Week One: The Birth of the Folk Revival/ The Folk Revival in the Mid-to-Late 1950s

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1 TURN! TURN! TURN!: THE FOLK-ROCK REVOLUTION Jewish Community Center of San Francisco Week One: The Birth of the Folk Revival/ The Folk Revival in the Mid-to-Late 1950s Recommended Listening: The Almanac Singers, Which Side Are You On? (Rev-Ola, 2006). This compilation fits 31 songs by the first American political folk group onto one disc. Recorded in 1941 and 1942, their floating membership included Pete Seeger, fellow future Weaver Lee Hays, and Woody Guthrie. In addition to highly political (and leftist) songs like Talking Union, it has a good number of traditional tunes, like House of the Rising Sun. Some of the anti-war songs, such as Washington Breakdown, sound uncompromisingly critical of venerated government authorities like President Franklin Roosevelt even today. But these were muted when Hitler broke an anti-aggression pact with Stalin s Soviet Union in June 1941, and the US entered World War II after Pearl Harbor was bombed six months later. Harry Belafonte, Calypso (RCA, 1956). The album that made calypso a national (if temporary) craze, and was a huge seller in its time, topping the chart for an incredible 31 weeks. It can be argued whether this was the most authentic form of folk music, but it was many Americans first sustained exposure to sounds with traditional and ethnic origins. Its most famous track is the Top Five hit The Banana Boat Song, whose opening call Day-O is sampled at countless sporting events. Other well-known tunes include Jamaica Farewell and Man Smart (Woman Smarter). Belafonte had already topped the charts with his previous album, and would continue to make hit LPs for several years. But this was by far his most important and influential record, and the one most likely to show up in your parents record collections. The Carter Family, Greatest Hits (Fabulous, 2011). Possibly most respected act of the early days of folk music on record, for their vocal, instrumental, and songwriting skills. They also helped lay the foundation for country music, but at their outset were as rooted in the folk music of the South. They recorded so long and so voluminously that selecting a best-of is difficult, but generally the records from their earliest years are their most esteemed. Keep on the Sunny Side, Worried Man Blues, John Hardy, and Wabash Cannonball are among the folk and country music standards on this 17-song survey of their early work. Shirley Collins, Two Classic Albums Plus Bonus Tracks (Real Gone Music, 2012). Possibly the most revered British singer of the folk revival, Collins was also one of the few from the UK that started way back in the 1950s who would also be making critically acclaimed contemporary folk, and even a little folk-rock, into the 1970s. This combines her 1959 LP Sweet England and 1960 LP False True Lovers onto one CD, with bonus tracks from rare 1955 and 1960 compilation albums. Collins also played a role in the late-

2 50s US folk scene by accompanying folklorist Alan Lomax on his field trips recording folk music of many kinds throughout the American South. Barbara Dane, Anthology of American Folk Songs (Tradition, 1959). As with many performers in this class, picking one Barbara Dane album from a career spanning many records and many recordings is difficult. This one emphasizes the folk side of her repertoire, as the title makes obvious, with a lower, huskier, and earthier approach than most of the woman folk singers of the early folk revival. This includes some folk standards of the time like Nine Hundred Miles, Girl of Constant Sorrow, Gypsy Davy, and Greensleeves, along with some lesser known tunes. Lonnie Donegan, The Hit Collection (The Delta Music Group, 2011). As stilted as his hits can seem more than fifty years later, Lonnie Donegan was the British performer most responsible for bringing folk and blues to UK audiences, if in a rather stiff second-hand manner. His blend of folk and blues with a beat created skiffle, an influence on early British rock, particularly teenagers who started with skiffle before moving on to electric guitars. There are so many Donegan hit collections out there (virtually all from the UK, where he was a superstar before the Beatles) that it s disorienting. This 18-song one is cited only because its relatively recent release makes it one of the easier of these to find. It has the two singles that also became big US hits, the more prominent of these being Rock Island Line, the song that kicked off the skiffle craze in the UK in the mid-1950s. Ramblin Jack Elliott, Sings (77, 1957). Elliott s first album, actually a 10-song LP issued in the UK, documents the most renowned of the Woody Guthrie acolytes besides (and predating) Bob Dylan. These and other records he issued during an extended stay in the UK in the 1950s were especially influential on young British folk musicians. Elliott didn t change much from album to album, and this is pretty rare, so you will probably find it easier to access his 1959 album Ramblin Jack Elliott in London, which can be heard on Spotify. The Everly Brothers, Songs Our Daddy Taught Us (Rhino, 1958). A very early example, perhaps the first album-length one, of rock stars doing traditional folk material. It also illustrates that early rock n roll s ties to traditional folk roots were stronger than is commonly realized, especially with respect to vocal harmonies. The album isn t as exciting as it might sound from this description, with straightforward, reverent versions of country-folk songs from the generation preceding the Everly Brothers, such as Barbara Allen and That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine. The latter was played live by Simon & Garfunkel in the late 1960s, as heard on their Live 1969 album. Bob Gibson, Joy Joy! The Young and Wonderful Bob Gibson (Riverside, 1996). Gibson can sound kind of corny today, but from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, he was a key figure in making folk more lively and accessible to less purist listeners. This compilation of recordings has warhorses like This Train, John Henry, Take This Hammer, John Riley, and A Wayfaring Stranger.

