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Campus Folklore Club Memories

Memories of A. Doyle Moore

Hi Tracie,

Thanks for returning my email. First of all, it was wonderful to read your interview with Doyle. He is such a great guy. And I have to say I was blessed in having him as an instructor at Illinois.

Your interview brought back some really wonderful memories of that time and I thought I would pass them on to you.

Champagne certainly was a "hotbed" of folk music at that time...in the early 60's. My wife (I had just met her) and I would go the the Turk's Head for coffee and listen to Jim Hockenhull play his guitar. Doyle had rented a storefront that served as a workshop that he, Paul Adkins and Hockenhull called the "Chicken House". This was where Paul and Jim would work on sculpture projects (I believe they had changed their majors) and Doyle would do woodcut printing.

I was with Doyle when he went to the East coast to interview the Stoneman family. In fact, I borrowed and drove my mothers car. (I believe at that time, Doyle had an Austin-Healy Sprite and that could only fit him and a suitcase).

There were three of us all told. Doyle, myself and Mike Lyons (now deceased). We stopped at Doyle's sister's house for an overnight in Ohio...got food poisoning...and then headed to Gettysburg College for another overnight with an ex-U of I teacher and his family.

We went to the Greyhound Bus Station in Washington, D.C. and saw the Stoneman family play...followed them back to their house in Carmody Hills, MD where Doyle interviewed Pop Stoneman. It was past midnight I remember and it seemed like the interview would go on forever! The Stoneman house was essentially a dormitory with a huge kitchen table. In fact the table was still stacked with plates etc. I felt something squishy on my elbow and looked down at a partial peanut butter sandwich stuck to it.

Pop Stoneman played the autoharp for Doyle...showed him a few ways of holding it and he also talked about the difference in lyrics, how they changed depending on the route they took over and through Appalachia. He also talked about his WPA days singing and trying to preserve the old tunes.

We dropped Doyle off in Chicago's Hyde Park area and I drove Mike home.

Anyway, those were some of the thoughts I wanted to pass on.

Thanks for the time!

Ken Montone
December 2007

Sharing your CFC memories

If you'd like to share your memories of your experiences with the Campus Folksong Club, please email them to educlib@library.uiuc.edu and be sure to include a subject heading that specifies CFC or Campus Folksong Club.