
The American folk music revival began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Early
folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...
performers include
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...
,
Lead Belly
Huddie William Ledbetter ( ; January 1888 or 1889 – December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk music, folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the ...
,
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
, Ewan MacColl (UK),
Richard Dyer-Bennet,
Oscar Brand,
Jean Ritchie,
John Jacob Niles,
Susan Reed,
Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt (March 8, 1893 – November 2, 1966), known as Mississippi John Hurt, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist.
Biography Early years
John Hurt was born in Teoc,Cohen, Lawrence (1996). Liner notes to ''Av ...
,
Josh White
Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names Pinewood Tom and Tippy Barton in the 1930s.
White grew up in the Sou ...
, and
Cisco Houston
Gilbert Vandine "Cisco" Houston (August 18, 1918 – April 29, 1961) was an American folk singer and songwriter, who is closely associated with Woody Guthrie due to their extensive history of traveling and recording together.
Houston was a reg ...
. Lead Belly recorded "Cotton Fields" and "Goodnight, Irene" and folk singer
Odetta
Odetta Holmes (December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008), known as Odetta, was an American singer, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and s ...
released folk albums.
New folk musicians such as
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
,
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (, ; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing mo ...
,
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning nearly seven decades. An Academy Awards, Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Awards, Grammy Award-winning rec ...
,
Joni Mitchell
Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...
,
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs (; December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American songwriter, protest song, protest singer (or, as he preferred, "topical singer"), and Political Activist, political activist. Ochs was known for his sharp wit, sardonic h ...
,
Peter Paul & Mary and many others recorded folk songs and new compositions in the folk style in the 60s and 70s. The revival also brought forward strains of
American folk music
The term American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as ''traditional music'', ''traditional folk music'', ''contemporary folk music'', ''vernacular music,'' or ''roots music''. Many traditional songs have been sung ...
that had in earlier times contributed to the development of
country and western
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, or d ...
,
bluegrass,
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
, and
rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...
music.
Overview
Early years
The folk revival in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
was rooted in the resurgent interest in square dancing and folk dancing there in the 1940s as espoused by instructors such as
Margot Mayo, which gave musicians such as
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
popular exposure. The folk revival more generally as a popular and commercial phenomenon begins with the career of
the Weavers
The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City originally consisting of Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, and Fred Hellerman. Founded in 1948, the group sang traditional folk songs from ...
, formed in November 1948 by
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
,
Lee Hays,
Fred Hellerman, and
Ronnie Gilbert of
People's Songs, of which Seeger had been president and Hays executive secretary.
People's Songs, which disbanded in 1948–49, had been a clearing house for labor movement songs (and in particular the
CIO, which at the time was one of the few if not the only union federation that was racially integrated), and in 1948 had thrown all its resources to the failed presidential campaign of
Progressive Party candidate
Henry Wallace, a folk-music aficionado (his running mate was a country-music singer-guitarist). Hays and Seeger had formerly sung together as the politically activist
Almanac Singers, a group which they founded in 1941 and whose personnel often included
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...
,
Josh White
Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names Pinewood Tom and Tippy Barton in the 1930s.
White grew up in the Sou ...
,
Lead Belly
Huddie William Ledbetter ( ; January 1888 or 1889 – December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk music, folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the ...
,
Cisco Houston
Gilbert Vandine "Cisco" Houston (August 18, 1918 – April 29, 1961) was an American folk singer and songwriter, who is closely associated with Woody Guthrie due to their extensive history of traveling and recording together.
Houston was a reg ...
, and
Bess Lomax Hawes.
The Weavers had a big hit in 1950 with the single of
Lead Belly
Huddie William Ledbetter ( ; January 1888 or 1889 – December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk music, folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the ...
's "
Goodnight, Irene". This was number one on the Billboard charts for thirteen weeks. On its flip side was "
Tzena, Tzena, Tzena", an Israeli dance song that concurrently reached number two on the charts. This was followed by a string of Weaver hit singles that sold millions, including
"So Long It's Been Good to Know You" ("Dusty Old Dust") (by Woody Guthrie) and "
Kisses Sweeter Than Wine".
