[78-L] Okay, now THIS makes me feel ancient

[David Lennick]

And he wasn't even an original member.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110410/ap_en_ot/us_obit_gil_robbins

LOS ANGELES – Gil Robbins, a folk singer, guitarist and member of the early 
1960s group the Highwaymen, has died. He was 80.

Robbins died Tuesday at his home in Esteban Cantu, Mexico, Tracey Jacobs said 
Saturday night in an email to The Associated Press. Jacobs is a publicist for 
Robbins' son, the actor and director Tim Robbins.

Shortly before Gil Robbins joined the Highwaymen, the group had a major hit 
with "Michael," its version of "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore." When Robbins 
joined in 1962, he took the group in a more political direction, playing and 
singing baritone on five albums until their 1964 breakup. (A country music 
supergroup with Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash later shared the same name.)

Tim Robbins, star of "The Shawshank Redemption and director of "Dead Man 
Walking," said in a statement to the AP that Gil Robbins was "a fantastic 
father," "a great musician" and "a man of unshakeable integrity."

"His commitment to social justice was evident to us from an early age, as was 
his infectious mischievous sense of humor," Tim Robbins said. "His passing has 
created great sadness for all of us and our mother but we take comfort in 
knowing that the angels will soon be soothed by the songs coming from his 
beautiful baritone voice."

Father and son worked together on the 1992 film "Bob Roberts." Tim Robbins 
directed and played the title role of a right-wing, folk-singing U.S. Senate 
candidate from Pennsylvania. The actor's brother David Robbins wrote and 
recorded the film's ultra-conservative folk songs, and Gil Robbins was listed 
in the credits as a vocal coach and choral consultant.

Robbins was born in Spokane, Wash., and raised in Southern California, where he 
studied music at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Before joining the Highwaymen, he was already a well-known musician in the folk 
scene that surrounded New York's Greenwich Village as a member of the 
Cumberland Three and the Belafonte Singers, and as a friend to famous folkies 
like John Stewart and Dave Van Ronk, according to The New York Times, which 
first reported his death.

After the Highwaymen, Robbins managed the Gaslight Club on Greenwich Village's 
famously musical MacDougal Street.

dl