Bill Staines and Paul McNeill

Subject: Bill Staines and Paul McNeill
From: Justin K. Rivers
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 06:55 PM

On Bill Staines' first album "A Bag of Rainbows," there's a cover of a song called "Midway" by Paul McNeil. I assume this is a typo and is supposed to be Paul McNeill, who has been covered in other threads.

I'm wondering though if anyone has any information about the connection between the two. My impression was that Paul McNeill lived in London and played at the Troubadour a lot, but could he also have been part of the Cambridge, MA folk scene along with Staines? "Midway" doesn't appear on any of McNeill's other records. At least, not on the three solo albums that I know about.

Subject: RE: Bill Staines and Paul McNeill
From: curmudgeon
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 09:35 PM

"Midway" was written by Paul MacNeil, then of Boston. This was the late '60s when a lot of us played the greater Boston coffee house circuit and tended to party together.

In addition to Paul, Bill and myself, there were Dan Gravas, Paul Lolax, Chris Smither, Nancy Michaels, Paul Geremia, Pam Coulihan, Ray Clayton, Bill Madison,Kenny Girard, Alan Rotman,Rocky Rockwood,Eliot Kenin, and some others I can't remeber at this late hour - Tom Hall

Subject: RE: Bill Staines and Paul McNeill
From: Justin K. Rivers
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 10:30 PM

So this is the same Paul McNeill ?

According to the discussion, it seemed like in the early to mid 60's he was living in the UK. Did he move to Boston after that, and if so, any idea how long he lived there?

Subject: RE: Bill Staines and Paul McNeill
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 22 Aug 09 - 01:10 AM

Nope. Different Paul.

Subject: RE: Bill Staines and Paul McNeill
From: Justin K. Rivers
Date: 22 Aug 09 - 03:25 PM

Any idea what happened to the Cambridge Paul McNeil? Did he record at all? I think I found another record that the song "Midway" appears on.

Subject: RE: Bill Staines and Paul McNeill
From: curmudgeon
Date: 22 Aug 09 - 04:02 PM

Paul was briefly under contract to MGM (long story) where he recorded one album that the buggers never released.

However, the late Chris Biggi of Sunset Ridge Recording Studios had hundreds of hours of Paul MacNeil, including probably every song he wrote before the beginning of this decade. The last I heard, Jaime Brockett was going to begin work on archiving this vast collection. Chris used to say that he could embarrass any folksinger who played in Boston in the '60s.

I haven't seen Paul for some ten years or so. He had been living in the Philippines for quite a while and may well be back there. He had a website a few years back, but I can't track it down any longer - Tom

Subject: RE: Bill Staines and Paul McNeill
From: Justin K. Rivers
Date: 22 Aug 09 - 09:42 PM

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it!

Subject: RE: Bill Staines and Paul McNeill
From: GUEST,LesMoore
Date: 02 Nov 09 - 09:54 PM

I'm in touch with Paul MacNeil and Bill Madison, Ken Girard and others. Paul and Bill are still songwriting and Kenny still plays a bit from New Hampshire. All working on new media and web sites and Facebook pages.

Subject: RE: Bill Staines and Paul McNeill
From: Art Thieme
Date: 03 Nov 09 - 12:36 PM

Fascinating. Really.

So many folkies I never heard of; people who had entire lives and careers within our localized musical subcultures--yet, still, under the larger umbrella of folkiedom.---Paul McNeill is new to me.

A few came to be known to us in Chicago---Paul Geremia, Smither, and of course, Bill Staines & Jim Kweskin. But we had a lower / limited Midwest profile too I guess. -- As has been noted, It is a tangled web we weave.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Bill Staines and Paul McNeill
From: sing4peace
Date: 03 Nov 09 - 08:12 PM

Hey there Lesley!

I was just gonna share the news about Paul being on Facebook. That is spelled Paul MacNeil - (friend of Tom's, Kenny Girard, etc.)

He's been living in the Philippines and wants to come back to the United States. Some of his friends (like Lesley up there) are trying to help him do that. Mudcat and Facebook will be good networking tools for that purpose.

I haven't seen Paul since the 1990's when we all had a reunion concert at the Grog in Newburyport. I hope he does make it back here and that he gets to meet back up with and collaborate with some of his musician buddies.

I always loved those bossa-nova numbers he did.

Ahhhhh....
Peace,
JK