Folk music icon Erik Darling passed away peacefully on August 3, 2008 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina at the age of 74. The cause of death was lymphoma. He was born on September 25, 1933 in Baltimore and was raised in Canandaigua, New York. Although Darling achieved some degree of fame for his solo recordings and as an accompanist for other folk artists, it was as a member of three of the top folk groups of the fifties and sixties that he was best known. He founded The Tarriers with Academy Award winner Alan Arkin (“Little Miss Sunshine”) and Bob Carey, and had a top-10 hit with “The Banana Boat Song” in 1956. The Tarriers appeared in a movie (“Calypso Heat Wave” with Maya Angelou) and made numerous TV appearances, the first being on the Ed Sullivan show.
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