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Pet Grajo sings at UP Beta Sigma Folkways'69 poster SoCal Frat Ball hospitality night (courtesy of: Benild Pires'64) Los Angeles, Calif., Sept. 2, 2006
"A HISTORY OF FOLKWAYS" by: Pet Grajo'60 (in 3-12-08 email to Prez Willie Vergara)
The group was first conceived when the fraternity started to do the Friday night "Harana" at the girls' dorms in Diliman during the '60's. When Boy Morales became GP in '63, we hatched a plan of presenting a big musical production. During that time, folksongs were becoming very popular. And thus the "Folkways" name came up, thought of by Brod Lito Imperio. Me, being an unwilling participant, tried to organize the group with a little pressure from Boy. With nobody else around, I asked Matti Castanos and Freddie de Leon to help me out. And as they say, the rest is history. Actually, our Folkways was the very first folk presentation in the Philippines. It was followed not far behind by Ateneo's "Bluegrass".
It wasn't really our idea to call the group the "Barstool Singers". As a matter of fact I hated the name. It was Art Galindes, our hired emcee for the show, that gave us that name since we could not come up with one at the time.
Folkways '64 came along and everything was hanky dorey. It was a big success. Freddie then left for the US. Me and Matti looked around for a replacement. Rene Evangelista came along. Didn't last long, being a very busy super athlete in the UP varsity. We looked around some more because "Folkways '65" was fast approaching. Enter Boy Concepcion. I thought this was the best time to get rid of the hated name of the group. So we changed the name to "The Kinsfolk", being that we are all brothers.
At this time, for some unknown reason, Matti didn't make it past "Folkways '65". But we were lucky enough to have Gilbert Joven hanging around. And he had a pretty good voice too. So we took him on board. And the picture that you were able to save was the last performance of the "infamous" Kinsfolk, aka Barstool Singers.
For the most part, this is the history of the UP Beta Sigma Barstool Singers (most of the brods remembered us by that name) that I cared or dared to remember.
Brod, I hope this satisfies your curiosity about our (I mean the fraternity's) folk singing group of the 60's.
In a way, brod, I am happy that you asked me about this because all these years I never really stopped to think about those days when we were young and carefree. Yet it made me feel good to go back to that time when our brotherhood meant so much to us. Honestly? Oh yes, I miss those days. Thanks, brod.
Fraternally,
Pet '60
The Kinsfolks: Brods Pet Grajo'60, Gilbert Joven'66 and Boy Concepcion'66
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