Mitch Greenhill

A native of greater Boston, Mitch Greenhill remains a little-known figure in folk music, performing on acoustic guitar and banjo while occasionally veering into country-blues territory. His father, the late promoter and manager Manny Greenhill, operated Folklore Productions, which handled folk and blues events across the Boston region for many years and actively nurtured Mitch’s interest in those styles. During his childhood in the Dorchester neighborhood, household visitors included Pete Seeger, Lightnin’ Hopkins, the Rev. Gary Davis, Cisco Houston, and Sonny Terry. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Greenhill appeared regularly on the Boston and Cambridge folk scene before relocating to California. Following Manny Greenhill’s death in 1996, Mitch assumed control of Folklore Productions and operated the business alongside his son Matthew. His own recording activity stayed infrequent: after issuing Pickin’ The City Blues and the instrumental Shepherd of the Highways on Prestige during the 1960s, he released Storm Coming on Bay in 1979 and Back Where We’ve Never Been on Bennett House in 1985. Fantasy combined the two Prestige titles on the CD Shepherd of the City Blues in April 2000.