Fariña

[Bob Norton]

>
>I bought a Sandy Denny retrospective last night and noticed one of the 
>songs she sings, "The Quiet Joy of Brotherhood" was written by Dick 
>Farina. Was he a songwriter too?  Or should I ask is this the same Farina 
>so discussed on these pages?
>
>Richard Romeo
>

Absolutely the same. Richard Fariña was, along with Jean Ritchie, the prime
mover behind the renaissance of the mountain dulcimer in the mid sixties. He
was the first to have success using it for tunes outside of its traditional
Appalachian genre. His status among today's dulcimer players is somewhere
between founding father and demigod. Most of them have no knowledge of his
novel. I am presently re-reading it for the first time in 28 years. It
hasn't held up as well as his songs have.
                                                Bob Norton
                                                rnorton at flash.net