Tracy Schwarz, the last surviving member of the New Lost City Ramblers, an influential folk trio, died on March 29 in Elkins, W.Va. He was 86.
The New Lost City Ramblers were formed in New York in 1958 and performed at the first Newport Folk Festival the next year. They were influenced by traditional string bands from southern Appalachia and the back roads of the South in the 1920s and ’30s.
Tracy Schwarz joined the Ramblers with Mike Seeger and John Cohen in 1962 and continued to tour and record throughout the 1960s. He also joined Seeger in a side project, the Strange Creek Singers, and recorded with Dewey Balfa, a noted Cajun fiddler.
In the late 1970s, Schwarz toured and recorded with his wife Eloise and their son Peter as Tracy’s Family Band. The Ramblers disbanded in 1979 but occasionally reunited and earned two Grammy nominations.
In addition to his wife Virginia Hawker, Schwarz is survived by their son Peter, another son Robert, a daughter Sallyann Koontz, a sister Natalie Lowell, and three grandchildren.
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