3 Woody Guthrie, The Ultimate Collection (Not Now, 2007). No folk expert will be satisfied with the selection of just one Guthrie album, since he recorded so much, and recorded several different versions of many of his songs. This two-cd, 50-song compilation does have his most famous tunes, such as This Land Is Your Land, 1913 Massacre, So Long It s Been Good to Know You, Tom Joad, Do Re Mi, and Pastures of Plenty. The album that was most specifically influential on a young Bob Dylan around 1960 was Dust Bowl Ballads, which was recorded in 1940, and has been reissued on CD several times. The Kingston Trio, The Essential (Shout Factory, 2006). Two-CD, 40-song compilation spanning , including their late- 50s/early- 60s hits Tom Dooley, Tijuana Hail, M.TA., A Worried Man, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, and Reverend Mr. Black. There s even more (or less, depending on your view) essential stuff on the four-cd box The Capitol Years. Leadbelly, Best of (Cleopatra, 2000). Another guy with a dauntingly large discography. So why not be boring here and just pick a 20-song best of, especially as this includes what are by far his most famous songs: Goodnight Irene (made into a huge hit by the Weavers) and Where Did You Sleep Last Night? (covered by Nirvana). Although African-American, Leadbelly was as much folk as blues, and one of the most popular performers when folk started to develop an urban intellectual audience in the 1930s and 1940s. Fred McDowell, The First Recordings (Rounder, 1997). Of all the forms of American acoustic blues, the one most influential on the folk revival (and, for that matter, rock music) was the style associated with the Mississippi Delta. Quite a few bluesmen recorded in this style in the 1920s and 1930s. But Fred McDowell was the first to be recorded during the folk revival, when Alan Lomax discovered him in This and other recordings made at the time and shortly afterward made many aware both of the original Delta blues releases, and that other Delta blues performers were awaiting discovery and rediscovery. Bill Monroe, The Essential Bill Monroe (Columbia/Legacy, 1992). While bluegrass was not the purest and plainest of southern folk music, it was a notable component of the folk revival. Bill Monroe is considered the king of bluegrass, and this two-cd anthology has his most influential recordings from just after World War II, when bluegrass was in transition from being a commercial form of country music to a part of the folk scene. Blue Moon of Kentucky is the most famous song here, largely through being done by Elvis Presley on the B-side of his first single in The New Lost City Ramblers, The Early Years (Smithsonian Folkways, 1991). The New Lost City Ramblers were among the first, and certainly among the most renowned, young urban musicians (forming in New York) to play authentic-style oldtime folk music in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including Pete Seeger s half-brother Mike. Their facility at numerous instruments influenced many young musicians to master

4 more than one as well. This single-disc compilation collections 26 songs they recorded for the Folkways label in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Odetta, Sings Ballads and Blues (Tradition, 1956). Famed as the album more than any other that influenced a teenaged Bob Dylan to switch from rock to folk, Odetta straddled folk and blues on this gritty, basic recording featuring nothing but her guitar and vocals. Muleskinner Blues, If I Had a Ribbon Bow (later Fairport Convention s first single, though they based their version on someone else s), Another Man Done Gone, Jack O Diamonds, and Alabama Bound were all among the most well-trod songs of the folk revival, though there are some less familiar tunes here too. Her 1959 album My Eyes Have Seen is also of note, featuring as it does material that was later recorded by the Kinks and the Who (!) in the mid- 60s at the direction of their American producer, Shel Talmy. Jimmie Rodgers, The Essential (RCA, 1997). Another fellow with a huge discography whose fans would consider it a sin to recommend just one 20-song compilation. So join me, sinners, in starting with just this CD, of the Depression-era singer considered a father of country music, but one still rooted in the most downhome Southern folk. Mule Skinner Blues is his most famous song, others here including T for Texas, Frankie and Johnny, and In the Jailhouse Now. Jimmie Rodgers, The Best of (Rhino, 1990). Confusingly, this pop star of the late 1950s and early 1960s was no relation to the early country singer (who died in 1933) discussed in the above entry. This Jimmie Rodgers had hits blending folk with mild rockabilly, most notably an