I never met Allan Shaw but we have spoken on the phone a couple of times. Always seemed a nice man. I bought some good stuff from him over the years and admired his dedication to the folk period.

My last contact with him was via Tom Guard, a couple of years ago I seem to recall.

Rick Daly had asked me to send him the All Along The Merrimac album that featured Dave Guard and others so that he could post it with his music clips. This record was part of the first order that I made with Allan's company in the late 1990s. I suspect, but never confirmed, that four of the tracks on the album were from the recordings that Dave did with The Modern Folk Quartet around 1978 that were subsequently turned-down by Capitol Records.

I thought it best to check with Allan first as he owned the rights to it. I was not able to find a current phone number for Allan so Tom Guard was able to help me out by contacting him directly.

Tom told me that Allan was delighted to think that there were people who still wanted to hear his stuff these days and was happy to give his permission.

So I sent the album to Rick and heard no more from him. It was before he passed, but he may not have been well enough to process it by then.

Allan really did a lot to keep The Folk Era alive.