Artie Traum
Encyclopedia
Artie Traum was a New Age Voice (NAV) Award-winning guitarist, producer and songwriter. Traum's work appeared on more than 35 albums. He produced and recorded with The Band
, Warren Bernhardt
, Pat Alger
, Tony Levin
, John Sebastian
, Richie Havens
, Maria Muldaur
, Eric Andersen
, Paul Butterfield
, Paul Siebel
, Rory Block
, James Taylor
, Pete Seeger
, David Grisman
, Livingston Taylor
, Michael Franks and Happy Traum
, among others. Traum's songs were featured on PBS, BBC, ESPN, CBS, and The Weather Channel. He toured in Japan, Europe and across the USA.
Born and raised in the Bronx, Traum became a part of the Greenwich Village
folk music scene in the late 1950s. Early on, Traum co-wrote songs for the Brian De Palma
debut film Greetings – the first role for Robert De Niro
– with Eric Kaz
and Bear.
1969 saw Traum joining forces with his brother Happy Traum in a duo. Their self-titled debut album, Happy & Artie Traum (Capitol Records) was cited by the New York Times as "one of the best records in any field of pop music." The Traums were managed by Albert Grossman
(manager of The Band, Dylan, Janis Joplin, etc.). The duo performed at the 1969 Newport Folk Festival on stage with James Taylor
, Kris Kristoferson and Joni Mitchell
.
In November 1971, both Artie and Happy Traum (together with Bob Dylan
, David Amram
, and others) participated in an extended Record Plant (NYC) session backing up Allen Ginsberg
in various songs and chants. Ginsberg wrote the liner notes for the duo's "Hard Times in the Country" LP.
During the 70’s and 80’s, Artie Traum produced The Woodstock Mountains Revue featuring himself, his brother Happy, Pat Alger, John Sebastian, Maria Muldaur, Rory Block, Eric Andersen, Paul Butterfield and Paul Siebel. In the mid 1980’s Traum teamed up with singer/songwriter Pat Alger (Thunder Rolls, Unanswered Prayers). The duo recorded the album From The Heart.
Traum's 1994 release - the jazz project Letters From Joubee - captured #1 on the Smooth Jazz Radio Charts (Gavin AA chart). In 1999 his Meetings With Remarkable Friends - which included tracks featuring Traum playing with The Band, Bela Fleck, Jay Ungar, and other notables - received the Best Acoustic Instrumental Album award from the NAV.
In 2003, Traum released a singer/songwriter project, South of Lafayette, which was featured on NPR's "All Things Considered". In 2007 Traum released the album Thief of Time.
During recent years, Traum enjoyed a small side career as a documentary filmmaker. In 2002, his film Deep Water: Building the Catskill Water System (co-produced and co-directed with Tobe Carey and Robbie Dupree) was featured at the Woodstock Film Festival. Two years later, in 2004, Traum co-produced Hudson River Journeys: A Celebration of America's First River for WMHT Public Television. The latter film featured artist Len Tantillo and folksinger Pete Seeger
.
Traum also wrote numerous guitar instruction books, and hosted many video productions for his brother Happy's Homespun Tapes. Traum lived with his wife Beverly in Bearsville, New York, just outside of Woodstock. At the time of his death, Traum had been at work on a memoir. Traum died on July 20, 2008, aged 65.
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
, Warren Bernhardt
Warren Bernhardt
Warren Bernhardt is a noted pianist in jazz, pop and classical music.His father was a pianist, leading him to have early childhood exposure to piano, and he learned some rudiments of keyboarding from his friends. At five his parents moved to New York City where he began studying seriously under...
, Pat Alger
Pat Alger
Pat Alger is a country music songwriter, singer and guitarist.-Biography:Alger attended Georgia Tech studying architecture but decided to concentrate on writing songs. He started as a solo folk performer at folk clubs...
, Tony Levin
Tony Levin
Tony Levin is an American progressive rock musician, specializing in bass guitar, Chapman stick and upright bass ....
, John Sebastian
John Sebastian
John Benson Sebastian Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and autoharpist. He is best known as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000...
, Richie Havens
Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
, Maria Muldaur
Maria Muldaur
Maria Muldaur is a folk-blues singer who was part of the American folk music revival in the early 1960s...
, Eric Andersen
Eric Andersen
Eric Andersen is an American singer-songwriter.-Biography:In the early 1960s, Eric Andersen was part of the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York...
, Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield was an American blues vocalist and harmonica player, who founded the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the early 1960s and performed at the original Woodstock Festival...
, Paul Siebel
Paul Siebel
Paul Siebel is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, born on September 19, 1937 in Buffalo, NY. He is best known for other artist's cover versions of his songs, most notably "Louise"...
, Rory Block
Rory Block
-Festival appearances:*Long Beach Blues Festival - 1993*San Francisco Blues Festival - 1999*Notodden Blues Festival - 2006-See also:*List of blues musicians*List of contemporary blues musicians*List of Austin City Limits performers-External links:****...
, James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
, Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
, David Grisman
David Grisman
David Grisman is an American bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist and composer of acoustic music. In the early 1990s, he started the Acoustic Disc record label in an effort to preserve and spread acoustic or instrumental music.-Biography:Grisman grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey...
, Livingston Taylor
Livingston Taylor
Livingston Taylor is an American singer-songwriter, born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He attended the Westtown School in Pennsylvania...
, Michael Franks and Happy Traum
Happy Traum
Happy Traum is an American folk musician who started playing music in the Fifties. Happy is most famously known as one half of Happy and Artie Traum, a duo he began with his brother...
, among others. Traum's songs were featured on PBS, BBC, ESPN, CBS, and The Weather Channel. He toured in Japan, Europe and across the USA.
Biography
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
folk music scene in the late 1950s. Early on, Traum co-wrote songs for the Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...
debut film Greetings – the first role for Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
– with Eric Kaz
Eric Kaz
Eric Kaz, born in Brooklyn, New York in 1947, is a singer-songwriter active mainly in the late 1960s and the 1970s.-Biography:He first appeared on the popular music scene in the mid-60s playing piano in a band called Children of Paradise with Happy and Artie Traum...
and Bear.
1969 saw Traum joining forces with his brother Happy Traum in a duo. Their self-titled debut album, Happy & Artie Traum (Capitol Records) was cited by the New York Times as "one of the best records in any field of pop music." The Traums were managed by Albert Grossman
Albert Grossman
Albert Bernard Grossman was an American entrepreneur and manager in the American folk music scene and rock and roll. He was most famous as the manager of Bob Dylan between 1962 and 1970.-Biography:...
(manager of The Band, Dylan, Janis Joplin, etc.). The duo performed at the 1969 Newport Folk Festival on stage with James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
, Kris Kristoferson and Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
.
In November 1971, both Artie and Happy Traum (together with Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, David Amram
David Amram
David Amram is an American composer, musician, conductor, and writer. As a classical composer and performer, his integration of jazz , ethnic and folk music has led him to work with the likes of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Willie Nelson, Langston...
, and others) participated in an extended Record Plant (NYC) session backing up Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
in various songs and chants. Ginsberg wrote the liner notes for the duo's "Hard Times in the Country" LP.
During the 70’s and 80’s, Artie Traum produced The Woodstock Mountains Revue featuring himself, his brother Happy, Pat Alger, John Sebastian, Maria Muldaur, Rory Block, Eric Andersen, Paul Butterfield and Paul Siebel. In the mid 1980’s Traum teamed up with singer/songwriter Pat Alger (Thunder Rolls, Unanswered Prayers). The duo recorded the album From The Heart.
Traum's 1994 release - the jazz project Letters From Joubee - captured #1 on the Smooth Jazz Radio Charts (Gavin AA chart). In 1999 his Meetings With Remarkable Friends - which included tracks featuring Traum playing with The Band, Bela Fleck, Jay Ungar, and other notables - received the Best Acoustic Instrumental Album award from the NAV.
In 2003, Traum released a singer/songwriter project, South of Lafayette, which was featured on NPR's "All Things Considered". In 2007 Traum released the album Thief of Time.
During recent years, Traum enjoyed a small side career as a documentary filmmaker. In 2002, his film Deep Water: Building the Catskill Water System (co-produced and co-directed with Tobe Carey and Robbie Dupree) was featured at the Woodstock Film Festival. Two years later, in 2004, Traum co-produced Hudson River Journeys: A Celebration of America's First River for WMHT Public Television. The latter film featured artist Len Tantillo and folksinger Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
.
Traum also wrote numerous guitar instruction books, and hosted many video productions for his brother Happy's Homespun Tapes. Traum lived with his wife Beverly in Bearsville, New York, just outside of Woodstock. At the time of his death, Traum had been at work on a memoir. Traum died on July 20, 2008, aged 65.