Jeff Ampolsk (b. 1951)
Jeff Ampolsk was born in New Orleans and raised in Louisiana. As a young man he worked in the Louisiana shipyards. After two years of college, Ampolsk quit and began to write songs while supporting himself as a traveling mop salesman. "I know everything there is to know about mops and brooms," volunteered Ampolsk (liner notes to FW 05261). By the mid-1970s, Ampolsk was driving a cab in New York City, where he was introduced to the Broadside offices. Folkways released his first album as Broadside No.12 (FW 05250)
Jeff Ampolsk. Photo by Diana Davies.
Best of Broadside: 69. "Brown Water and Blood"
On October 1976, a Louisiana state-run ferry, the George Prince, was broadsided on the Mississippi River by the Frosta, a Norwegian tanker, killing 77 passengers (not the 64 in the song lyrics). The accident was attributed to either fatigue or intoxication on the part of the captain.
Text and quote extracted from the notes by Jeff Place accompanying The Best of Broadside.