Who Rocked The Riverboat? (But Did Not Tip It Over?)
A young folk singer named Joni Anderson asked Bernie Fielder in the spring of '65 about working at the Riverboat, to which Fielder offered her a job - be it in the kitchen instead. That girl would then meet a star folk singer from Detroit named Chuck Mitchell who she travelled to the US with to play gigs and also married him along the way. Although the marriage didn't last, the folk career of Joni Mitchell took off and she would eventually play whichever coffee house she pleased - including the Riverboat in 1967 and onwards.
A folk group called Public Futilities which included a tall kid with a Beatles haircut named Neil Young played the venue on Monday nights. After this, Neil Young drove to California in a funeral hearse named "Mort" and found success with the band Buffalo Springfield. He would return in 1969 to play the Riverboat as a solo artist and recorded an album titled "Live at the Riverboat". Folk singer Phil Ochs also frequented the Riverboat, playing his unique brand of political protest songs.
Other frequent bands to play the Riverboat stage included 3's a Crowd, which were a Peter, Paul and Mary style trio who employed theatrical and comedic aspects to their act and who's lead singer Donna Warner was compared to Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick. Folk singer Bonnie Dobson, who began to get famous but then decided to get an education at York University and only sing part time, found herself back in the folk music scene in a two week engagement at the Riverboat in February of 1966. Different from the folk music usually heard at the venue, avant-garde vaudeville act The Dirty Shames enjoyed success at the venue with their jug band tunes played on unconventional instruments like the autoharp and washboard. Also, Fielder booked groups The Lovin' Spoonful and Simon and Garfunkel to his intimate space before they were world famous.
