By Lynn Norusis
In his home in Northern Virginia, Tom Paxton sits and puts together the plans for his Nov. 14 show at the Birchmere. A venue he plays at often, it is a stop on his tour for his album “Redemption Road.” He will be joined on stage with some musical friends—Janis Ian, Robin and Linda Williams and more—in an event dubbed “The Last Roundup.”
Paxton, a force in the folk music scene who has over six decades recorded multiple albums and written songs played by Pete Seeger, The Weavers, Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan and more, is saying goodbye to touring but not to music. He will still play in the area, and he will continue his collaboration of songwriting (he already has plans to head down to Nashville), but he wants to sleep in his own bed.
His initial intrigue for a career in music came after a college friend put down the needle on “The Weavers at Carnegie Hall.” After listening to it, he “transformed from someone who loved [music] to someone who had to do it,” he says. “That was my epiphany moment.”
Focusing his songs to reflect the time in which he is living, Paxton has penned lyrics that follow the poverty crisis, political movements and what he calls his best work, “The Bravest,” a song written from the point of view of a survivor from the second tower on 9/11.
While he is leaving the national stage, Paxton says people who live in NoVA and the Beltway are “free to ignore all talk of stopping anything. I wouldn’t know what to do if I didn’t have music.”
Though he never felt like he was meant to be anyone’s idol (“I had no aspirations for pop stardom. That whole business alienates me.”), reflecting back on his career and the musicians he’s worked with and inspired, all Paxton says is, “Well done, kid.”
(November 2015)