update of the Weavers Kisses Sweeter Than Wine. Not all of his hits had folk elements, and even those that did might sound contrived today, but there are enough such numbers here to make them worth noting in bringing a small part to bring rock and folk closer together. Peggy Seeger, Songs of Courting and Complaint (Smithsonian Folkways, 1955). Halfsister of Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger also got caught up in suspicions of being subversive to the US government during the mid-1950s. She moved to England, where she married another left-wing folk musician of note, UK-born Ewan MacColl. On this mid-1950s debut, she was already on her way to being a significant folk performer on a set of varied material of traditional origin, like The House Carpenter, which Bob Dylan recorded in 1961 during the sessions for his first album (but did not release until about thirty years later). As innocuously straightforward as this record sounds today, lines such as for I am tired and oh so weary of my virginity (from Whistle, Daughter, Whistle, the first song) would have been heard on few other albums in 1955, and few labels besides Folkways. Pete Seeger, If I Had a Hammer: Songs of Hope & Struggle (Smithsonian Folkways, 1998). While this doesn t have the best and most familiar versions of Seeger s songs (most of which are on Pete Seeger s Greatest Hits, included on next week s handout), these songs include many of the most noted socially conscious songs in his repertoire. Most of the tracks were recorded between the mid-1950s and early 1960s, when

5 Folkways was bold enough to issue Seeger records at a time when he was basically blacklisted from the mainstream entertainment industry. Among these are versions of If I Had a Hammer, Talking Union, Which Side Are You On?, We Shall Overcome, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, and Turn, Turn, Turn. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Folk Songs of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee (Wounded Bird, 1958). Although they were at heart a country-blues harmonica (Sonny Terry) and guitar (Brownie McGhee) duo, they were folksy enough to gain a lot of popularity on the folk circuit by the 1950s, and not just with the African-American audiences that comprised the blues main constituency. They recorded many records, and this might be one of the better choices since, to be brutal, the relatively large independent label Roulette offered better production facilities than another company they often recorded for, Folkways. The Weavers, The Best of the Decca Years (MCA, 1996). Critics have attacked the Weavers popular early- 50s recordings for their use of pop orchestration. But these were records that, more than any other prior to the Kingston Trio, brought folk to the mass pop audience, if in a somewhat diluted fashion. This includes some huge hits like Goodnight Irene, On Top of Old Smokey, Kisses Sweeter Than Wine, and Tzena Tzena Tzena. It shouldn t be overlooked that it also has some Woody Guthrie songs and standards that would become staples of the folk revival, like The Midnight Special, Rock Island Line, Wimoweh (reworked by the Tokens into the rock hit The Lion Sleeps Tonight in the early 1960s), and Wreck of the John B (a 1966 hit for the Beach Boys as Sloop John B ). The Weavers, At Carnegie Hall (Vanguard, 1957). Recorded live on Christmas Eve in 1955, this was an emotional and historic occasion, as the Weavers had gotten back together after several years of hardship imposed by a McCarthy-era blacklist. Those who prefer their songs with unadorned arrangements might prefer these versions of Goodnight Irene, Lonesome Traveler, Kisses Sweeter Than Wine, Wimoweh, and the like to the more commercial studio versions. Josh White, Free and Equal Blues (Smithsonian Folkways, 1998). Like Leadbelly, Josh White crossed over from the blues to the folk revival audience, though with a more refined manner. His critical reputation will probably always suffer from his cooperation with the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s. This compilation is cited as it documents him at the beginning of this transition in the mid-1940s, all 26 of the songs having been recorded by Folkways. Various Artists, Anthology of American Folk Music (Smithsonian Folkways, 1952). In 1952, folklorist Harry Smith put together a six-lp compilation of rare folk, blues, Cajun, and country 78s from the late 1920s and early 1930s for Folkways Records. Its impact has perhaps been overestimated by latter-day historians, but it s undeniable that some younger folk musicians of the 1950s and early 1960s used it as a source point for learning much of their repertoire. It was reissued as a six-cd box set in 1997.

