Richard Fariña (1937-66) was an active member of the Greenwich Village folk scene in the late fifties and early sixties and was briefly married to folk singer Carolyn Hester. They divorced after Fariña became involved with Joan Baez’s teenage sister Mimi. The two married in 1963 and their debut album, Celebrations For A Grey Day, was released on Vanguard in 1965, followed by their second and final album, Reflections In A Crystal Wind.

With Richard playing dulcimer and Mimi autoharp, their voices sounded very natural together. Mimi’s was like an earthier version of Joan’s with Richard’s tenor blending perfectly.

Their music obviously had great potential, but on April 30th, 1966, on Mimi's 21st birthday, and two days after the publication of Richard’s novel Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me, he hitched a ride on the back of a friend’s motorbike. It crashed, allegedly at 90 mph, and Richard was thrown off the back, dying instantly.

Birmingham Sunday

On Sunday, September 15, 1963, members of a Ku Klux Klan group in Birmingham, Alabama, unhappy with the laws aimed at ending segregation of the races, bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church, causing the death of four young girls. Ironically the incident was a turning point in the struggle for civil rights increased support for civil rights and contributed to support for passage of civil rights legislation in 1964.

The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church had been a rallying point for civil-rights activities through the spring of 1963. Bobby Frank Cherry, Thomas Blanton, Herman Cash, and Robert Chambliss ("Dynamite Bob") members of a Ku Klux Klan group, planted 122 sticks of dynamite with a delayed-time release outside the basement of the church. It exploded at t10:22 a.m., when twenty-six children were walking into the basement assembly room for closing prayers of a sermon entitled “The Love That Forgives.” Four girls were killed in the blast: Addie Mae Collins (14), Denise McNair (11), Carole Robertson (14), and Cynthia Wesley (14), and 22 others were injured.

Richard Fariña wrote this song in the aftermath of the event, using the tune of the traditional song, The False Bride, and it was recorded by his sister-in-law, Joan Baez. Interestingly, he included one of the verses of the original song.

[Information adapted from Wikipedia]

Here is my rendition of the song and here are the lyrics.

Children of Darkness

This was the closing track of Richard and Mimi's second and final album, Reflections In A Crystal Wind. Wikipedia describes it as "a stunning ballad which features possibly the couple’s greatest vocal interplay."

Here is my cover of the song and here are the lyrics.

Pack Up Your Sorrows (co-written with Pauline Marden)

At the time of his death, Richard Fariña was producing an album for his sister-in-law, Joan Baez, which was never released. One of the songs, released as a single in 1966, was a cover of "Pack up Your Sorrows", which he co-wrote with another of Joan's sisters, Pauline Marden. This song and Birmingham Sunday are Fariña's two most successful songs.

Here are Richard and Mimi singing the song on Pete Seeger's "Rainbow Quest" and here is Mimi singing it with Joan Baez. It has also been recorded by Judy Collins, Peter, Paul and Mary and Johnny Cash with June Carter.

And here is my rendition. You can also see the words.