Journeymen

Of all the groups from the early 1960s that could have made it and didn't, the Journeymen are the one that elicits the greatest passion among scholars and listeners. They had the voices and the instrumental virtuosity, and were even ahead of the curve in that they had the songwriting -- which was to figure ever-larger in the folk boom as it progressed -- and were even signed to a major label, Capitol Records, yet somehow, despite a lot of hard work and performances, and good television exposure, they never succeeded. The group's foundations went back to the boyhood friendship between John Phillips and Scott McKenzie -- they'd been singing together since the early 1950s, as parts of groups such as the Abstracts and the Smoothies, their sound and music advancing with the times until the advent of the folk revival in the closing years of the 1950s. The Alexandria, Virginia-born Phillips had found a creative outlet in music and would soon manifest a dazzling talent as an arranger and songwriter; McKenzie, born Phil Blondheim, had a brilliantly expressive voice and already showed some ability as a songwriter. The third man in the trio was Dick Weissman, a singer, songwriter, and virtuoso banjo-man, originally from Philadelphia, who was versed in music at a level that Phillips and McKenzie couldn't get near. They got off to a roaring start. Formed in the first weeks of 1961, they'd made it to Gerde's Folk City -- the Greenwich Village Mecca for folksingers -- just a couple of weeks later, on the same bill with Bob Dylan, Lightnin' Hopkins, and the Clancy Brothers, earning themselves a five-month extended engagement. And their manager was none other than Frank Werber, the manager of the Kingston Trio, who was one of the most influential and powerful figures in the folk...