Tom Paxton facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tom Paxton
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Paxton in 2000 (Washington, D.C.)
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Thomas Richard Paxton |
| Born | October 31, 1937 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Genres | Folk |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, guitarist |
| Instruments | Guitar, vocals |
| Years active | 1962–present |
| Labels | |
Thomas Richard Paxton (born October 31, 1937) is an American folk singer and songwriter. He has been making music for over sixty years. In 2009, Tom Paxton received a special Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He also teaches music and encourages folk singers to mix old traditional songs with new ones they write themselves.
Many famous artists have recorded Tom Paxton's songs. Some of his well-known songs include "The Last Thing on My Mind", "Bottle of Wine", "Whose Garden Was This", and "The Marvelous Toy". Singers like Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, John Denver, and Dolly Parton have all sung his music.
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Tom Paxton's Early Life
Tom Paxton was born on October 31, 1937, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were Burt and Esther Paxton. His father was a chemist. When his father's health got worse, the family moved to Wickenburg, Arizona. There, young Tom learned to ride horses at the many ranches. He also discovered folk music for the first time, hearing artists like Burl Ives.
In 1948, his family moved to Bristow, Oklahoma. Tom considers this town his home. Soon after, his father passed away. When Tom was about 15, he got his first instrument, a ukulele. His aunt gave him a guitar when he was sixteen. He quickly became very interested in the music of Burl Ives and Harry Belafonte.
In 1955, Paxton started studying drama at the University of Oklahoma. Here, he found other people who loved folk music. He learned about the music of Woody Guthrie and the Weavers. He later said that Woody Guthrie was a big influence on him. In college, Tom was part of a group called the Travellers. They sang at a coffeehouse near campus.
Tom Paxton's Music Career
Starting His Music Journey
After finishing college in 1959, Tom Paxton acted in plays during the summer. He also tried graduate school briefly before joining the Army. While in the Army, he started writing songs on his typewriter. Almost every weekend, he visited Greenwich Village in New York City. This was during the early 1960s, when folk music was becoming very popular.
After leaving the Army, Paxton tried out for the Chad Mitchell Trio in 1960. He got the part at first, but his voice did not mix well with the group. However, he sang his song "The Marvelous Toy" for a music publisher named Milt Okun. Because of this, Tom became the first songwriter signed to Milt's music company, Cherry Lane Music Publishing.
Paxton soon began performing at The Gaslight Cafe in Greenwich Village. He became a regular performer there. In 1962, he recorded a live album at the Gaslight called I'm the Man That Built the Bridges. While in Greenwich Village, Paxton shared his songs in folk magazines like Broadside and Sing Out!. He also performed with other folk singers such as Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs. In January 1963, Tom met his future wife, Margaret Ann Cummings, known as "Midge," at the Gaslight.
Pete Seeger learned some of Paxton's songs in 1963. These included "Ramblin' Boy" and "What Did You Learn in School Today?" Paxton became more well-known as a performer. He appeared at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival. A month later, in 1963, Paxton married Midge. He then traveled around the country, performing in coffeehouses.
Music and Social Causes
Tom Paxton became involved in causes that supported human rights, civil rights, and workers' rights. In 1963, he and other folk musicians performed for striking coal miners in Hazard, Kentucky.
After returning to New York in 1964, Paxton signed with Elektra Records. This record label had many famous folk musicians. As folk music became very popular, Paxton got more chances to perform outside New York City. This included benefit concerts and college visits. In 1964, he took part in the Freedom Summer. He visited the southern United States with other folk musicians. They performed at events to help people register to vote and at civil rights rallies.
Paxton wrote his civil rights song "Beau John" after attending a workshop in Atlanta, Georgia. He also wrote "Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney" about the murders of three civil rights activists in 1964. These activists were Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney. They were killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Tom Paxton's own songs started to be recognized more in folk music and other types of music.
Dave Van Ronk, another singer from Greenwich Village in the 1960s, once said that Tom Paxton was the one who really started the new songwriting movement. He said that Tom tested his songs by performing them live. Tom found that his own songs got more attention than traditional songs. He even tried to write one song every day.
In 1965, Paxton went on his first tour of the United Kingdom. This tour started a strong professional relationship that continues with yearly performances there. He worked with Bruce Woodley from the Australian folk group The Seekers. They wrote the song "Angeline (Is Always Friday)" together.
In December 1967, Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton's recording of "The Last Thing on My Mind" became a top ten hit on the U.S. country music charts. In 1968, The Fireballs recorded his song "Bottle of Wine", which also became a Top 10 radio hit. In the 1960s, Paxton even licensed one of his songs, "My Dog's Bigger than Your Dog," for a dog food commercial.
Paxton kept writing and performing. He was not interested in changing his style to folk rock. He continued his folk singer-songwriter style on albums like Outward Bound (1966) and Morning Again (1968). On January 20, 1968, Tom Paxton and other folk musicians performed at a concert honoring Woody Guthrie at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Paxton tried some new recording styles, adding string sections, flutes, and other instruments. This was similar to what his friends Judy Collins and Phil Ochs were doing. Paxton's album The Things I Notice Now reached the pop charts in 1969. His song "Whose Garden Was This" was an environmental song written for the first Earth Day. John Denver later recorded it, and it became the title of Denver's 1970 album.