The Weavers' career ended abruptly when they were dropped from
Decca
Decca may refer to:
Music
* Decca Records or Decca Music Group, record label
* Decca Gold, classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group
* Decca Broadway, musical theater record label
* Decca Studios, recording facility in West ...
's catalog because Pete Seeger had been listed in the publication
Red Channels as a probable subversive. Radio stations refused to play their records and concert venues canceled their engagements. A former employee of People's Songs,
Harvey Matusow, himself a former Communist Party member, had informed the FBI that the Weavers were Communists, too, although Matusow later recanted and admitted he had lied.
Pete Seeger and Lee Hays were called to testify before the
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 19 ...
in 1955. Despite this, a Christmas Weaver reunion concert organized by Harold Leventhal in 1955 was a smash success and the Vanguard LP album of that concert, issued in 1957, was one of the top sellers of that year, followed by other successful albums.
Folk music, which often carried the stigma of left-wing associations during the 1950s
Red Scare
A Red Scare is a form of moral panic provoked by fear of the rise of left-wing ideologies in a society, especially communism and socialism. Historically, red scares have led to mass political persecution, scapegoating, and the ousting of thos ...
, was driven underground and carried along by a handful of artists releasing records. Barred from mainstream outlets, artists like Seeger were restricted to performing in schools and summer camps, and the folk-music scene became a phenomenon associated with vaguely rebellious
bohemian
Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to:
*Anything of or relating to Bohemia
Culture and arts
* Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers.
* Bohemian style, a ...
ism in places like
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
(especially
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
) and
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
's
North Beach, and in the college and university districts of cities like
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
,
Greater Boston
Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston, the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England, and its surrounding areas, home to 4,941,632. The most s ...
(especially
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...
),
Denver
Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
,
Minneapolis
Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...
and elsewhere.
Ron Eyerman and Scott Baretta speculate that:
is interesting to consider that had it not been for the explicit political sympathies of the Weavers and other folk singers or, another way of looking at it, the hysterical anti-communism of the Cold War, folk music would very likely have entered mainstream American culture in even greater force in the early 1950s, perhaps making the second wave of the revival nearly a decade later .e., in the 1960sredundant.
The media blackout of performers with alleged communist sympathies or ties was so effective that
Israel Young, a chronicler of the 1960s Folk Revival who was drawn into the movement through an interest in folk dancing, communicated to Ron Eyerman that he himself was unaware for many years of the movement's 1930s and early '40s antecedents in left-wing political activism.
In the early and mid-1950s, acoustic-guitar-accompanied folk songs were mostly heard in
coffee house
A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, Caffè americano, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually ...
s, private parties, open-air concerts, and sing-alongs,
hootenannies, and at college-campus concerts. Often associated with political dissent, folk music now blended, to some degree, with the so-called
beatnik
Beatniks were members of a social movement in the mid-20th century, who subscribed to an anti- materialistic lifestyle. They rejected the conformity and consumerism of mainstream American culture and expressed themselves through various forms ...
scene, and dedicated singers of folk songs (as well as folk-influenced original material) traveled through what was called "the coffee-house circuit" across the U.S. and Canada, home also to
cool jazz
Cool jazz is a style of modern jazz music inspired by bebop and big band that arose in the United States after World War II. It is characterized by relaxed tempos and a lighter tone than that used in the fast and complex bebop style. Cool jazz of ...
and recitations of highly personal beatnik poetry. Two singers of the 1950s who sang folk material but crossed over into the mainstream were
Odetta
Odetta Holmes (December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008), known as Odetta, was an American singer, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and s ...
and
Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte ( ; born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023) was an American singer, actor, and civil rights activist who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. Belafonte ...
, both of whom sang Lead Belly and Josh White material. Odetta, who had trained as an opera singer, performed traditional blues, spirituals, and songs by
Lead Belly
Huddie William Ledbetter ( ; January 1888 or 1889 – December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk music, folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the ...
