Sandy Paton

Sandy Paton (1929–2009) was an American folk musician and founder of the Folk-Legacy Records label. Not to be confused with jazz singer Sandy Patton (b. 1948). For many years, he had been making music and running the label with his wife, Caroline Paton. Folk-Legacy introduced many voices of the East Coast folk revival, such as Gordon Bok or Rosalie Sorrels, as well as artists of the older generation, including the Kentucky singer Sarah Ogan Gunning and the North Carolina banjo player and singer Frank Proffitt. In 1957, Sandy met Caroline and later that year they visited Britain, performing at folk clubs in London. Paton recorded three EPs of American folk songs for Jazz Collector label in 1960 and assisted the Scottish folklorist Hamish Henderson in recording the celebrated Aberdeen singer Jeannie Robertson and her daughter Lizzie Higgins. Back in the USA, Paton worked at the record store in Chicago. On a song-collecting trip to Appalachia, he recorded Frank Proffitt and Horton Barker, a blind ballad singer from Virginia. Impressed by the tapes, his friend Lee B. Haggerty suggested they create a record label together. They opened Folk-Legacy in 1961, debuting with a Proffitt LP. The label presented more albums by traditional performers, such as two volumes of songs from the community of Beech Mountain in North Carolina, but main artists on the roster were Bok, Ed Trickett, Art Thieme and Michael Cooney, as well as Scottish singers Jean Redpath and Archie Fisher. Paton also continued his field-recording work and in 1977, he produced the compilation Brave Boys: New England Traditions In Folk Music for New World Records. The Patons' contribution to folk music was recognized with awards from the California Traditional Music Society, the Memphis Dulcimer Festival and the Eisteddfod Festival of Traditional Arts in Massachusetts.