About John Sprung

August 10th, 2008

John SprungJohn has been singing and enjoying folk songs for as long as he can remember (which is longer than he cares to remember). The child of camp-director parents, his earliest memories included the songs of Woody Guthrie and Josh White.

On August 5, 2008, John’s new CD, “Side Effects,” (c)2008, was released on Fraternity Records. Full details on this album of newly composed and recorded songs appear elsewhere on this site. Copies of this CD, are available through John’s on-line distributor, CD Baby at http://cdbaby.com/sprungjohn2 as well as John’s earlier CD, “Remember Me and Other Songs, (c) 2004, at www.cdbaby.com/sprungjohn. Samples of “Side Effects” will soon be available on both this website and on CD baby. (Make sure to check for discounts when purchasing more than one copy of either CD.)

His songs have been played on many folk-oriented stations across the country. One of his newer songs, “The Glory of Their Times,” was introduced by veteran folk-singer and host, Oscar Brand, on WNYC’s “Folksong Festival.” John was fortunate to introduce his earlier CD on Ron Olesko’s show “Traditions,” on WFDU.FM, in 2005, and has been invited to premiere “Side Effects,” on “Traditions,” as well. Please watch this website for time and date.

As for how all this began, after an unsuccessful attempt to learn the guitar at age seven, John contented himself with the ukelele until finally picking up the guitar the summer after high school. After a stint as a member of a high school “doo-wop” group, John and two college fraternity bothers at Alfred University (Bob Levine and Mike Weiner), formed a trio soon to be known up and down the fabled southern tier of western New York as the “Five minus Two.” (”Get it?”)

Playing at local hotels, radio shows and campus functions, and for such diverse audiences as the Hornell Rotarians and the Wellesville Junior Nurses Association, the group hit its performing zenith at New York’s “Bitter End” shortly after graduation. Early the next year, the trio opened for the Brandywine Singers at a concert held at their alma mater. Later that year, they recorded two songs for Roulette Records, one of which was a civil rights song called “He Was My Brother,” composed by the then unknown Paul Simon. John swears it was released, and has posted a reward for anyone owning a copy. After the group broke up for such disparate and mundane reasons as (1) one member’s having to repeat Experimental Psychology in order to graduate, (2) another entering Law School, and (3) in John’s case, an inability to avoid the draft. John (an abject failure at college R.O.T.C.) was somehow commissioned an officer in the United States Air Force. Throughout his years in the service during the Vietnam-era (in which he inflicted casualties on neither side), John continued to hone his folk-singing skills. Both as a single and in a series of long forgotten trios, he played numerous night clubs and folk venues along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, including “Trader John’s,” “The Gulf Winds,” “The Edgewater,” and (now it can be told) “The Jefferson Davis Junior College for Women.” During this period, John was proudest of a children’s concert he did for rural Mississippi’s Head Start Program, which was itself in its infancy.

Since that time, John has played a goodly number of public gigs and private parties in and around the New York area, including “Y’s,” and many performances at children’s schools . He has shared the stage with, among others, Happy Traum, Lynn Lavner, the New London Trio*, and the Flagstaff Singers. He has played at Brooklyn College, Western Connecticut Teachers College, the summer Borough Hall Concerts, Cousin Abe’s, BMW’s, the Eastland Folk Festival, a reunion night at the old Loews Kings, the Montauk Club, Vox Pop, and (all too many) street fairs. He has twice appeared at the Hurdy-Gurdy Folk Music Society’s “Zeke’s Place.”

(*Speaking of “The New London Trio,”  trio member Fred Pape (see photo gallery) recently contacted John after viewing this website.  They have exchanged music, photos, and family updates.  Fred is alive and well, and living in Alaska with his lovely wife in a log cabin he is proud to have built.)

John’s 1998 concert recording “John Sprung…Still Live at Zeke’s Place” was released in 2000 on Folklaw Records © 2000 and—according to ASCAP—recently went “tin.”

