Mark Spoelstra, the singer-songwriter who was a contemporary of and performed with Bob Dylan in the early 1960s, died Sunday of pancreatic cancer at home in Pioneer, California. The two folksingers began a friendship in 1961 and performed together in coffeehouses in New York’s Greenwich Village. Dylan mentions their friendship in his Chronicles, Vol 1 and Spoelstra is included in Scorcese’s Dylan doc No Direction Home. Spoelstra recorded traditional folk and blues for Folkways Records and later antiwar songs for Elektra. He also wrote music pieces for Broadside magazine. (LA Times)



(Pics: Spoelstra with Dylan in the ’60s)