'60s songster Erik Darling dies at 74

Erik Darling, the singer-songwriter who stepped in when Pete Seeger left the Weavers, has died at 74 of lymphoma in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Best known for his 1960s pop hit Walk Right In and his arrangement of the iconic true-crime ballad Tom Dooley, Darling spent four years in the late 1950s and early '60s with the Weavers. The celebrated group was at the heart of the post-Second World War folk resurgence.

A master of the banjo and a virtuoso on the 12-string guitar, he recorded numerous albums with the Weavers and several other groups and released five solo albums. His music — and occasionally Darling himself — also appeared in several films, including Forrest Gump and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and on television.

With the Weavers, Darling was more than just a substitute for Seeger, who left the group to start a solo career.

"Pete never swung the way Erik could swing," Fred Hellerman, one of the original Weavers, told the Washington Post on Wednesday. "His banjo could take command and carry everybody along with it."

Hellerman said Darling left the group in 1962 because he "felt at odds with some of our political stances. There was no pressure, but he was reading Ayn Rand and had a libertarian streak."

The Weavers came under political pressure because of their protest songs and were blacklisted in the 1950s during the McCarthy era.

After leaving the Weavers, Darling formed the Rooftop Singers, in which he led a 12-string guitar revival with his updated version of Walk Right In, written and originally recorded in 1929 by Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers. The song was Darling's biggest commercial hit.

Hellerman told the Associated Press that he received a package from Darling in the mail a few weeks ago. It was a copy of Darling's recently published memoir, I'd Give My Life: A Journey by Folk Music.

Hellerman said he'd been meaning to write to Darling to tell him how much he enjoyed the book.

"My biggest regret is that I didn't do it," he said.

With files from the Associated Press  

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