In 2002, John first appeared as Ron Olesko’s guest on the radio show “Traditions,” on WFDU-FM.  As mentioned above, he had a return visit with Ron on the occasion of the release of “Remember Me and Other Songs,” in May, 2005.   Over the years, John been fortunate to have had his songs played on many commercial as well as affiliate stations of National Public Radio across the country. John is a lawyer in his “day job,” but tries not to let it interfere with his folk-singing. He picks and sings in what he describes as “a variety of styles and abilities.”

 His repertoire consists of a combination of traditional and composed folk, and folk-oriented songs, both funny and sad; As a performer, John strives to combine music from the great folk song-bag, with songs of his own composition. All in all, John is an untraditional traditional folksinger. John is particularly interested in tying songs to the periods in which they were written, believing that folk songs provide an excellent barometer of the times they reflect. His goal is to help keep folk music alive, something he hopes “Remember Me and Other Songs” and “Side Effects” will, in their own small way, contribute to.

Buy John Sprung CDs Here

August 9th, 2008

Buy the CD
JOHN SPRUNG: Side Effects
click to order

Buy the CD
JOHN SPRUNG: Remember Me and Other Songs
click to order

John’s new CD, “Side Effects,” Released on August 5th

April 29th, 2008

John’s new CD entitled “Side Effects,” was released on August 5, 2008. The CD was recorded on Fraternity Records, with assistance from the same outstanding back-up musicians and vocalists who accompanied John on the two tracks included on last year’s “Fraternity Records’ 50th Anniversary CD.” The album includes eleven newly written and recorded songs, plus, from the “50th Anniversary CD,” is an updated version of the 9/11 song, “Remember Me,” and “The Glory of Their Times.” (”Glory” is a tribute to the veterans of World War II, which was introduced on Oscar Brand’s “Folksong Festival,” and which John performed at the televised 2007 Memorial Day tribute for the Intrepid Air, Sea, and Space Museum in New York City.) All in all, thirteen songs–a bakers dozen!
The album contains an eclectic mix of songs inspired by the folk process, including an original urban blues (”Understand the Blues”), a Broadway parody (”No Time for a Song”), a nostalgic remembrance of the many late folksingers who live on in our memories (”The Folksingers’ Sweet Bye-and-Bye”), and “See Alice,” a humorous tribute to the men’s product which (to paraphrase the old deodorant ad) truly “takes the worry out of being close.” Other songs address issues both topical and timeless, ranging from the war in Iraq (”Joshua”) to unrequited love (”Shorthand for Good-Bye”). “The Gift” is an elegy to the many challenges that enable us to reap the benefits of reaching beyond ourselves, and “All Counts for Twenty” is a rueful smile to the benefits of taking the long view. “Social Insecurity” is a humorous analysis of the late (but not) lamented plan to privatize Social Security, and “The Second World War Home Front Movie Blues” salutes those “heroes” of the silver screen whose celluloid bravery inspired us all as kids. On a somber note, “The Ghosts of Columbine” looks at one family’s tragic descent from teen-age sweethearts in the days of “doo-wop” into the personal hell of their adulthood.
As with his last CD, “Side Effects” will be available through CDbaby, and may soon be sampled here as well on the CDbaby website. Please watch this space for updates.

John on televised Memorial Day Tribute

June 4th, 2007

In New York City’s Central Park, on May 28, 2007, John participated in the televised Memorial Day program sponsored by the Intrepid Sea, Air, & Space Museum. 

The keynote speaker was Admiral William Fallon, Commander of the U.S. Central Command, who reminded the audience that the day is meant to commemorate those who have fallen in the service of our nation and in defense of its precious freedoms. Following the  unfurling of a giant American flag held by active duty servicemen and women, joined by veterans dating back to World War II, and accompanied by a haunting playing of “echo taps” by two buglers, John closed the program with a rendition of his song, “The Glory of Their Times.” 

This year’s Memorial Day observance, portions of which were covered by the network news, was carried in full by television station NY1.  “Glory” is John’s musical tribute to the soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen of World War II, and he was proud that a number of its veterans were present to hear the song. John dedicated it to all those who have had “the burden and privilege of serving our country.”  

“Glory of Their Times” (along with “Remember Me”) is among the songs included on John’s new CD, “Side Effects,” discussed elsewhere on this site.

Contact John

June 25th, 2006

 

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