Mariposa '91

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Our friend Pat was a big fan of country music — what today (September 2025) would be called Americana. He had his favorites and we knew them well. In September of 1991 the Mariposa Folk Festival was held at Ontario Place in Toronto. We had seen the advertising and we asked Pat, who did not like to travel, who were his top artists that would convince him to go to Toronto, stay for a couple of nights, and take in the show. He answered: John Prine, Guy Clark, Lucinda Williams, Butch Hancock, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.

I don't recall any other musicians that came to mind but these were all playing at Mariposa '91 so we absolutely had to go: Pat, Cindy, Kate and me. It was a fun to see these artists and very early in my transition to a fondness for the music Pat loved.

I have written before about John Prine at Mariposa — there are some funny stories there. We've been lucky enough to see all of these artists several times over the years. John Prine (1946-2020) and Guy Clark (1941-2016) are no longer with us but their music lives on.

This note was composed on September 14, 2025 with memories jogged by Google Photos — it periodically says, "here's an album of photos you might find interesting". These have got to be scans of prints and slides taken at the time. No doubt some of the scanning done during the COVID lockdown (see Digitizing Photos, 2021).

Looking back on these photos taken in 2025 (it's some 34 years later) it's not surprising to see how young all of these players were. I guess we were too.