The Highwaymen (folk band)

For the country supergroup, see The Highwaymen (country supergroup).

The Highwaymen were a circa 1960 "collegiate folk" group, which originated at Wesleyan University and had a Billboard number-one hit in 1961 with "Michael" and another Top 20 hit in 1962 with "Cottonfields". "Michael" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold record.^{[1] [2]}

Career

As a freshman in 1958, Dave Fisher, who in high school had sung in a doo-wop group, joined with four other Wesleyan freshman – Bob Burnett, Steve Butts, Chan Daniels, and Steve Trott – to form the Highwaymen.^[3] Fisher, who would graduate in 1962 with the university’s first degree in Ethnomusicology,^[4] was the quintet's arranger and lead singer.^[1] In 1959, United Artists released his arrangement of the spiritual “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore” while the group were sophomores in college. The recording reached #1 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1961 under the abbreviated title of “Michael”,^[5] earning the quintet the gold record.^[6] The single also reached #1 in UK^[7] and #4 in Germany.^[8] Later members were Gil Robbins (father of actor Tim Robbins), who joined in 1962, and classical guitarist, Johann Helton. Today, two of the original five members are still alive, with Daniels dying in 1975 and Fisher in 2010. Robbins died on April 5, 2011^[9] Ten albums have been recorded to date.

The group broke up in 1964, after eight albums and ten singles, an appearance on the Johnny Carson Show, and three appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. With Dave Fisher as musical director and the only remaining member of the original quintet, The Highwaymen continued for another three years with new members Renny Temple, Roy Connors, Mose Henry and Allan Shaw. They recorded two albums and performed countless concerts and television shows. Temple, Connors and Henry were previously in a popular Florida folk group called the Vikings Three.

The original Highwaymen, minus Daniels (who died in 1975), reunited in 1987 for a concert for their 25th college reunion. Since that time, the band has performed ten to twelve concerts a year. The group last performed in August 2009 in Massachusetts. The rock and roll magazine Blitz described the Highwaymen’s record of their 1963 concert at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the best compilation or reissue of 2009. Blitz also named the band's album When the Village Was Green one of the best releases of 2007.^[10] In 1990, the group sued country music's Highwaymen, made up of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson over their use of the name (inspired by a Jimmy Webb ballad they recorded. The suit was dropped after the foursome agreed to let members of the original group open for them at a 1990 concert in Hollywood.

Of the original quintet from Wesleyan (all of whom made the Dean's List),^[2] one attended Harvard Business School, two attended Harvard Law School, and one attended graduate school at Columbia University, then proceeded into business, law, and academia, respectively. Fisher alone stayed in the music business. After the second incarnation of The Highwaymen, Fisher traveled to Hollywood where he composed and arranged music for films and television and worked as a studio singer and musician. He wrote more than a thousand songs, many of which have been used in movie and television productions. Bob Burnett had a career as a trusts and estates lawyer. Chan Daniels (who died in 1975) had been an executive for Capitol Records.^[11] Steve Butts received a Ph.D. in Chinese Politics from Columbia, and until retirement, had served as an academic administrator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Grinnell College and Lawrence University. He also taught baroque music performance and statistics at Columbia and the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music.^[12] Steve Trott, after graduating from Harvard Law, became a prosecutor in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office. Later, he served in the United States Department of Justice during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan and in 1987 was appointed a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.^[13][14][15]

Fisher died on May 7, 2010, at the age of 69.^[16]

Legacy

The Highwaymen had a significant impact on the folk scene of the early 1960s. Aside from two major hit singles and several appearances on The Ed Sullivan and Johnny Carson Shows, the group contributed two future standards to the folk repertoire ("All My Trials", "Big Rock Candy Mountain") and played the central role in uncovering an important, long-overlooked song by Leadbelly, "Cotton Fields", which subsequently became a major addition to the repertoires of both the Beach Boys and the Creedence Clearwater Revival. The Highwaymen also made the first recordings, or at least the first recordings in the United States, of seminally noteworthy songs by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger ("The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face") and Buffy St. Marie ("Universal Soldier").^[17]

Discography

• "Michael"
• "Big Rock Candy Mountain"
• "All My Trials"
• "Cottonfields"
• "The Gypsy Rover"
• "I’m On My Way"
• "Whiskey In A Jar"
• "I Know Where I’m Going"
• "Number One"

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 136. ISBN 0-214-20512-6. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Wesfiles.wesleyan.edu". Wesfiles.wesleyan.edu. https://wesfiles.wesleyan.edu/courses/musc108/2002FaFin/Mag/articles/features/highwaymen.html. Retrieved 2011-08-17. 
3. ^ Beach, Randall. "NHregister.com". NHregister.com. http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/05/30/news/new_haven/doc4c01e664cd6cb780984454.txt. Retrieved 2011-08-17. 
4. ^ All About Jazz (2010-05-13). "Dave Fisher | Jazz | Guitar, acoustic". Allaboutjazz.com. http://www.allaboutjazz.com/davefisher. Retrieved 2011-08-17. 
5. ^ Joel Whitburn (1994) Top Pop Singles 1955-1993. Menomonee Falls/Wisconsin: Record Resaerch Inc.; p. 274
6. ^ "Trivalleycentral.com". Trivalleycentral.com. 2010-05-14. http://www.trivalleycentral.com/articles/2010/05/14/casa_grande_dispatch/national_headlines/doc4bed794ebbd63414178279.txt. Retrieved 2011-08-17. 
7. ^ Stephen Nugent, Pete Fowler, Anne Fowler "The Log Of American British Top 20 Hits, 1955 - 1974", in: Charlie Gillett, Simon Frith (eds.) (1976) Rock File 4 Frogmore, St. Albans: Panther Books; p. 193
8. ^ Günter Ehnert (ed.) (1990) Hit Bilanz. Deutsche Chart Singles 1956-1980. Hamburg: Taurus Press; p. 97
9. ^ Grimes, William (April 9, 2011). "Gil Robbins, Folk Singer of the Highwaymen, Dies at 80". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/arts/music/10robbins.html. 
10. ^ "Death of Dave Fisher". Merinews.com. 2010-05-14. http://www.merinews.com/article/dave-fisher-highwaymen-folk-singer-dies/15808017.shtml. Retrieved 2011-08-17. 
11. ^ "Expressnightout.com". Expressnightout.com. 2010-05-13. http://www.expressnightout.com/startracker/details.php?docID=D9FM51000. Retrieved 2011-08-17. 
12. ^ "Biographies of the Highwaymen" (PDF). http://www.alkahestartists.net/downloads/TheHighwaymenFullBios.pdf. Retrieved 2011-08-17. 
13. ^ Martin, Douglas (May 12, 2010). "Dave Fisher, Member of the Highwaymen, Dies at 69". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/arts/music/13fisher.html. 
14. ^ Lewis, Randy (2010-05-13). "Obituary of David Fisher in Los Angeles Times". Latimes.com. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-david-fisher-20100513,0,6094934.story. Retrieved 2011-08-17. 
15. ^ Obituary of David Fisher^{[dead link]}
16. ^ Dead Rock Stars of 2010 - accessed May 2010
17. ^ "Pandora.com". Pandora.com. http://www.pandora.com/music/artist/highwaymen. Retrieved 2011-08-17. 

External links

• Official website
• The Highwaymen at Allmusic