Tracy Schwarz, Mainstay of the New Lost City Ramblers, Dies at 86

New York Times

09-04-2025

Tracy Schwarz, the last surviving member of the New Lost City Ramblers, an influential folk trio whose reverential approach to the lost music of the rural South stood in contrast to more commercial acts like the Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary, died on March 29 in Elkins, W.Va. He was 86.
His death, in a hospice facility, was announced by his wife, Virginia Hawker.
The New Lost City Ramblers were formed in New York in 1958, riding the crest of the folk revival. They performed at the first Newport Folk Festival the next year and counted Bob Dylan — whom they jammed with at Gerdes Folk City, the storied Greenwich Village folk club, in the early 1960s — as a fan.
'Everything about them appealed to me — their style, their singing, their sound,' Mr. Dylan wrote in his 2004 memoir, 'Chronicles: Volume One.' 'Their songs ran the gamut in style, everything from mountain ballads to fiddle tunes and railway blues.' He added, 'I didn't know they were replicating everything they did off old 78 records, but what would it have mattered anyway?'
Mr. Schwarz, who was skilled on the fiddle, accordion, guitar and banjo, joined Mike Seeger, a half brother of the folk luminary Pete Seeger, and the guitarist John Cohen in the Ramblers after another original member, Tom Paley, left in 1962.
Even though Mr. Schwarz was New York born and the son of an investment banker, 'there was just something that was down-to-earth country about Tracy,' Mike Seeger was quoted as saying in the 2010 book 'Gone to the Country: The New Lost City Ramblers and the Folk Music Revival,' by Ray Allen. 'He just kind of has a feeling for the music, it was in his bones.'
The Ramblers modeled themselves on the traditional string bands that flourished in the lush hollows of southern Appalachia and the back roads of the South in the 1920s and '30s. They were equal parts entertainers and folklorists, and taught audiences about the history of the music that set the foundation for bluegrass and country, as played by the likes of Dock Boggs, the Carter family, Cousin Emmy and the Skillet Lickers.
The Ramblers 'carried out a mammoth rescue operation,' the music critic Eric Winter once wrote, 'snatching from the jaws of a jukebox society and a swamp of banality some of the finest music in the U.S. tradition.'
Daniel Tracy Schwarz was born on Nov. 13, 1938, in Manhattan, the third of four children of Hamilton Schwarz, an investment banker, and Constance Schwarz, a classically trained pianist. Spending summers in rural Vermont, he learned to appreciate the rhythms and culture of country life. 'It was almost Appalachian,' he was quoted as saying in 'Gone to the Country.'
As a child in New Jersey and Connecticut, he searched out rustic music on the radio and started playing guitar.
After graduating from the Portsmouth Abbey School in Rhode Island, he studied Russian at Georgetown, and fell into the thriving folk revival scene in Washington. It was there that he got to know Mr. Seeger, a neighbor.
Mr. Schwarz dropped out of college to join the Army; stationed in West Germany, he performed with an acoustic country band in his off-duty hours. He was nearing the end of his military stint when Mr. Seeger reached asked if he would replace Mr. Paley.
The Ramblers continued to tour and record throughout the 1960s. Mr. Schwarz also joined Mr. Seeger in a side project, the Strange Creek Singers, which released an album in 1972. In the 1970s and '80s, he recorded with Dewey Balfa, a noted Cajun fiddler.
Starting in the late 1970s, he toured and recorded with his first wife, Eloise (King) Schwarz, who played guitar and sang, and his son Peter, a multi-instrumentalist, as Tracy's Family Band.
The Ramblers disbanded in 1979 but occasionally reunited. Their '20th Anniversary Concert' album, from a 1978 performance featuring Elizabeth Cotten, Pete Seeger and others, was nominated for a Grammy Award for best traditional folk recording when it was belatedly released in 1986. They earned another Grammy nomination for their first new recording in two decades, 'There Ain't No Way Out,' released in 1997.
In the late 1980s, Ms. Schwarz began a long collaboration with his second wife, a singer billed as Ginny Hawker. They released two albums, 'Good Songs for Hard Times' (2000) and 'Draw Closer' (2004).
While largely focusing on the music of others, Mr. Schwarz was also a songwriter. In 2008, his song 'Poor Old Dirt Farmer,' recorded by Levon Helm, was nominated for an Americana Music Association Award for song of the year.
In addition to his wife and his son Peter, Mr. Schwarz is survived by another son, Robert; a daughter, Sallyann Schwarz Koontz; a sister, Natalie Lowell; and three grandchildren.
Whatever the band, whatever the year, Mr. Schwarz's commitment to the sounds of the past never wavered. 'The music was just so beautiful the way it was,' he said in a 1986 interview with The Burlington Free Press of Vermont. 'Our inspiration was just to play it exactly that same way.'