6 Various Artists, Are You from Dixie? Great Country Brother Teams of the 1930 s (RCA, 1988). Drawn from the decade where country music was still close to what we usually consider folk, this compilation emphasizes sides with vocal harmonies that were influential on bluegrass, and would recur in folk revival acts. Bill Monroe (as part of the Monroe Brothers) is the most famous artist here, and the Delmore Brothers the best to keep investigating if you like this kind of high and lonesome sound. Various Artists, Songs for Political Action: Folk Music, Topical Songs and the American Left (Bear Family, 1996). Granted this ten-cd box set is so huge and expensive that it s not a casual investment, costing more than this entire 14-week course. It s the most comprehensive anthology of this sort likely to get produced, however, covering the years 1926 to Recordings by such vital artists in this area as Pete Seeger, the Weavers, the Almanac Singers, Lee Hays, Woody Guthrie, Aunt Molly Jackson, Josh White, Burl Ives, Brownie McGhee, Malvina Reynolds, and numerous less renowned artists are included. Various Artists, Sounds of the South (Atlantic, 1993). Folklorist Alan Lomax had been collecting, often via field recordings, folk music of all kinds (and not just American folk) for many years before the ones included on this four-cd box set. These are the ones he did throughout the American South in 1959 after returning from a long stay in Europe, however, and were thus the most influential on the folk revival when it picked up steam at the beginning of the 1960s. Various Artists, Troubadours: Folk and the Roots of American Music Parts 1-4 (Bear Family, 2014). Each of the four volumes of this series has three CDs, adding up to a dozen discs and a whopping 288 tracks (and an even more whopping 924 pages of liner notes). Although the material spans the late 1920s to the early 1970s, the last three parts (i.e. the final nine CDs) stick to the period between the late 1950s and early 1970s. This includes material by many of the major folk performers of the mid-twentieth century, from Lead Belly and Pete Seeger to Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. Some of it does venture into folk-rock, but usually on the mild singer-songwriter side, sometimes (if not often) moving into distressingly middle-of-the-road selections. Some major artists, for unexplained reasons, are missing, including Peter, Paul & Mary, Simon & Garfunkel, and Leonard Cohen; there are some rarities, but they re not in abundance. Certainly this features a great wealth of important US (and a bit of Canadian) folk music, but it s not definitive, and doesn t extend too far into folk-rock. So it should not be considered a companion series to this course, and many of the best performers here (as well as a few others) are ably represented by the more affordable three-cd box set Washington Square Memoirs: The Great Urban Folk Boom (see listing below). Various Artists, Washington Square Memoirs: The Great Urban Folk Boom (Rhino, 2001). A compilation that could fit into the handouts of almost any week in this course, this three-cd box set is a great way to follow the transition of urban folk from its just-post-world World II manifestation through the early- 60s folk boom to the onset of folk-rock. Many major North American folk performers of the period, or folkrock performers of the era with heavy roots in the folk boom, are represented here,

7 including Bob Dylan, Ian & Sylvia, Judy Collins, Judy Henske, Richie Havens, Tim Hardin, Gordon Lightfoot, Richard & Mimi Fariña, Phil Ochs, Fred Neil, Tim Buckley, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Arlo Guthrie, Barry McGuire (as part of Barry & Barry), and Jesse Colin Young. The first disc does include some pre-1960 performers of note, like Woody Guthrie, Jean Ritchie, Pete Seeger, the Kingston Trio, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Odetta, Josh White, and the Weavers. Recommended Books: Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World, by John Szwed (Viking, 2010). Detailed bio of perhaps the most important of the folklorists who helped lay the foundation for the folk revival. It covers not only his musical activities, but the incredible and sometimes incompetent lengths to which the US government went to monitor his activities when he was suspected of being subversive to our country s interests. All in the Downs, by Shirley Collins (Strange Attractor, 2017). From the very dawn of the British folk revival, Collins was a crucial figure, both for her distinctively husky-yethigh voice a likely influence on Sandy Denny, among many others and her role in popularizing, if primarily in the folk