From left: Happy Traum, Artie Traum, and Ed Renehan performing in Albany at The Linda WAMC's Performing Arts Studio on March 26, 2008. Photo by Jane Traum.
Born and raised in the Bronx, Traum became a part of the Greenwich Village folk music scene in the late 1950s. Early on, Traum co-wrote songs for the Brian De Palma debut film Greetings – the first role for Robert De Niro – with Eric Kaz and Bear.
1969 saw Traum joining forces with his brother Happy Traum in a duo. Their self-titled debut album, Happy & Artie Traum (Capitol Records) was cited by the New York Times as "one of the best records in any field of pop music." The Traums were managed by Albert Grossman (manager of The Band, Dylan, Janis Joplin, etc.). The duo performed at the 1969 Newport Folk Festival on stage with James Taylor, Kris Kristofferson and Joni Mitchell.
In November 1971, both Artie and Happy Traum (together with Bob Dylan, David Amram, and others) participated in an extended Record Plant (NYC) session backing up Allen Ginsberg in various songs and chants. Ginsberg wrote the liner notes for the duo's Hard Times in the Country LP. Reviewing the LP in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "If you're a sucker for folkie nonsense—ramblin' mythopoeia, articulated sentiment, purty tunes—you might as well buy it from real folkies on a real, struggling folkie label. Bonus: 'Gambler's Song,' Artie's uncharacteristically ironic tale of anomie, which ought to be recorded by somebody who'll get it heard."[1]
During the 1970s and 1980s, Artie Traum produced The Woodstock Mountains Revue featuring himself, his brother Happy, Roly Salley Pat Alger, John Sebastian, Arlen Roth, Maria Muldaur, Rory Block, Eric Andersen, Paul Butterfield and Paul Siebel. In the mid-1980s Traum teamed up with singer/songwriter Pat Alger (Thunder Rolls, Unanswered Prayers). The duo recorded the album From The Heart. Traum released his first solo album, Life on Earth, in 1977 on Rounder Records.[2]
Traum's 1994 release – the jazz project Letters From Joubee – captured #1 on the Smooth Jazz Radio Charts (Gavin AA chart). In 1999 his Meetings With Remarkable Friends – which included tracks featuring Traum playing with The Band, Bela Fleck, Jay Ungar, and other notables – received the Best Acoustic Instrumental Album award from the NAV.
In 2003, Traum released a singer/songwriter project, South of Lafayette, which was featured on NPR's "All Things Considered". In 2007 Traum released the album Thief of Time.
During recent years, Traum enjoyed a small side career as a documentary filmmaker. In 2002, his film Deep Water: Building the Catskill Water System (co-produced and co-directed with Tobe Carey and Robbie Dupree) was featured at the Woodstock Film Festival. Two years later, in 2004, Traum co-produced Hudson River Journeys: A Celebration of America's First River for WMHT Public Television. The latter film featured artist Len Tantillo and folksinger Pete Seeger.
Traum also wrote numerous guitar instruction books, and hosted many video productions for his brother Happy's Homespun Music Instruction. Traum lived with his wife Beverly in Bearsville, New York, just outside Woodstock. At the time of his death, Traum had been at work on a memoir. Traum died of ocular cancer on July 20, 2008, at Bearsville, aged 65.[3][4]
1968: Bear – Greetings, Children Of Paradise (Verve Forecast) – track 1, "Greetings!" (co-written with Eric Kaz, Michael Soles, and Steve Soles); track 5, "What Difference" (co-written with Marc Silber); track 10, "The Hungry Days Of New Mexico"
