John Byrne Cooke was an award-winning writer, a photographer and musician with more than forty years of experience in each of these arts, an actor who has appeared in eleven stage productions over the past six years, and a narrator with experience ranging from voice-over film narration to audio books to live performances with the Grand Teton Music Festival.
WRITING
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ON THE ROADwithJanis JoplinBerkley BooksBuy the new paperback edition at: |
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MUSIC
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John was a member of the Cambridge, Mass., bluegrass and old-time band the Charles River Valley Boys during the folk boom. Later in the 60s, he was road manager for Big Brother & the Holding Company and Janis Joplin. John lived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming from 1982 until he passed away in September 2017 where he performed more than 400 times with the legendary Stagecoach Band and appeared for over ten years at the Jackson Hole Hootenanny. |
PHOTOGRAPHY
As a musician and rock road-manager in the 60s, John was taking pictures the whole time. His subjects span the transition from folk music to rock, including Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, traditional musicians like Doc Watson, Bill Monroe, Mississippi John Hurt, and many more. |
Bob Dylan, 1964 |
ACTING and NARRATION
John has played characters ranging in age from eleven to eighty, in roles as different as Virgil Blessing, the older cowboy in William Inge's "Bus Stop," and Senex, a lecherous Roman, in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." Go to top of page |
Klaus Stansdorff, Gestapo spy "The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940" |