About Me
Born and raised in upstate New York, after high school Delmark Goldfarb landed in the Village at the tail end of the Great Folk Era. On banjo or bass, he fell into gigs with the likes of bluesmen Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee; bluegrass mandolin wizard Frank Wakefield; and legendary folk/country songwriter Keith Sykes.
Drafted in 1970, instead of sending Del to Vietnam, the Marine Corps transferred him from Camp Pendleton to NAS Millington, the Navys only inland air base, twenty minutes down Highway 51 from Memphis. Weekends were spent in town at the knee of Furry Lewis or Rufus Thomas, or getting wasted under the influence of Jerry Lee Lewis.Upon discharge, Del stayed in Memphis, where the transition to civilian life was not without its obstacles. After some particularly inappropriate behavior in a poorly managed situation he found himself serving a one-year stretch in the county slammer.There, during a card game, one of his fellow inmates, a certain O.V. Wright, told him that he could use a piano player. After volunteering for this unusual request, Del was led out to an open cellblock area where makeshift church services were held on Sundays. Out of a broom closet rolled a piano. There he banged out the blues to O.Vs scorching wail, while the jailbirds danced like angels and the walls vanished into thin air.Later in Memphis, he assembled and composed for the Rhythm-Aires, a washboard-style combo which became a house band on Beale Street and was featured at the Memphis Music and Arts Festival. On the rockabilly side, Del was invited to be Billy Lee Rileys sideman on guitar for a recording session at Sun Studio.Another highlight of the Memphis years was the Beale Street Songwriters Showcase, where Del appeared twice alongside icons such as Rodney Crowell, Billy Joe Shaver and Todd Snider.After a move to Oregon in the 1980s, Dels music took a serious turn for the jug band side when he teamed up with jug and washtub veteran Fritz Richmond, world-reknown for his work with the Kweskin Band. Fritz clued him to the roots of the string band sound: Gus Cannon, the Mississippi Sheiks, Jamaican Joseph Spence, and the Memphis Jug Band.Also in Portland, Oregon, Del began working with Curtis Salgado, who covered Portable Man on his Soul Activated album (Shanachie). It was Dels growing involvement with the blues/roots community in the Northwest and an affinity to the money-raising aspects of rent-party style benefits which led him in 1987 to launch what has become the annual Waterfront Blues Festival. The event continues to raise millions of dollars and tons of food donations for charity.Dels latest cd, Up To My Neck, his first solo effort, presents his distinctive tunes backed by an all-star combo including John Sebastian (Lovin Spoonful) on harp and Cody Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars) on drums.
