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The Town Criers
Biography
The Town Criers were formed at the folk club the Drinking Gourd in San Francisco, CA, in the summer of 1963 by Marty Balin (born Martyn Jerel Buchwald in Cincinnati, OH, January 20, 1942), Bill Collins, Jan Ellickson (born in Chicago, IL), and Larry Vargo (born circa 1937; died December 20, 1991). They were a folk quartet patterned after the Weavers, performing in the commercial folk style of the Kingston Trio, the Chad Mitchell Trio, and the Limeliters. Balin, Collins, and Vargo all had previous professional experience. Balin had recorded pop/rock as a solo artist for Challenge Records. Collins had been a member of the duo "the Double Bills," which had expanded into a trio as the Tallymen and released a single on Infinity Records before breaking up when members were drafted. Vargo had been in the group Saints Three. Ellickson was a then-recent graduate of the Evanston Hospital of Nursing in Illinois who had moved to San Francisco and become interested in folk music.

The Town Criers naturally played their first dates at the Drinking Gourd, but they soon expanded to appearances around the San Francisco Bay Area, eventually extending to bookings in Portland, OR, Reno, NV, and Hawaii.
Selected Discography