. Belafonte had hits with Jamaican calypso material as well as the folk song-like sentimental ballad
"Scarlet Ribbons" (composed in 1949).
The revival at its height
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, ...
, a group originating on the West Coast, were directly inspired by the Weavers in their style and presentation and covered some of the Weavers' material, which was predominantly traditional. The Kingston Trio avoided overtly political or
protest song
A protest song is a song that is associated with a movement for protest and social change and hence part of the broader category of ''topical'' songs (or songs connected to current events). It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre.
...
s and cultivated a clean-cut collegiate persona. They were discovered while playing at a college club called the Cracked Pot by
Frank Werber, who became their manager and secured them a deal with
Capitol Records
Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...
.
Their first hit was a rewritten rendition of an old-time folk murder ballad, "
Tom Dooley", which had been sung at
Lead Belly
Huddie William Ledbetter ( ; January 1888 or 1889 – December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk music, folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the ...
's funeral concert. This went
gold
Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
in 1958 and sold more than three million copies. The success of the album and the single earned the Kingston Trio a
Grammy award
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
for
Best Country & Western Performance at the awards' inaugural ceremony in 1959. At the time, no folk-music category existed in the Grammy's scheme.
The next year, largely as a result of ''
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, ...
'' album and "Tom Dooley", the
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. (NARAS), doing business as The Recording Academy, is an American Learned society, learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is widely kno ...
instituted a folk category and the Trio won the first
Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording The Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording was awarded from 1960 to 1986. During this time the award had several minor name changes:
*From 1960 to 1961 the award was known as Best Performance - Folk
*From 1962 to 1967 it was awa ...
for its second studio album ''
At Large''. At one point, The Kingston Trio had four records at the same time among the top 10 selling albums for five consecutive weeks in November and December 1959 according to ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' magazine's "Top LPs" chart, a record unmatched for more than 50 years and noted at the time by a cover story in ''
Life
Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...
'' magazine.
The huge commercial success of the Kingston Trio, whose recordings between 1958 and 1961 earned more than $25million for Capitol records (equivalent to $million in )
spawned a host of groups that were similar in some respects like
the Brothers Four,
Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary were an American Contemporary folk music, folk group formed in New York City in 1961 during the American folk music revival. The trio consisted of Peter Yarrow (guitar, tenor vocals), Paul Stookey (guitar, baritone vocals), ...
,
the Limeliters,
the Chad Mitchell Trio,
the New Christy Minstrels
The New Christy Minstrels are an American large-ensemble folk music group founded by Randy Sparks in 1961. The group has recorded more than 20 albums and scored several hits, including "Green, Green (song), Green, Green", "Saturday Night", "Tod ...
,
the Highwaymen, and more. As noted by critic Bruce Eder in the ''All Music Guide'', the popularity of the commercialized version of folk music represented by these groups emboldened record companies to sign, record, and promote artists with more traditionalist and political sensibilities.
The Kingston Trio's popularity would be followed by that of
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (, ; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing mo ...
, whose debut album ''
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (, ; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing mo ...
'' reached the top ten in late 1960 and remained on the Billboard charts for over two years. Baez's early albums contained mostly traditional material, such as the Scottish ballad "
Mary Hamilton", as well as many covers of melancholy tunes that had appeared in
Harry Smith's ''
Anthology of American Folk Music
''Anthology of American Folk Music'' is a three-volume compilation album released in August 1952 by Folkways Records. The album was compiled by experimental filmmaker Harry Smith from his own personal collection of 78 rpm records. It consists ...
'', such as "The Wagoner's Lad" and
"The Butcher Boy". She did not try to imitate the singing style of her source material, however, but used a rich soprano with vibrato. Her popularity (and that of the folk revival itself) would place Baez on the cover of ''
Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine in November 1962.
Unlike the Kingston Trio, Baez was openly political, and as the civil rights movement gathered steam, she aligned herself with Pete Seeger, Guthrie and others. Baez was one of the singers with Seeger,
Josh White
Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names Pinewood Tom and Tippy Barton in the 1930s.
White grew up in the Sou ...