community, many traditional British songs. Her memoir is uneven but more often than not extremely interesting, both for her memories of her own music and her intersections with many notable figures, largely concentrating on her prime from the mid-1950s through the 1970s. She looks back on her life with candor and, though it s not a dominant element, some humor, not smoothing over the rougher professional and personal patches. America Over the Water, by Shirley Collins (SAF, 2004). Interesting, sometimes fascinating memoir that focuses on the British folk singer s experiences as Alan Lomax s assistant when the folklorist traveled through the South in 1959 making field recordings of many different styles of folk music during the early days of the folk revival. Collins was also a venerated British folk singer, and those tales are interspersed with memories of her childhood and early career in England. Note that this book concentrates almost exclusively on her early life and 1959 trip; her other memoir, All in the Downs (see above listing), is a more standard overview of her entire life and career. Bob Gibson: I Come for to Sing, by Bob Gibson & Carole Bender (Folk Era, 1999). Kind of a scattered and rambling semi-autobiography, but nonetheless a fairly extensive one that will be the only such documentation of this rather overlooked major early folk revival performer. Bound for Glory, by Woody Guthrie (Plume, 1983). Originally published in 1943, this folksy autobiography is not exactly rigorous non-fiction. This is the book, however, that as much as Guthrie s records got Bob Dylan obsessed with Woody Guthrie, and playing music like Woody Guthrie, around The Carter Family: Don t Forget This Song, by Frank M. Young & David Lasky (Abrams, 2012). A graphic novel that actually does a pretty good job of getting down the

8 essential incidents in the Carter Family s lives and careers from around the 1910s through the 1940s, including A.P. Carter s collection of folk songs for their recorded material (for which he, perhaps inadvertently, received songwriting credits). Comes with CD of 1939 radio recordings. Folk City: New York and the American Folk Music Revival, by Stephen Petrus and Ronald D. Cohen (Oxford University Press, 2015). Straightforward and thorough, if slightly academic and dry, history of the folk revival as it took shape and flourished in New York from the 1930s through the 1960s. Produced in conjunction with an exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, this is highlighted by many rare and interesting photos and reproductions of posters and other memorabilia. Follow the Music: The Life and High Times of Elektra Records in the Great Years of American Pop Culture, by Jac Holzman and Gavan Daws (FirstMedia, 2000). The autobiography/oral history of the founder and president of Elektra Records has material applicable for every week of this course, as the label was important to every phase of the folk revival and folk-rock from 1950 through the early 1970s. In addition to many comments by Holzman, it draws on extensive material with many Elektra Records artists, producers, and employees. The 2000 paperback edition comes with a bound-in CD of 26 folk tracks done for Elektra (including some early folk-rock ones) in the 1950s and 1960s. Greenback Dollar: The Incredible Rise of the Kingston Trio, by William J. Bush (The Scarecrow Press, 2013). Perhaps overly generous in its critical assessment of the group, this is nonetheless a comprehensive biography with first-hand interviews with all the members and manager Frank Werber. There are also detailed rundowns on all of their albums and there were many of them. How Can I Keep from Singing: Pete Seeger, by David Dunaway (Da Capo, 1981). Still the major biography of this icon, covering Seeger s musical life from the Almanac Singers and Weavers through his many solo recordings, as well as some of his personal life and extensive involvement with social causes. Josh White: Society Blues, by Elijah Wald (University of Massachusetts, 2000). Biography of the folk-blues legend, with much attention paid to the controversy surrounding his testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee. It doesn t do so at the expense of his long musical career, spanning 1930s blues through the whole folk revival, his recording and performing activities continuing after his interaction with HUAC, which is covered here with objective balance. The Life and Legend of Leadbelly, by Charles Wolfe & Kip Lornell (Da Capo, 1999). Biography of the colorful and controversial ex-convict who became a major folk-blues engine of the folk revival after getting discovered and promoted by Alan Lomax s father, John Lomax.

