Ed McCurdy

During the closing years of the 1950s and the opening of the following decade, Ed McCurdy ranked among the foremost solo performers in the folk revival scene. His output encompassed two highly successful LPs titled When Dalliance Was in Flower, Volumes 1 and 2, while he also penned the widely interpreted composition "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream." He launched his professional path singing gospel music over Oklahoma City airwaves at station WKY before shifting into stage and club work. Yet his resonant, full-bodied tenor voice, evoking comparisons to Pete Seeger and a youthful Burl Ives, aligned perfectly with folk repertoire, prompting him to embark on this direction via broadcasts in Canada starting in 1946. His debut LP, Ed McCurdy Sings Songs of the Canadian Maritimes, emerged on the Whitehall imprint during the early 1950s. From 1952 onward he composed and delivered material for young audiences across radio and television broadcasts, relocating to New York two years subsequently. The Ballad Record appeared in 1955 as his next effort and achieved sufficient traction to warrant further projects like Bar Room Ballads and A Ballad Singer's Choice in the ensuing couple of years. Repertoire spanned cowboy tunes alongside heritage ballads including "Barbara Allen" and "Pretty Saro," in addition to the juvenile pieces that had endeared him to the New York folk community initially. Nevertheless, it was his interpretations of suggestive traditional pieces that most propelled his renown, particularly among university audiences where folk enthusiasts were exploring more mature themes. Sin Songs marked the beginning, yet When Dalliance Was in Flower, issued in 1957 and centered on themes of physical desire, exceeded all projections in sales. Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, this album alongside Oscar Brand's assorted "bawdy songs" compilations formed a near-essential component in the libraries of many young folk enthusiasts, often serving to distinguish them in social contexts. A follow-up volume arrived in 1958, succeeded the next year by Son of Dalliance in the same style. Concurrently he sustained output aimed at both children and their families through additional juvenile song collections. His appearance at the Newport Folk Festival occurred in 1959, with four tracks featured on the third installment of Vanguard Records' Folk Festival at Newport series. He returned to the Newport stage on two further occasions in subsequent years, though from 1960 onward the emergence of a newer cohort of folk-influenced protest songwriters, among them Bob Dylan, diminished his prominence much like many contemporaries. As a composer he stayed relevant, however, since "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream," dating from 1950, received a live rendition from the Bitter End by the Chad Mitchell Trio and was included by Simon & Garfunkel on their debut effort Wednesday Morning 3 A.M. (an album that initially underperformed yet ultimately moved in excess of five hundred thousand units following the duo's later achievements). This composition evolved into his signature piece and lent its name to the final collection of original material he issued in 1967 at the age of forty-five. Elektra put out The Best of Ed McCurdy that same year. McCurdy reached the age of eighty-one before his death on March 23, 2000, at his residence in Halifax, Nova Scotia.