However, Paxton felt that the music was becoming too "overproduced." He preferred the natural, acoustic sound he loved best. He said, "the acoustic guitar has always been what I loved the most." Soon, his albums went back to his original, traditional-sounding style.
Later Career and Children's Music
In the early 1970s, Paxton, his wife, and their two daughters lived in London for about four years. After living in England, Paxton and Midge toured New Zealand and China. They even appeared on a Chinese talk show. Paxton released How Come the Sun in 1971. He then returned to New York City.
Around 1977, he moved to the Washington, D.C., area. He signed with Vanguard Records. He recorded a live album with Steve Goodman called New Songs From the Briarpatch (1977). This album included songs about current events like "Talking Watergate." His 1978 album Heroes included a song called "Phil" about his friend Phil Ochs, who had passed away. The album also had "The Death of Stephen Biko," about the murder of an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa.
Paxton's 1979 album, Up and Up, featured "Let the Sunshine," a song about protecting the environment and solar energy. Paxton has also performed at the Clearwater Festival. This is an annual event started by Pete Seeger to promote environmentalism. His 1983 album Bulletin included a song about Woody Guthrie.
In the 1980s, Paxton started his own record label, Pax Records, in 1987. During this time, he struggled with undiagnosed depression. With help from his wife, Midge, he was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and received treatment.
In the 1990s, Paxton started focusing on children's music. He recorded nine children's albums during this decade. In 1994, he performed at a folk festival in Israel. In 1996, he recorded a live album with his friend Jim Rooney. This album, Live: For the Record, included new funny songs about current events. Paxton also began giving more workshops on songwriting.
In 2000, Paxton started writing more topical songs, like he did early in his career. In 2001, he released Under American Skies with Anne Hills. In 2002, he released Looking for the Moon, an album of all new songs. This album included "The Bravest," a song about the firefighters who died trying to save people on September 11, 2001. Around this time, Paxton began sharing his "Short Shelf Life Songs" about current events for free on his website.
Paxton wrote several topical protest songs that were critical of the Bush administration. In 2007, he rewrote his 1965 song "Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation" (about the Vietnam War) into "George W. Told The Nation" (about the Iraq War). In 2007, Tom Paxton helped start the Copyright Alliance. This group works to promote the benefits of copyrights for artists.
In 2008, Paxton rewrote his song "I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler" into "I Am Changing My Name to Fannie Mae." This new song was about the government's financial "bailout" in 2008. He continues to tour the United States and the UK every year.
In March 2015, Paxton released the album Redemption Road. In January 2017, he released Boat in the Water, his sixty-third album.
Paxton is now in "semi-retirement," meaning he performs less often. However, he still does occasional shows. He toured the UK in 2017, 2018, and 2019. His shows featured his 2011 song "What if, no matter."
Paxton has released several studio albums recently. These include Together with John McCutcheon in 2023, and All New with Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer. He has been very creative later in his career, co-writing songs with many artists. Paxton and Buffalo Rose worked together on a version of his song "I Give You the Morning" for their album Rabbit in 2022.
Tom Paxton's Family Life
Tom Paxton was married to Margaret "Midge" Anne Cummings from 1963 until she passed away in 2014 after a long illness. They had two daughters, Jennifer and Kate, and three grandsons. Jennifer is a history professor.
Over the years, the Paxtons traveled a lot. Midge supported her husband's music career. They also took part in civil rights and anti-war demonstrations. They lived in London for two years. Every summer, they returned to East Hampton, New York. They had many friends who shared their love for music, cookouts, and holidays. The Paxtons moved to East Hampton in 1967 and bought a house there in 1968. Midge was very proud of her work in the early women's rights movement.
Paxton has described his political views as similar to Will Rogers's. He said that when he was young, he was often on the "radical side" of issues. Now that he is older, he finds himself still mostly there, which surprises him a little.
Awards and Honors for Tom Paxton
In February 2002, Tom Paxton received the ASCAP Lifetime Achievement Award in Folk Music. A few days later, he won three Wammies (Washington, D.C., Area Music Awards). He was named Best Male Vocalist in "traditional folk" and "children's music" categories. His album "Under American Skies" (2001) won for Best Traditional Folk Recording of the Year.
Paxton has been nominated four times for Grammy Awards since 2002. His children's album, Your Shoes, My Shoes, was nominated in 2002. The next year, Looking for the Moon was nominated for "Best Contemporary Folk Album." Live in the UK (2005) received a Grammy nomination in 2006. His 2008 album Comedians and Angels was nominated in 2009.
Tom Paxton received a special Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy in 2009. This was announced during the 51st Grammy Awards show on February 8, 2009.
In 2004, the Martin Guitar Company created the HD-40LSH Tom Paxton Signature Edition acoustic guitar in his honor. In 2005, Paxton received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting at BBC Radio 2's Folk Awards in London. In 2006, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance. On January 22, 2007, Paxton was honored with an official tribute at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. On May 3, 2008, Paxton received a special lifetime tribute from the World Folk Music Association. A concert was held in his honor in Alexandria, Virginia.
Tom Paxton's Albums
Tom Paxton's Writings
- 2000: The Honor of Your Company; by Tom Paxton New York, NY: Cherry Lane Music Company ISBN: 1-57560-144-3
Images for kids
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Paxton in 2000 (Washington, D.C.)
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Tom Paxton with Ralph McTell (left) at the Palace of Westminster in 2007
See also
In Spanish: Tom Paxton para niños