9 Lonesome Traveler: The Life of Lee Hays, by Doris Willens (W.W. Norton, 1988). It s a little on the functional side, but this tells the story of Lee Hays, one of the singers and songwriters in the Weavers and Almanac Singers. As such it has a lot of information about the very beginnings of the folk revival, its ties to political causes, and the troubles he and the whole folk movement underwent in the McCarthy era. Lonnie Donegan and the Birth of British Rock & Roll, by Patrick Humphries (The Robson Press, 2012). Comprehensive, breezy biography of the king of skiffle is a little repetitive in its reminders of how influential Donegan was on British pop and rock. But it makes a convincing case of how much he did to make the UK aware of American folk and blues, and incite 1950s teenagers to take up instruments for playing skiffle who would later move into rock n roll. Making People s Music: Moe Asch and Folkways Records, by Peter D. Goldsmith (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998). Extremely comprehensive biography of the head of the Folkways label. A bit academic, but there s a lot of detail here not just about the first major independent US folk record company, but also about the folk revival that it helped shape. My Song: A Memoir, by Harry Belafonte with Michael Shnayerson (Alfred A. Knopf, 2011). Belafonte did a lot more in his life than calypso, including other forms of popular music and acting, as well as engaging in political activism. His autobiography does cover his rise to superstardom with calypso in the mid-1950s, however, along with many other things. Peggy Seeger: A Life of Music, Love, and Politics, by Jean R. Freeman (University of Illinois Press, 2017). Fine biography of Pete Seeger s half-sister, who made her own mark on the folk revival as the original performer of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and partner of a key force behind the British folk revival, Ewan MacColl. It also has many interesting stories about her interactions with other important figures and movements of the 1950s and 1960s, including her brothers Mike (of the New Lost City Ramblers) and Pete; her academic parents, who did much to lay some of the pre-1950s groundwork for the folk revival; and the left-wing politics that informed much of the folk scene. Ramblin Jack Elliott: The Never-Ending Highway, by Hank Reineke (Scarecrow Press, 2010). Elliott s music lacks enough originality to recommend this thorough biography to the more general folk fan. But the author does a commendable job of finally providing a readable, chronicially sequenced record of this wandering minstrel s life and career, which was previously only patchily documented. His contributions to the folk revival are also placed in context, though he was more of a popularizer of Woody Guthrie-styled folk than a generator of stylistic innovation. Red Dust and Broadsides, by Agnes Sis Cunningham & Gordon Friesen (University of Massachusetts Press, 1999). Joint memoir by married couple who were heavily involved in the folk revival from the Depression through the 1960s. Cunningham was in the

10 Almanac Singers and Friesen a journalist, though they re most well known for running Broadside folk magazine in the 1960s. This book actually concentrates more on their radical political activities, including the government harassment and poverty they suffered as a result. Woody Guthrie: A Life, by Joe Klein (Delta, 1980). For the real story, or much of it, behind Guthrie s tumultuous life, this is the biography unlikely to be surpassed. Recommended DVDs: Harry Belafonte, Sing Your Song (Docurama, 2011). This documentary goes more into Belafonte s extensive activities as a civil rights activist and humanitarian than his music, and the sections focusing on his music don t wholly cover his folk and calypso recordings and performances, also including his work in other pop music fields. The folk and calypso roots of much of his repertoire (some of which he actually researched at the Library of Congress isn t ignored, however, and some of this subtly illustrates how he helped bring these to the attention of a wide audience, if sometimes in a diluted fashion. Jack Elliott, The Ballad of Ramblin Jack (Winstar, 2000). Excellent documentary, directed by his daughter Aiyana, that isn t afraid to puncture the legend of this gregarious but enigmatic figurehead of the early folk revival. Woody Guthrie, Ain t Got No Home (PBS Home Video, 2006). Broadcast as part of the PBS American Masters series, this is a straightforward 90-minute documentary on Guthrie s music and somewhat wayward life, including interviews with associates like Pete Seeger, his first wife, and his daughter. Note this doesn t have performance and interview footage with Guthrie himself, of which very little exists. The Kingston Trio, The Kingston Trio Story: Wherever We May Go (Shout Factory, 2006). Documentary about the most popular late- 50s folk group includes interviews with band members and associates and archival clips, as well as numerous bonus features. Pete Seeger, Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (Genius Products, 2007). Inspirational recent career-spanning Seeger documentary, including interviews with the man and many who know and admire him. On VHS Only: The Weavers, Wasn t That a Time! (Warner Reprise, 1982). As this was built around a Weavers reunion concert in Carnegie Hall in shortly before Lee Hays s 1981 death, it s not a conventional thorough biographical documentary, and is on the sentimental side. Still, it has interviews with the members and some stories about their career, as well as some footage from their earlier days. Notable Figures (Excluding Star Musicians):

