Michael Baldwin Then and (Now)
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Photos from Dewey's Tipi on Spy Rock Road in Mendocino, CA, circa 1972 Michael served on a submarine in the Navy, where he learned to dive ...out of the Navy, he went to college for a while,,,he became a commercial diver in the offshore oil fields of Louisiana...picked up a guitar, and returned to college in Florida...He Richard Leps, and they went to New York for an adventure...Playing on the streets, they me a couple of great guys, Bob Heller and Michael Minnick, got a nice advance from Vanguard Records...They opened a show for Stevie Wonder in Madison Square Garden, recorded in Nashville, London (ELP) and New York...Michael composed and produced music for film and PBS TV. Through it all, playing on the street was their favorite...they met lots of interesting people, and had many weird and wonderful adventures...which will...like getting a big apartment in NY for 60 bucks a month...and meeting all the characters and artists at Max's Kansas City (Warhol crowd, NY Dolls, Lou Reed, etc)...They had fun on the street and... Now they are going back to "Follow the Music" and see where it goes. September 2005, New York City - "Follow the Music" returned to the streets of NY in fall 2005. | Baldwin and Leps are considered one of the best bands to come out of the Beaux Arts scene by many. Michael first played at Beaux Arts on 1965. He met Richard in New York and they became a hot duo on the folk circuit that traveled the Florida/New York/California route. I met them and spent some time playing on the sidewalks of New York in 1970, before they were picked up and signed by Vanguard. We kept in touch when I moved to California. We recently were re-united through the internet after I decided to write the Beaux Arts book. Tom gave me a playbill advertising Michael's gig at Beaux Arts in 1972. Michael's blog includes a clip from the LP: http://followthemusic.blogspot.com/ |
