Greenwich Village folk club, in the early 1960s — as a fan.“Everything about them appealed to me — their style, their singing, their sound,” Mr. Dylan wrote in his 2004 memoir, “Chronicles: Volume One.” “Their songs ran the gamut in style, everything from mountain ballads to fiddle tunes and railway blues.” He added, “I didn’t know they were replicating everything they did off old 78 records, but what would it have mattered anyway?”Mr. Schwarz, who was skilled on the fiddle, accordion, guitar and banjo, joined Mike Seeger, a half brother of the folk luminary Pete Seeger, and the guitarist John Cohen in the Ramblers after another original member, Tom Paley, left in 1962.Even though Mr. Schwarz was New York born and the son of an investment banker, “there was just something that was down-to-earth country about Tracy,” Mike Seeger was quoted as saying in the 2010 book “Gone to the Country: The New Lost City Ramblers and the Folk Music Revival,” by Ray Allen. “He just kind of has a feeling for the music, it was in his bones.”Mr. Schwarz, right, and Mike Seeger of the New Lost City Ramblers at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The Ramblers first performed at the festival in 1959, three years before Mr. Schwarz joined.John Byrne Cooke Estate/Getty ImagesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