,
Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary were an American Contemporary folk music, folk group formed in New York City in 1961 during the American folk music revival. The trio consisted of Peter Yarrow (guitar, tenor vocals), Paul Stookey (guitar, baritone vocals), ...
, and
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
who appeared at
Martin Luther King's 1963 March on Washington and sang "
We Shall Overcome", a song that had been introduced by People's Songs. Harry Belafonte was also present on that occasion, as was
Odetta
Odetta Holmes (December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008), known as Odetta, was an American singer, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and s ...
, whom Martin Luther King introduced as "the queen of folk music" when she sang "Oh, Freedom". (''
Odetta Sings Folk Songs'' was one of 1963's best-selling folk albums). Also on hand were the SNCC
Freedom Singers
The Freedom Singers originated as a quartet formed in 1962 at Albany State College in Albany, Georgia. After folk singer Pete Seeger witnessed the power of their congregational-style of singing, which fused black Baptist ''a cappella'' church sin ...
, the personnel of which went on to form
Sweet Honey in the Rock.
The critical role played by Freedom Songs in the voter registration drives, freedom rides, and lunch counter sit-ins during the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1950s and early '60s in the South gave folk music tremendous new visibility and prestige. The peace movement was likewise energized by the rise of the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nucl ...
in the UK, protesting the British testing of the H-bomb in 1958, as well as by the ever-proliferating arms race and the increasingly unpopular
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
.
Young singer-songwriter
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
, playing acoustic guitar and harmonica, had been signed and recorded for
Columbia by producer
John Hammond in 1961. Dylan's record enjoyed some popularity among Greenwich Village folk-music enthusiasts, but he was "discovered" by an immensely larger audience when
Peter, Paul & Mary had a hit with a cover of his song "
Blowin' in the Wind". That trio also brought Pete Seeger's and the Weavers' "
If I Had a Hammer" to nationwide audiences, as well as covering songs by other artists such as
Oscar Brand and
John Denver
Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American Country music, country and Folk music, folk singer, songwriter, and actor. He was one of the most popular acoustic m ...
.
It was not long before the folk-music category came to include less traditional material and more personal and poetic creations by individual performers, who called themselves "singer-songwriters". As a result of the financial success of high-profile commercial folk artists, record companies began to produce and distribute records by a new generation of folk revival and singer-songwriters—
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs (; December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American songwriter, protest song, protest singer (or, as he preferred, "topical singer"), and Political Activist, political activist. Ochs was known for his sharp wit, sardonic h ...
,
Tom Paxton
Thomas Richard Paxton (born October 31, 1937) is an American folk singer-songwriter whose career spans more than sixty years. In 2009, Paxton received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. ,
Eric von Schmidt,
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie (born Beverley Jean Santamaria; February 20, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and social activist.
Sainte-Marie's singing and writing repertoire includes subjects of love, war, religion, and mysticism, and h ...
,
Dave Van Ronk,
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning nearly seven decades. An Academy Awards, Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Awards, Grammy Award-winning rec ...
,
Tom Rush
Tom Rush (born February 8, 1941) is an American folk and blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter whose success helped launch the careers of other singer-songwriters in the 1960s and who has continued his own singing career for 60 years.
Life ...
,
Fred Neil
Fred Neil (born Frederick Ralph Morlock Jr.; March 16, 1936 – July 7, 2001) was an American folk singer-songwriter active in the 1960s and early 1970s. He is mainly known through other people's recordings of his material – particularl ...
,
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (November 17, 1938 – May 1, 2023) was a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved worldwide success and helped define the singer-songwriter era of the 1970s. Widely considered one of Canada's greatest songwriters, ...
,
Billy Ed Wheeler,
John Denver
Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American Country music, country and Folk music, folk singer, songwriter, and actor. He was one of the most popular acoustic m ...
,
John Stewart,
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk music, folk singer-songwriter. He is known for singing protest song, songs of protest against social injustice, and storytelling while performing songs, following the tradition of his fa ...
