SHORT TAKES : Folk Songs Honor Cafe Owner

Some top performers of the folk music boom returned to the Caffe Lena to play a few tunes in memory of the owner of the coffeehouse that helped launch their careers.

The memorial Sunday included performances by Loudon Wainwright III, Rosalie Sorrells, David Bromberg and Dave Van Ronk.

The music was filmed for a documentary about the folk music shrine and its founder, Lena Spencer, who died Oct. 23 at age 66 of injuries received in a fall.

The one-hour documentary for the BBC and PBS will memorialize a “driving force in folk music,” director Stephen Trombley said. The Upstate New York coffeehouse helped launch Bob Dylan’s career and featured Arlo Guthrie, Don McLean and Pete Seeger.