Diane Hamilton
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Diane Hamiltonwas the pseudonym ofDiane Guggenheim(1924 – 1991), an American mining heiress,folksongpatron and founder ofTradition Records.
Personal life
[edit]The only child of millionaireHarry Frank Guggenheim,president ofNewsdayand onetime U. S. ambassador to Cuba, and his second wife, Caroline Morton (formerly Mrs William Chapman Potter), Hamilton was born as Diana Guggenheim inNew York City,New York,United States. She had two half-sisters, Joan (born 1913) and Nancy (1915–1972), from her father's first marriage to Helen Rosenberg.
Her maternal grandfather wasPaul Morton,U. S. Secretary of the Navy, while her maternal great-grandfather wasJulius Sterling Morton,U. S. Secretary of Agriculture.
She was married and divorced four times:
- LieutenantJohn Meredith Langstaff,a U. S. Army officer and aspiring concert singer, married 1943. They had one child, Diane Carol Langstaff (Mrs Peter Duveneck, Mrs Jim Rooney).
- Robert Guillard.
- William Meek, an Irish journalist, whom she married in 1963. They had four children: Eoin Meek, Colm Meek, Sorcha Meek, and Caitriona Meek.
- John Darby Stolt, aka John Hamilton-Darby
Career
[edit]Little is known of Hamilton's life, and only since the publication of the bookThe Mountain of the Women: Memoirs of an Irish TroubadourbyLiam Clancy[1]has it been possible to reconstruct her most notable years. In order to disguise her wealth, she adopted the alias 'Diane Hamilton'.
She lived inFlorence,Italy, in the late 1950s, where she ran aMontessorischool and frequented workshops led byDr. Roberto Assagioli.
In 1955, she traveled toIrelandin search offolk singers.According to Liam Clancy's book, she became acquainted with Tom and Paddy Clancy in New York, and while in Ireland made the Clancy household one of the stops on her collecting trip. Young Liam was invited to continue on the trip with her, and one of the next stops was the home ofSarah Makemwho had previously been recorded byJean Ritchieon her albumField Trip(1954). This fateful meeting brought together Liam and Sarah's younger son,Tommy Makem,who was also recorded. These two, along with Liam's older brothers Paddy and Tom Clancy, would eventually form "The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem",one of the most successful groups in Irish music history.
The anthology Hamilton recorded in 1955 asThe Lark in the Morningis the earliest album-length collection of Irish folk songs sung by Irish singers to be recorded in Ireland. Also on the album arePaddy TunneyandTommy Makem,son of Sarah Makem. This album was re-released in a restored format in the late 1990s on theRykodisclabel.
Tradition Records
[edit]Another member of the Clancy family,Paddy Clancy,helped Hamilton runTradition Recordsas the company's president.The Lark in the Morningwas the first album released on the Tradition label in 1955. Subsequent releases includedThe Rising of the MoonbyThe Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem,andThe Countess CathleenbyW. B. Yeatsin 1956. Other notable recordings includeNegro Prison songs,a compilation byAlan LomaxandThe Bonny Bunch of RoseswithSeamus Ennis.Other Tradition artists includedEd McCurdy,Odetta,Paul Clayton,Jean Ritchie,Lightnin' HopkinsandEtta Baker.In 1959 the label releasedJohn Langstaff Sings American and English Ballads,featuring her then-current husband singing and Nancy Trowbridge (who later became Langstaff's second wife) on piano. The album was re-released by Revels Records in 2002 asThe Water Is Wide: American and British Ballads and Folksongs.Once the Clancy Brothers signed with Columbia Records in 1961, the catalogue was sold, possibly to Transatlantic.
In the 1970s, Hamilton was involved in the founding of the Mulligan record label, in Dublin. She may have regardedDónal Lunnyas the successor to Liam Clancy as the next standard-bearer of the authentic Irish traditional music heritage.
A passing reference to Hamilton in a California folk music magazine suggests that she was still active in Irish music as late as the early 1980s. The November/December 1982 issue ofFolk Scene(Los Angeles) credits her with "the lion's share of the work" for the recording, in 1977, of the albumThe Gathering—released on the label Greenhays in 1981—which features the playing ofAndy Irvine,Paul Brady,Dónal Lunny,Matt Molloy,Tommy Potts,Tríona Ní Dhomhnailland uilleann piper Peter Browne.[2]
Notes
[edit]- ^Clancy, Liam (2002).The Mountain of the Women: Memoirs of an Irish Troubadour.New York: Doubleday.ISBN0385502044.
- ^Folk Scene,Los Angeles, CA, November–December 1982, Vol. 10, #5, p. 14.
References
[edit]- Clancy, Liam (2002).The Mountain of the Women: Memoirs of an Irish Troubadour.Random House.p. 294.ISBN0-385-50534-5.
- Coltman, Bob (2008).Paul Clayton and the Folksong Revival.Scarecrow Press. pp.297.ISBN978-0-8108-6132-9.
- Makem, Tommy (1997).Tommy Makem's Secret Ireland.St Martin's Press.pp.200.ISBN0-312-15675-8.