,
Harry Chapin
Harry Forster Chapin (; December 7, 1942 – July 16, 1981) was an American singer-songwriter, philanthropist, and hunger activist best known for his folk rock and pop rock songs. He achieved worldwide success in the 1970s. Chapin, a Grammy Award- ...
, and
John Hartford, among others.
These singers frequently prided themselves on performing traditional material in imitations of the style of the source singers whom they had discovered, frequently by listening to
Harry Smith's celebrated LP compilation of forgotten or obscure commercial 78rpm "race" and "hillbilly" recordings of the 1920s and 30s, the Folkways
Anthology of American Folk Music
''Anthology of American Folk Music'' is a three-volume compilation album released in August 1952 by Folkways Records. The album was compiled by experimental filmmaker Harry Smith from his own personal collection of 78 rpm records. It consists ...
(1951). A number of the artists who had made these old recordings were still very much alive and had been "rediscovered" and brought to the 1963 and 64
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival. The festival was founded by music promoter and Jazz Festival founder Geor ...
s. For example, traditionalist
Clarence Ashley introduced folk revivalists to the music of friends of his who still actively played the older music, such as
Doc Watson
Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson (March 3, 1923 – May 29, 2012) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music. He won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His ...
and
The Stanley Brothers.
Archivists, collectors, and re-issued recordings
During the 1950s, the growing folk-music crowd that had developed in the United States began to buy records by older, traditional musicians from the
Southeastern hill country and from urban inner-cities. New LP compilations of commercial 78-rpm
race and
hillbilly
''Hillbilly'' is a term historically used for White people who dwell in rural area, rural, mountainous areas in the United States, primarily in the Appalachian region and Ozarks. As people migrated out of the region during the Great Depression, ...
studio recordings stretching back to the 1920s and 1930s were published by major record labels. The expanding market in
LP record
The LP (from long playing or long play) is an Analog recording, analog sound storage medium, specifically a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of revolutions per minute, rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use ...
s increased the availability of folk-music field recordings originally made by
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
and
Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music during the 20th century. He was a musician, folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activ ...
,
Kenneth S. Goldstein, and other collectors during the
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...
era of the 1930s and 40s.
Small record labels, such as
Yazoo Records, grew up to distribute reissued older recordings and to make new recordings of the survivors among these artists. This was how many urban
white American
White Americans (sometimes also called Caucasian Americans) are Americans who identify as white people. In a more official sense, the United States Census Bureau, which collects demographic data on Americans, defines "white" as " person having ...
audiences of the 1950s and 60s first heard
country blues
Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...
and especially
Delta blues
Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the s ...
that had been recorded by
Mississippi
Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
folk artists 30 or 40 years before.
In 1952,
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.
History
The Folkways Records & Service ...
released the ''
Anthology of American Folk Music
''Anthology of American Folk Music'' is a three-volume compilation album released in August 1952 by Folkways Records. The album was compiled by experimental filmmaker Harry Smith from his own personal collection of 78 rpm records. It consists ...
'', compiled by anthropologist and experimental film maker
Harry Smith. The ''Anthology'' featured 84 songs by traditional country and blues artists, initially recorded between 1927 and 1932, and was credited with making a large amount of pre-War material accessible to younger musicians. (The ''Anthology'' was re-released on CD in 1997, and Smith was belatedly presented with a
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
for his achievement in 1991.)
Artists like
the Carter Family,
Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His singing, guitar playing and songwriting on his landmark 1936 and 1937 recordings have influenced later generations of musicians. Although his r ...
,
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Lemon Henry "Blind Lemon" Jefferson (September 24, 1893 – December 19, 1929) was an American blues and gospel singer-songwriter and musician. He was one of the most popular and successful blues singers of the 1920s and has been called the "Fat ...
,
Clarence Ashley,
Buell Kazee,
Uncle Dave Macon,
Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt (March 8, 1893 – November 2, 1966), known as Mississippi John Hurt, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist.
Biography Early years
John Hurt was born in Teoc,Cohen, Lawrence (1996). Liner notes to ''Av ...
, and
the Stanley Brothers, as well as
Jimmie Rodgers
James Charles Rodgers ( – ) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who rose to popularity in the late 1920s. Widely regarded as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Country Music", he is best known for his di ...
