Frank Hamilton

Who is Frank Hamilton?

Frank Hamilton is an American folk musician and co-founder of the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, Illinois. As a performer, he has recorded for Folkways Records and, as a member of the folk group The Weavers, for Vanguard Records, as well as for Philips and several other labels and appeared at the first Newport Folk Festival in 1959. He was the house musician for The Gate of Horn in Chicago, the nation's first folk music nightclub. He was also a member of The Weavers in the early 1960s.

As a young man, Hamilton met and played with Woody Guthrie at Will Geer's artist colony in Topanga, California in the mid-1950s. In 1956 Frank Hamilton met Win Stracke and Dawn Greening at the Gate of Horn. Using teaching methods he observed with Bess Lomax in Topanga Canyon, together, Win, Dawn and Frank founded the Old Town School Of Folk Music in Chicago. There they developed a teaching method with an emphasis on group learning. On the opening night, Frank taught the class a song demonstrated by Big Bill Broonzy. Frank served as dean of the school also teaching guitar and banjo. Among his students was Jim McGuinn, later known as Roger McGuinn, a founder of the BYRDS.