Icon Tom Paxton finds a good seed in songwriting sidekick C. Daniel Boling

Apr. 12—Renowned singer-songwriter Tom Paxton has long defined his genre of folk as music created mostly by people who do something else for a living. "And we usually don't know who wrote those songs," he says. "That's why they call them folk music."

Indeed, people might recall Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton's hit song The Last Thing on My Mind from 1967; Johnny Cash's crooning of the reflective I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound, released in 2010; and John Denver's twangy take on The Marvelous Toy from 1990. The same man wrote all three: Paxton, who has released more than 50 albums and estimates at least 200 artists have covered The Last Thing on My Mind.

Paxton, 86, is an exception to his definition: He writes folk music and performs it for a living. He'll do so Friday, April 12, in Santa Fe with Albuquerque guitarist-songwriter C. Daniel Boling. They'll perform some of Paxton's classics as well as some songs they've written together in recent years, including tunes from Boling's 2023 album New Old Friends.

The pair has co-written another batch of tunes that they plan to record at Santa Fe's Kitchen Sink Recording Studio, where Boling has recorded previously. However, they didn't record New Old Friends, the album they released last July, together in the same space.

Paxton lives in Virginia and teaches at songwriting camps there. A couple of years ago, he says, Boling attended one of those camps.

"As soon as he played a song, I said, 'Well, there's a songwriter. You can't fool me,'" Paxton says of watching Boling perform. "We liked him so much that we did another camp the next year, and we invited him to be one of our instructors."

details

AMP Concerts presents Tom Paxton with C. Daniel Boling

* 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 12

* St. Francis Auditorium

* 107 W. Palace Avenue

* $30-$45

* 505-886-1251; ampconcerts.org

Paxton was sufficiently impressed by Boling's songwriting — so much so that he suggested they co-write. They've assembled weekly via Zoom ever since, a setup the seasoned Paxton describes as perfect.

"I mean, we couldn't be more in the same room if we were in the same room. As a matter of fact," he says of the convenience of collaborating online, "it leaves you with no damn excuses at all."

Paxton praises Boling's ideas, adding that songs need a good seed, and Boling provides that.

"I figured part of my role is to help fertilize that plot of land of Tom's a little bit," Boling says, laughing.

Continuing the metaphor, Paxton says hopes he has improved as a songwriter since his heady days in the 1960s helping to put folk music on the map in New York City.

"I really feel like a good plot of land," he says. "You till it every year, you plant new seeds, and you get a crop that, doggone it, pretty much resembles last year's crop and the crop before that."

Paxton has fond memories of the beginning of a career that has spanned seven decades.

"I started out singing traditional folk songs, many of which I learned from Burl Ives and his ilk," he says. "When I began playing professionally in New York in the Village, I began writing my own songs. Not surprisingly, they were in that tradition. This started in 1960. It was a hell of a time to be young and in love with folk music."

In addition to being a prolific songwriter, Paxton has taught his craft for decades.

"Another thing I tell my students is, 'Don't be afraid to fail,'" he says, "You're going to fail far more often than you're going to succeed. The way to write a bunch of good songs is to write a hell of a lot of songs, period. You'll get some winners. You'll get some stinkers too."

If Paxton had a young version of himself as a student, he'd tell that man to put more effort into mastering his instrument.

"The main thing I would tell any 20-year-old version of myself is, 'Work harder,'" he says. "Work harder, write more. Write twice as many songs as you think you're going to write, probably three times the number of songs. There's no reason you shouldn't write 100 songs a year."

Many guitarists have identified portability as the reason they didn't pursue piano instead. Paxton has a different reason.

"I picked the guitar because, to me, the most beautiful sound there is is an acoustic guitar," he says. "Perhaps it's not as flexible as a piano, but it'll express any emotion I can feel."