, the
Reverend Gary Davis
Gary D. Davis (April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972), known as Reverend Gary Davis and Blind Gary Davis, was a blues and gospel singer who was also proficient on the banjo, guitar and harmonica. Born in Laurens, South Carolina and blind since infanc ...
, and
Bill Monroe
William Smith Monroe ( ; September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter who created the bluegrass music genre. Because of this, he is often called the " Father of Bluegrass".
The genre takes its n ...
came to have something more than a regional or ethnic reputation. The revival turned up a tremendous wealth and diversity of music and put it out through radio shows and
record store
A record shop or record store is a retail outlet that sells recorded music. Per the name, in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, record shops only sold gramophone records. But over the course of the 20th century, record shops sol ...
s.
Living representatives of some of the varied regional and ethnic traditions, including younger performers like Southern-traditional singer
Jean Ritchie, who had first begun recording in the 1940s, also enjoyed a resurgence of popularity through enthusiasts' widening discovery of this music and appeared regularly at folk festivals.
Ethnic folk music
Ethnic folk music from other countries also had a boom during the American folk revival. The most successful ethnic performers of the revival were the Greenwich Village folksingers,
the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, whom ''Billboard'' magazine listed as the eleventh best-selling folk musicians in the United States. The group, which consisted of
Paddy Clancy
Patrick Michael Clancy (7 March 1922 – 11 November 1998), usually called Paddy Clancy or Pat Clancy, was an Irish folk singer best known as a member of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. In addition to singing and storytelling, Clancy play ...
,
Tom Clancy
Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science, military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of ...
,
Liam Clancy, and
Tommy Makem
Thomas Makem (4 November 1932 – 1 August 2007) was an Irish folk music, folk musician, artist, poet and storyteller. He was best known as a member of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. He played the long-necked 5-string banjo, tin whistle, l ...
, predominantly sang English-language Irish folk songs, as well as an occasional song in
Irish Gaelic
Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigeno ...
.
Paddy Clancy also started and ran the folk-music label
Tradition Records
Tradition Records was an American record label from 1955 to 1966 that specialized in folk music. The label was founded and financed by Guggenheim heiress Diane Hamilton (the pseudonym of Diane Guggenheim) in 1956. Its president and director was ...
, which produced Odetta's first solo LP and initially brought
Carolyn Hester
Carolyn Sue Hester (born January 28, 1937) is an American folk singer and songwriter. She was a figure in the early 1960s American folk music revival.
Biography
Hester's first album was produced by Norman Petty in 1957. She made her second a ...
to national prominence. Pete Seeger played the banjo on their Grammy-nominated 1961 album, ''
A Spontaneous Performance Recording'', and Bob Dylan later cited the group as a major influence on him. The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem also sparked a folk-music boom in Ireland in the mid-1960s, illustrating the world-wide effects of the American folk-music revival.
[
]
Books such as the popular best seller the ''Fireside Book of Folk Songs'' (1947), which contributed to the folk song revival, featured some material in languages other than English, including German, Spanish, Italian, French, Yiddish, and Russian. The repertoires of
Theodore Bikel
Theodore Meir Bikel ( ; May 2, 1924 – July 21, 2015) was an Austrian-American actor, singer, musician, composer, unionist, and political activist.
He made his stage debut in '' Tevye the Milkman'' in Mandatory Palestine, where he lived as ...
,
Marais and Miranda, and
Martha Schlamme
Martha Schlamme (née
Haftel; September 25, 1923 – October 6, 1985) was an Austrian-born American singer and actress.
She was born to an Orthodox Jewish family in Vienna, Austria in 1923. Her parents were Meier Haftel and Gisa Braten. Fo ...
also included Hebrew and Jewish material, as well as
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
. The Weavers' first big hit, the flipside of Lead Belly's "
Good Night Irene" and a top seller in its own right, was in Hebrew ("
Tzena, Tzena, Tzena") and they and later Joan Baez, who was of Mexican descent, occasionally included
Spanish-language
Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...
material in their repertoires, as well as songs from Africa, India, and elsewhere.