11 Moe Asch: Head of Folkways Records, the first independent label to specialize in recording traditional and ethnic music for a specialist market of enthusiasts. Joe Hill: The labor activist who adapted folk songs and hymns into pro-labor pieces that could be used to rally workers. Born in Sweden, but in the US at the time he rose to prominence in the 1900s and 1910s, he could be considered the first noted American folk revivalist, and maybe the first to use the music in the service of social causes. Executed for murder after a controversial trial in 1915, and the subject of tribute songs in the following years, most famously I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night, performed by Joan Baez in 1969 at Woodstock. Jac Holzman: Founder and president of Elektra Records, which along with Vanguard became the most successful folk-oriented independent label of the folk revival. Aunt Molly Jackson: Union activist and folk singer who was among the first to link folk music and political activism. Gordon Jenkins: Musical director of Decca Records, both credited with and criticized for orchestral arrangements for the Weavers that helped get them pop music hits. Harold Leventhal: Manager of the Weavers, earning respect for sticking by them and other folk artists when they were victims of blacklisting due to their progressive political leanings. A powerful figure in the industry into the folk-rock era, also managing Judy Collins and Arlo Guthrie. Alan Lomax: The folklorist most responsible for documenting and recording many forms of folk music, both in the US and Europe, from the 1930s onward. People s Songs: Not a person, but an organization formed to, in Pete Seeger s words, create, promote and distribute songs of labor and the American people. Active from 1945 to 1949, when it folded in part due to pressure as anti-communist sentiments built in the US. Irwin Silber: Co-founder and, from 1951 to 1967, editor of Sing Out! magazine, the leading folk music periodical in the US (and probably the world). Harry Smith: Folklorist most noted for assembling the 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music box set for Folkways, which made many rare 78s from the 1920s and 1930s available for the first time on a reissue. Frank Werber: Manager of the Kingston Trio, and instrumental in that capacity in popularizing folk music on college campuses, as well as insisting on desegregated audiences. Influential into the folk-rock era as San Francisco-based producer of We Five. Notable Places:

12 Almanac House: New York apartment that served as unofficial headquarters in the early 1940s for the Almanac Singers, also hosting leftist intellectual gatherings and folk singers who needed a place to stay. Carnegie Hall: Famed New York venue at which the Weavers made a successful comeback from blacklisting on Christmas Eve, Cortlandt Manor: Westchester County, New York site of anti-communism fueled riot against folk performers and listeners when a concert was supposed to take place there August 27, Among those caught in the riot were Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and Paul Robeson. Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital: New Jersey facility at which Woody Guthrie was confined from 1956 to 1961, after his condition deteriorated with the progressive onset of Huntington s disease. It was here that Bob Dylan went to visit his idol, shortly after he moved to New York in early The Hungry i: Along with the Purple Onion (see below), a San Francisco club at which the Kingston Trio often played, recording two albums there. John Phillips s pre-mamas & the Papas folk group, the Journeymen, played there often in the early 1960s. The Purple Onion: San Francisco club at which the Kingston Trio built their following over a six-month period in Important Record Labels: Elektra: One of the first and most successful independent labels to record folk albums for a specialist audience, usually of a somewhat more commercial sort than Folkways did. Branched into folk-rock and psychedelic rock in the 1960s, when their roster included Judy Collins, Tim Buckley, Phil Ochs, Judy Henske, Love, the Incredible String Band, Fred Neil, Tom Paxton, the Doors, and many others. Folkways: The first and most traditional of the most important American independent folk-oriented labels, recording some performers such as Pete Seeger when they were both commercially and politically out of favor. Though less commercial and more uncompromising than competitors Elektra and Vanguard, they were also noted for cheaper production and packaging. Topic: The first noted British folk label, recording artists such as Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger, Shirley Collins, and others in the 1950s and 1960s, remaining active long after that. Tradition: Mostly forgotten these days in favor of Elektra, Folkways, and Vanguard, but another independent folk label of note from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, recording early albums by artists like Odetta, Barbara Dane, Ed McCurdy, and Carolyn Hester.

