- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- The Washington Squares are anachronistic but a modern take on folksinging, with Beatnik outfits, goatees, and dark glasses.
The Washington Squares – The Washington Squares (1987): The Washington Squares are anachronistic with their eyes open, an earnest folksinging trio at least 25 years out of date, down to the matching Beatnik outfits, goatees, and dark glasses. Their music does not attempt to emulate the 1950’s or 1960’s in particular though; the Washington Squares are a modern take on folksinging with a lot more instruments than just the ones in the photographs. They are named of course after Washington Square Park, located in the heart of Greenwich Village, where there were still one or two old-fashioned coffeehouses with live music when we lived there in the 1990’s.
After the musical group settled into the trio of Tom Goodkind, Bruce Paskow, and Lauren Agnelli, they did their research on folk music in record stores and at the Library of Congress. Most of the songs on their debut album The Washington Squares are written by the bandmembers, with my favorites being “A New Generation”, “Can’t Stop the Rain”, “D Train”, “You Can’t Kill Me”, and “Lay Down Your Arms”. There are two traditional folk songs, “Samson and Delilah” and “He Was a Friend of Mine”; the best-known versions of the songs are probably those by the Grateful Dead and the Byrds, respectively. Bob Dylan recorded both of the songs early in his career, though neither song is on a studio album; “He Was a Friend of Mine” is on five (!) of my Bob Dylan bootleg albums and is also included on the first release in The Bootleg Series, The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991 (1991). I know that I have heard Dylan’s version of “Samson and Delilah”, though probably not under that name, but I have been unable to find it in my record collection. Bob Dylan performed “Samson and Delilah” live at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, on June 11, 2004. The closing track on The Washington Squares is a Polish union song (translated) called “Walls”. The Washington Squares performed regularly in New York clubs, but they had several false starts in their recording efforts; a record deal with A&M Records didn’t work out for instance. They were eventually signed with Gold Castle Records that had several folk music stalwarts in their roster, such as Joan Baez and Peter, Paul and Mary. Eventually, North Carolina record producer Mitch Easter proved to be compatible with the Washington Squares and handling production duties on The Washington Squares. The album received several favorable reviews and sold reasonably well, though it did not make the national record charts. The Washington Squares was nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Recording. A second album, Fair and Square (1989) followed. After Bruce Paskow became ill, the Washington Squares broke up. In 1997, Razor & Tie Records released a compilation album called From Greenwich Village: The Complete Washington Squares.