Jim and Jean's Reunion Show, March 18, 2006

Brian Elliot

I contacted Jim online and he gave me his phone number and I had quite a few real nice conversations with him. He has a lot of interesting stories about rooming with Phil Oches and of when he was in Dallas and saw Kennedy get shot. I have an old video of Jim and Jean playing at (I Think) Folk City in New York City. He was excited about that and I sent him a copy. He sent me a copy of a new CD he had just done.

I was reading an interview with Christopher Guest who had just done "A Mighty Wind". The interviewer asked him if the characters in the movie, Mitch & Mickey, were fashioned after Ian & Sylvia. Guest said a little but mostly after a more hip duo from the 60's called Jim and Jean. I called Jim Glover and told him what Christopher Guest had said. Jim was surprised and found it very interesting. I told him that after that interview came out a few of my friends were asking me if I knew anything about Jim and Jean. I have all 3 of the albums they did plus a single that has a flip side that wasn't on any of the albums. I told Jim that he should capitalize on that interview and do a Jim and Jean reunion concert. Jim said "Oh I don't know about that. I live in Florida and Jean lives in California. We haven't seen each other in years. I doubt if she would be interested". I told him that it was a thought. Jim called me back about a week later and said "Guess what? I called Jean and she wants to do it. She won't do a tour but she'll do one show. We are going to do it in New York City. It's a big place where there will be a lot of exposure and since you live there you can be there too".

I hooked Jim up with a guy to professionally video tape the show and Jim found someone to record the audio of the show. Jim placed a few ads in some local entertainment papers and I called some college radio stations in New York who play that sort of music and told them. A few of the disc jockeys were excited and promised to mention it on their show. I asked Jim if they could do the song "Crucifixtion". He said that he didn't know about that one. He said that's a tough one. They had a real good turn out. They almost filled the place. I was a little disappointed that Christopher Guest didn't show up. He lives in New York City. The opening act was Vince Martin, who uses to record with Fred Neil. He was good.

Jim and Jean didn't have a back-up band. Jim just played acoustic guitar and they both sang. Jean had broken her wrist and it was in a cast so she couldn't play piano or guitar. They sounded real good. About half way through the show Jim turned to Jean and said that he wanted to do a song alone. he told her that it was one they didn't rehearse, but said, "Brian asked me if I would do this song". She said "Ok, but just one". Then Jim said to the audience that he was going to do a special request for his friend Brian. Then he said "Brian where are you"? I yelled "Here". He did "Crucifixtion". The audience loved it.

I had smuggled in my cassette walkman that records and sat next to the P.A. speaker. It came out pretty good but about a month later Jim sent me a copy of the tape he made off of the P.A. board. I brought my 3 Jim and Jean albums to get autographed. These albums created a lot of interest. One thing I noticed was that when they took an intermission in the middle of the show Jim hung out in the front of the place and Jean hung out in the back. I never saw them talk to each other off stage. I then remembered that they were married once. Maybe they had a bad break-up and weren't quite over it. I asked Jean if they were going to record again or do any more shows. She said that there will be no recording but Arlo Guthire called them when he heard about the show and asked them to come and perform in a club he owns. She said that since they were on the East Coast they might do that the following week.

A while back I contacted Jack Linkletter (Art's son) to see if there were any videos from the old TV show "Hootenanny" that he hosted. I was hoping to find the show that Jim and Jean were on. He said that he hadn't seen any but somebody told him that the University of California had some episodes of the show on video archived away somewhere. He never went to check it out but was surprised that I remembered the show and said that he has real fond memories of doing that show.

Thanks Brian for the wonderful photos and text! A great addition! Little did we know this would be the last time we'd see Jean.

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