The Berkshire Ramblers, Live at The Linda
NEW - Check out the Berkshire Ramblers YouTube channel!
The Berkshire Ramblers are a group of unlikely individuals who love and play
folk songs of the "old style." The founding Ramblers are Joe Browdy and Alan
Chartock, and the group has been playing together, in one form or another,
for well over forty years. Consistent Ramblers are Joe Browdy (lead vocals,
guitar), Alan Chartock, (banjo, guitar, vocals), and Roselle Chartock,
(vocals, guitar, and tiny percussion). Other ramblers include vocalists and instrumentalists Susan Thompson, Don McGrory, Dwight O'Neil, John Barrett and Jonas Chartock. The
Ramblers are a fluid group, and enjoy working with other musicians when the
occasion calls for it. The group lives by the Weavers old credo that
rehearsals occur on stage while playing a gig. Still active, The Ramblers
play when they have the spirit or fortitude to do so, which is primarily at
events for not for profit institutions.
The Ramblers began with the meeting of Joe Browdy and Alan Chartock at the Bronx House Emmanuel Camps. Joe was the music counselor, followed later by Alan. Joe was featured in a concert at what was then known as "Carnegie Recital Hall," along with other greats like the Traum Brothers and Winnie Winston in a 1960's early Hootenany. Joe went on to be one of the top New York City lawyers with the distinguished law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Garrison and Wharton. When he retired he moved to Hillsdale, New York where he had always maintained a second home with his wife Sue, and his children. Joe is a graduate of Oberlin College and NYU Law School, and earned his jurist doctorate at NYU where he served as editor for the New York University Law Revew. At Oberlin he hosted a folk music radio show. Alan Chartock says of his old friend who now serves on the WAMC Public Radio Board of Trustees, "I always knew that he rather be playing 'Midnight Special' than practicing law."
Lead female singer Roselle Chartock is Professor of Education at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. She has written extensively on the Holocaust and has published a book, "Can It Happen Again? Chronicles of the Holocaust," on the subject. She holds a BA from Skidmore, an MA from Hunter College and an Ed.D. From the University of Massachusetts. She has also edited the text "Educational Foundations: An Anthology" published by Prentice Hall now in its second edition. She is currently working on another Prentice Hall project on multiculturalism . She is the Rambler least likely to want to play a gig and was highly insulted when playing on top of a truck at a gathering when Joe Browdy said, "Boy did we stink." She has never quite forgotten that even though she agreed.
Alan Chartock, the Rambler's banjo player, is President and CEO of WAMC, Northeast Public Radio. He is a political scientist who thought up and is now publisher and project director of "The Legislative Gazette; The Newspaper of State Government" that takes students from many colleges and universities and allows them to cover state government under a professional editor. Chartock earned his BA at Hunter College, an MA at American University and a Ph.D. at NYU. Chartock is now professor emeritus in The University at Albany communication department. He is a columnist and participates in several public radio programs. He is considered the premier public radio fund raiser in the United States.
Don McGrory is a native of Memphis, Tenn., and is best known in these parts as the leader of Don McGrory and the Delta Soul Trio, a band which performs regularly in area. A killer slide guitar player, Don is the proprietor of Great Barrington's Donald McGrory Oriental Rugs.
Jonas Chartock is a native of Great Barrington, MA, and was literally born into The Berkshire Ramblers, starting out on washtub bass and now on rhythm guitar and vocals. He is the Executive Director of the State University of New York Charter Schools Institute.
