He was a 5-string banjo player, guitarist, fiddler and songwriter born in New York City. While still young he began an interest in old-time music and soon became an extremely talented banjo player and guitarist.
For a short time early on in his career he played as half of a duo with Woodie Guthrie and in 1953 he recorded his own Folksongs of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. From there went to be a member of the old-time music group The New Lost City Ramblers where his co-members included John Cohen and Mike Seeger. It was with this group that his arrangement and the guitar picking on the tune “Railroad Blues” became highly acclaimed.
After the disbandment of the original members of the group he co-founded the Old Reliable String Band and then in 1963 moved to Sweden, where he stayed for the next three years.
In 1965 relocated once again to England, where he lived ever since although continuing to perform, record and tour throughout Europe and the United States.
In 1975 he decided that the guitar and the banjo weren’t enough and he took to playing the fiddle to the point that he was awarded the Swedish Zorn medal.
Throughout his career he performed as a well-respected soloist and as part of groups in the 1970s with the New Deal String Band and in the 1990s The Mysterious Redbirds.
His recording output was fairly substantial with him appearing on his own Sue Cow, Hard Luck Papa – Old Time Picking Styles and Techniques, Stern Old Bachelor, Old Tom Moore and More as well as Second Spring by Matthews’ Southern Comfort, The Mysterious Redbirds with The Mysterious Redbirds, Down in the Willow and Dealing a New Hand (from the Same Old Deck)with The New Deal String Band, The Old Reliable String Band with The Old Reliable String Band, Shivaree and Courtin’s a Pleasure with Jean Richie & Oscar Brand, Heartsease and Separate Ways with Barbara Lester & Ben Paley and Who’s Going to Show Your Pretty Little Foot? With Claudia Paley & Peggy Seeger.
Since 1993 he regularly performed at the yearly Friends of American Old Time Music and Dance in the UK and held the position of the society’s President. Performing right into the 2000s he worked often with his son, Ben, also an acclaimed fiddler, and released the album Beware Young Ladies in 2007.
In 2017 he passed away in Brighton, England, when he was 89 years old.
Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Paley
- http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:f9ftxq85ldde
- http://www.mustrad.org.uk/reviews/paley.htm
- http://www.wirz.de/music/paleyfrm.htm
- http://cdbaby.com/cd/tompaley
- http://www.celestialmonochord.org/2006/10/tom_paley_in_th.html
- http://www.freshwatersmusic.com/pages/tabs/tabs_paley.htm
- http://www.themagpiesnest.co.uk/gigs/tom-paley-and-jake-flowers
- http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:f9ftxq85ldde