Barbara Anne, you may already know her

Published 3:30 am Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Local folksinger keeps her music alive

You may have seen your neighbors wearing her merch or your favorite local wine bar promoting her shows.

Barbara Anne Gaidosh, better known as Barbara Anne, is a local star. The Knappa-based artist is well-connected in Clatsop County and is most recognized for playing folk music along the West Coast. She’s also known for her leadership in the local 4-H photography and art club.

Gaidosh performs almost everyday, most often at Astoria’s WineKraft. Her carefully planned setlists are a good mix of original songs and “Barbified” covers of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and The Eagles.

Gaidosh closes many of her shows with Dylan’s “Blowin’ In The Wind.” “And I always say, it’s just as appropriate today as in 1968 when I was (first) singing it,” Gaidhosh said.

Early life

Gaidosh was born in Crabtree, Oregon and grew up in the Corvallis/Albany area. She came from a strong Czechoslovakian family, playing polkas and waltzes on her accordion. Her father was a meat cutter and she worked alongside him as a meat wrapper at the local Safeway. Gaidosh didn’t love playing the accordion, leaving a music career completely off her radar.

Gaidosh took a piano class at Mt. Angel Catholic College in the mid-60s, but she didn’t love the piano, either. However, her roommate played the guitar, and Gaidosh fell in love with finger-picking, a method used by a good many folk musicians.

She bought a nice Martin D18 guitar and taught herself folk songs, developing her own style along the way. “I want to say the first one I learned probably was ‘500 Miles,’” she said. “Because it was only three chords.”

Just a 45-minute drive from Salem, Gaidosh snuck into the city on the weekends to play at the coffee house in the downstairs of the Episcopal church. She’s still good friends with the man who ran the venue, Ray Melvin.

Not long after, Gaidosh quit school to pursue music full time, to her parents’ chagrin. She performed solo shows in coffee houses all over the Pacific Northwest. “For almost two years, I would start in Portland and end up in Ashland, every night at a different coffee house,” she said. “Just me. I was doing it for a living.”

Beyond the coffee house

It was the late 1960s by that point, and folk music was in its heyday. So was Gaidosh, then in her mid-20s. She was the quintessential folk singer, travelling from show to show (and sometimes sleeping) in her yellow Volkswagen van decked out in flowers.

Gaidosh started to play some bigger venues, including folk festivals and Vietnam War protests across the Pacific Northwest. She still plays at these types of events. “I’m not protesting as much as I’m playing to keep the people together,” she said.

“One of the things I say usually in the first set (of my shows) is, ‘You guys, you’re here tonight to have a good time. You’re here to have fun. We’re not gonna talk about politics. We’re not gonna talk about religion. We’re just gonna have a good time.’”

In her early career, Gaidosh was picked up by a couple of different music agencies, one of which was the Seattle-based Jack Belmont Music Agency.

The agency sent Gaidosh and four other musicians to Hawaii to perform in a country rock band for six weeks. They played every night from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. at a big hotel, but when their time was up, Gaidosh was asked to stay… as a solo act, fulfilling an iconic show-biz trope.

Domestic life

After seven years in Hawaii, Gaidosh missed home. “Hawaii, it was interesting being there, but it’s like a resort,” said Gaidosh. “I never felt comfortable at Christmas because they ship all their trees in. It’s just different and I missed it here.”

She moved back to the West Coast. By then, Gaidosh was doing it all, playing her shows and raising two girls from previous marriages. She was about to move to Los Angeles for a record opportunity when her life came to a screeching halt.

Gaidosh was diagnosed with a brain tumor, an acoustic neuroma. She cancelled a few jobs, thinking she would take a short pause from her music so she could get the surgery she needed. But after the surgery, Gaidosh was in a lot of discomfort and developed a 105 degree fever. Her nose wouldn’t stop dripping, and her head hurt horribly.

“My husband at the time called the neurosurgeon, told him what was going on, and he screamed at him, ‘get her back here right away!’” said Gaidosh. “I almost died.”

It was spinal meningitis. Following a serious scare, she made it through, but without hearing in her left ear. That’s when Gaidosh decided to live a more stable, consistent life with her daughters.

After hearing about the Oregon Department of Forestry, she went back to school for a year and earned her associate degree, paving the way for her 28-year career as a fire dispatch coordinator.

Over the years, Gaidosh experienced love’s highs and lows, falling in love with and marrying five men along the way. According to Gaidosh, her last husband Clyde Gaidosh, a Vietnam veteran, was an absolute sweetheart. He passed away about 11 years ago but her love for him lives on. Gaidosh said, if not for him, she might not have revived her music career.

“He had said: you need to go back to music,” she said. “And I thought he was crazy.”

A second wind

After her husband passed, Gaidosh heeded his advice and played shows about four days a week. This time, she had two grown daughters and eight grandchildren supporting her every step of the way.

Gaidosh has passed along her musical gifts to her grandkids. Her 15-year-old grandson plays the drums and harmonizes with Gaidosh. He’s also been quite the helpful roadie these last few years, she said. One of her older grandsons, also a drummer, plays with her, too, despite their different genres of choice: hers folk, and his punk.

It was family and music that helped Gaidosh fight, and ultimately beat, the bout of colon cancer she came up against about six years ago. Her colon withstood two tumors and invasive treatments to the amazement of Gaidosh and her doctors. “That’s music,” she said. “It’s a pretty strong healer.

“Music is peace to everybody. Even Trump, if he would sit down and just listen to something, I think it might give him some peace.”

Gaidosh spreads the healing powers of her music to the people she meets at her shows. She spends her set breaks talking to people in her audiences, be they loyal listeners or visiting strangers. “(The young people) can’t believe it when I tell them about the coffee houses with no alcohol,” Gaidosh said, smiling. “And I said, well we had good coffee, and I guess there were other things.”

Gaidosh has had several seemingly fated moments with strangers in her audiences, moments when she was called to mentor or solace young people through difficult times.

“That’s why I’m still here,” she said.

What’s next for Barbara Anne

Having lived in Clatsop County for over two decades now, Gaidosh is working on a project for the community she adores (and is likely adored by). Inspired by fond experiences at events like the Sisters and Spokane folk festivals, she’s been organizing the North Coast Folk Festival for over a year now.

She’s ready to spread the word about her big project. Twenty musicians will perform across Astoria for the first three days this May. More information is available at NorthCoastFolkFestival.com.

In addition to organizing and working on the festival, Gaidosh stays busy playing shows four to five days a week. Committed to her craft, she dedicates three to four hours a day to singing and playing the guitar.

Gaidosh is also working on a new CD, so if you see her around, she may have her pen and pad with her, ready to jot down the poetry she conceives as she notices beauty in nature and the people she meets.