13 Vanguard: Though it was started as a classical label, recorded important folk artists from the mid-1950s on, taking on the Weavers after their comeback from the blacklist. Would become the most successful independent folk label after signing Joan Baez, and made significant contributions to the early-to-mid- 60s folk revival and folk-rock with Ian & Sylvia, Eric Andersen, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Richard & Mimi Fariña, Country Joe & the Fish, and some other artists. Notable Publications: People s Songs Bulletin: The short-lived publication of the equally short-lived People s Songs ( ), formed to create, promote and distribute songs of labor and the American people. Sing Out!: The leading US folk magazine of the 1950s and 1960s (and still going today) was also a major forum for reader/writer/musician discussion and debate over the controversies associated with folk musicians, most notably in the mid-1960s, when Bob Dylan and others started playing electric folk-rock. Audiovisual Clips Week One Pete Seeger & Judy Collins: Turn! Turn! Turn! (DVD) The Byrds: Turn! Turn! Turn! (DVD) Bob Dylan: The Times They Are A-Changin (DVD) Bob Dylan: Ballad of a Thin Man (DVD) The Carter Family: Wildwood Flower (DVD) Jimmie Rodgers: Blue Yodel #1/T for Texas (DVD) Bill Monroe: Uncle Pen (DVD) The Delmore Brothers: The Nashville Blues (CD) Bukka White: Got Sick and Tired (DVD) Son House: Death Letter Blues (DVD) Woody Guthrie: The Ranger s Command (DVD) Aunt Molly Jackson: Hungry Ragged Blues (CD) Almanac Singers: Which Side Are You On (CD) Woody Guthrie: Do-Re-Mi (CD) Woody Guthrie, Brownie McGhee, & Sonny Terry: John Henry (DVD) Leadbelly: Take This Hammer (DVD) Josh White, Jr.: One Meatball (CD) Leadbelly: Goodnight Irene (CD) The Weavers: Goodnight Irene (DVD) The Weavers: Kisses Sweeter Than Wine (CD) The Weavers: If I Had a Hammer (CD) Pete Seeger: If I Had a Hammer (DVD) Ramblin Jack Elliott: San Francisco Blues (CD) Peggy Seeger: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (CD) Barbara Dane: I'm on My Way (DVD) The New Lost City Ramblers: Man of Constant Sorrow (DVD)

14 Odetta: Waterboy (DVD) Fred McDowell: Goin Down to the River (DVD) Doc Watson: Deep River Blues (DVD) Shirley Collins: Barbara Allen (CD) Bob Gibson: There s a Meetin Here Tonight (DVD) Bob Gibson: You Can Tell the World (CD) Simon & Garfunkel: You Can Tell the World (CD) Harry Belafonte: The Banana Boat Song (CD) Harry Belafonte: Island in the Sun (DVD) Leadbelly: Rock Island Line (CD) Lonnie Donegan: Rock Island Line (CD) Lonnie Donegan: Jack of Diamonds (DVD) The Everly Brothers: That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine (CD) Simon & Garfunkel: Silver Haired Daddy of Mine (CD) Bill Monroe: Blue Moon of Kentucky (CD) Elvis Presley: Blue Moon of Kentucky (CD) The Weavers: Kisses Sweeter Than Wine (CD) Jimmie Rodgers: Kisses Sweeter Than Wine (DVD) Ramblin Jack Elliott & Pete Seeger: Muleskinner (DVD) The Fendermen: Muleskinner Blues (CD) The Kingston Trio: Tom Dooley (DVD) The Kingston Trio: M.T.A. (DVD) The Kingston Trio: A Worried Man (DVD) The Kingston Trio: 7-Up Commercial (DVD) Bob Dylan: Gospel Plow (CD)