Eddie Holstein performs for the Lake County Folk Club May 15

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Eddie Holstein | Photo by Bob Kuzma

Updated: November 24, 2011 2:59AM

“I love playing now more than ever before,” said Eddie Holstein, 64, of Chicago. “It’s a lot easier.  I’m not a young guy thinking about a career, as opposed to just being on stage and having a good time. And I’m looking to do more of this.”

Holstein performs a concert May 15 for the Lake County Folk Club series, at Alek’s Restaurant in Lake Bluff. Opening act will be The Pickin’ Bubs.

Holstein has been part of the folk music scene in Chicago for decades. While not a prolific songwriter, Holstein has had significant success with several of his originals. “Jazzman” was included on a gold album by Pure Prairie League, and his songs have been covered by Bette Midler, Tom Rush, Bonnie Koloc, Steve Goodman, Chad Mitchell, and Martin Simpson.  Holstein has released one album, a very well-received self-titled debut issued in 2008. 

Variety show

For his upcoming show, he said, “I’ll tell stories, play some blues guitar and ragtime, try to do a variety of songs. I’ll do ‘Jazzman’ for sure. You know, I haven’t written a song since 1969. I’ve never thought of myself as a songwriter. What I mostly did was arrange songs, to make them more interesting to me. I think of myself more of an entertainer than anything else, and I enjoy it more than anything else. My interest in folk music is more toward entertainment than toward scholarly pursuits.”

Holstein is the younger brother of the late Fred Holstein, and was involved in the operation of several folk clubs in Chicago (Somebody Else’s Troubles, Holstein’s). Holstein has lived, worked, and played music in Chicago his whole life, watching the scene change over the years.

Changed times

“Back then, If you worked with Bonnie Koloc, you might (get a run of) four weeks, five days a week, three shows a night. That‘s the only thing I feel bad for young people today, they don‘t have that (kind of) opportunity,” he said. “We had a tremendous amount of fun at the clubs years ago, but it was a saloon climate with booze served, so sometimes hard to work those audiences, but that also made you a good performer.  This gave it its uniqueness, unlike coffeehouses on the east coast. You had to have a little more, and more of a battle (to perform). The clubs had charm, high energy with waitresses running around, the guys behind the bar ringing stuff up.” 

Brotherly inspiration

Holstein discovered folk music early.

“My mom liked music, she liked Al Jolson, some country and western, but not a lot of records in the house, not a lot of music in the house,” he said. “It started with Fred, he came to it. Freddy started buying records so then I wanted to buy records, first at an appliance store at 79th and Langley. This was like ’52 or ’53. Guy Mitchell records and pop records basically. Then there was a big record store that opened by a wonderful guy named George Silo, who turned us onto Bob Gibson and we started to listen to folk music. So we came to music very early on. Very few of our contemporaries were aware of the music that we were aware of. We bought records every week with our allowance.”

Holstein had praise for the Old Town School, where he teaches an advanced guitar class called “Guitar Forever” that focuses on fingerstyle guitar and arranging songs. 

“The Old Town School hasn’t changed essentially, no matter what the size is,” he said. “It’s still open to all people, a ‘classless society’ in a sense. A 16 year-old kid can be next to a chief surgeon on a Saturday.”

Meanwhile, he’s busy, and not planning to record any time soon. “When I’m 70,” said Holstein, “maybe I’ll do another one.”