Journalist, Music Critic, Author and Musician Richard Ginell Releases Limeliters Biography

Book Reviews, Entertainment — By Buddy Sampson on January 25, 2024 at 5:15 pm

Pine Canyon Publications, in association with Lucky Valley Press, has just issued a new book by the internationally-known music critic, journalist, and musician Richard S. Ginell, Makin’ A Joyful Noise: The Lives And Times Of The (Slightly) Fabulous Limeliters. Over 30 years in the making, this is the definitive biography of one of the most colorful groups that thrived during the urban folk music revival of the late 1950s and 1960s.

The Limeliters were the most vibrant urban folk group of the early 1960s, second only to the Kingston Trio in popularity at their peak. The original members were Lou Gottlieb, the bass-playing comic with a Ph.D in musicology; Alex Hassilev, the debonair virtuoso banjo player fluent in six languages; and Glenn Yarbrough, an independent-minded, hugely gifted natural tenor.

They got together in 1959 and became an instant hit act. They recorded several best-selling albums for RCA Victor – including the classic “Through Children’s Eyes” – made television appearances and commercials, and toured North America and Europe 300 days out of the year at the height of the folk revival era. They were a diverse, volatile mix of highly-intelligent personalities – and a plane crash near Provo, Utah from which they were lucky to survive precipitated the first breakup of the group in 1963.

After that, the three went their separate, erratic ways for the next ten years. Alex became a record producer and actor; Glenn went solo, had a big hit record “Baby, the Rain Must Fall,” but yearned to become a full-time sailor; and Lou had a mid-life crisis, grew his hair long, took LSD, and founded the notorious hippie commune, Morningstar Ranch in Northern California. Lou’s adventures on the commune are almost comically surreal in the telling; at one point, frustrated by law enforcement hassles, he tried to deed his land to God. (And there was an actual court trial on the matter!.) Eventually the Limeliters reunited in 1973 and became a successful touring act, surviving with various changes in personnel to this day.

The saga of Lou, Alex and Glenn is also the story of many of the cultural ideas and trends of the last half of the 20th century in America – how they influenced their times, and how the times affected them. Author Richard S. Ginell, who has known and interviewed the trio over a span of more than four decades, brings the whole, slightly fabulous story to life.

The Limeliters book is currently available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other web booksellers.

 Music critic, lecturer, and program annotator Richard S. Ginell is a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Classical Voice, Musical America, and Classical Voice North America, the latter for which he is currently West Coast regional editor. Ginell was chief music critic of the Los Angeles Daily News for 12 years, where his beat included classical music, jazz, folk, and home audio.  He wrote over 1,600 reviews, essays and bios for the All-Music Guide, and his work has appeared in many publications, including the Gramophone, Variety, Chicago Tribune, Montreal Gazette, Emmy magazine, and the Strad. He has written program notes for the Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, and Los Angeles Opera; liner notes for Verve, Telarc, Naxos and Fantasy; and contributed a dozen discographical essays to The Essential Listening Companion: Classical Music (Backbeat Books). He also plays keyboards and drums, and curates an extensive collection of recordings in all genres. Recently, he performed with the jazz group, The Jazz Scribes, which was featured in a movie, “Sand Snowman.” He currently lives in Frazier Park, California.