Graeme Allwright

Graeme Allwright emerged in the late-1960s French folk scene as a singer and songwriter whose reputation rests chiefly on his adaptations into French of material by Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, and additional writers, together with his own compositions in a comparable vein. Born November 7, 1926, in Wellington, New Zealand, he relocated to France in 1948 after meeting and falling for a young French woman while both attended a theater school in London. He reached French soil on New Year’s Eve intent on marriage, despite possessing almost no command of the language. Only years afterward did he begin appearing as a folk performer, which eventually secured him a contract with the Philips subsidiary Phonogram in the late sixties. His commercial arrival occurred via the 1968 release Le Jour de Clarté, his third album. André Chapelle produced the record, whose track list consisted mainly of French adaptations of songs by Leonard Cohen—including the enduring version of “Suzanne”—alongside numbers by Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, and Roger Miller; the album stood as a defining statement of its moment, appearing around the time of the May 1968 protests that precipitated the collapse of President Charles de Gaulle’s government. Later releases by Allwright registered far less impact, yet he continued working, albeit sporadically, across the 1970s and concluded the decade with Condamnés? (1979). A succession of compilations later gathered the strongest tracks from his catalog, among them The Best of Graeme Allwright (2003). Beyond the 2000 remastered reissue of Le Jour de Clarté, additional key titles include the 1973 collection Chante Leonard Cohen, devoted to further Cohen adaptations in the spirit of “Suzanne,” and the double live album A L'Olympia (1973), which showcased, among other selections, Allwright’s rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind.”