The commercially oriented folk-music revival as it existed in coffee houses, concert halls, radio, and TV was predominantly an
English-language
English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...
phenomenon, though many of the major pop-folk groups, such as the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary,
The Chad Mitchell Trio,
The Limeliters,
The Brothers Four,
The Highwaymen, and others, featured songs in Spanish (often from Mexico), Polynesian languages, Russian, French, and other languages in their recordings and performances. These groups also sang many English-language songs of foreign origin.
Rock subsumes folk
The
British Invasion
The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when Rock music, rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of Culture of the United Kingdom, British culture became popular in the United States with sign ...
of the mid-1960s helped bring an end to the mainstream popularity of American folk music as a wave of British bands overwhelmed most of the American music scene, including folk. Folk was disproportionately harmed by the Invasion; while other acts and categories were at least temporary harmed by the Invasion, folk revival acts suffered the most severe and permanent damage to their careers most directly because of it, without the confounding factors other victims faced.
Ironically, the roots of the British Invasion were in American folk, specifically a variant known as
skiffle
Skiffle is a music genre, genre of folk music with influences from American folk music, blues, Country music, country, Bluegrass music, bluegrass, and jazz, generally performed with a mixture of manufactured and homemade or improvised instruments. ...
as popularized by
Lonnie Donegan
Anthony James "Lonnie" Donegan (29 April 1931 – 3 November 2002) was a British skiffle singer, songwriter and musician, referred to as the " King of Skiffle", who influenced 1960s British pop and rock musicians. Born in Scotland and brought ...
; however, most of the British Invasion bands had been extensively influenced by rock and roll by the time their music had reached the United States and bore little resemblance to its folk origins.
After Bob Dylan began to record with a rocking rhythm section and electric instruments in 1965 (see ''
Electric Dylan controversy''), many other still-young folk artists followed suit. Meanwhile, bands like
The Lovin' Spoonful
The Lovin' Spoonful is a Canadian-American folk-rock band formed in Greenwich Village, New York City, in 1964. The band were among the most popular groups in the United States for a short period in the mid-1960s and their music and image influ ...
and the
Byrds, whose individual members often had a background in the folk-revival coffee-house scene, were getting recording contracts with folk-tinged music played with a rock-band line-up. Before long, the public appetite for the more acoustic music of the folk revival began to wane.
"Crossover" hits ("folk songs" that became rock-music-scene staples) happened now and again. One well-known example is the song "
Hey Joe
"Hey Joe" is a song from the 1960s that has become a rock standard and been performed in many musical styles by hundreds of different artists. The lyrics are from the point of view of a man on the run and planning to escape to Mexico after sho ...
", copyrighted by folk artist
Billy Roberts and recorded by rock singer/guitarist
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...
just as he was about to burst into stardom in 1967. The anthem "
Woodstock
The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...
", which was written and first sung by
Joni Mitchell
Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...
while her records were still nearly entirely acoustic and while she was labeled a "folk singer", became a hit single for
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) was a folk rock Supergroup (music), supergroup comprising the American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and the English-American singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by the Canadian singer-so ...
when the group recorded a full-on rock version.
Legacy
By the late 1960s, the scene had returned to being more of a lower-key, aficionado phenomenon, although sizable annual acoustic-music festivals were established in many parts of North America during this period. The acoustic music coffee-house scene survived at a reduced scale. Through the luminary young singer-songwriters of the 1960s, the American folk-music revival has influenced songwriting and musical styles throughout the world.
Major figures
*
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...
is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political,
traditional
A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...
and children's songs,
ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...
s and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan ''
This Machine Kills Fascists'' displayed on his guitar. His best-known song is "
This Land Is Your Land
"This Land Is Your Land" is a song by American folk singer Woody Guthrie. One of the United States' most famous folk songs, its lyrics were written in 1940 in critical response to Irving Berlin's " God Bless America". Its melody is based on a ...
". Many of his recorded songs are archived in the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
. In the 1930s Guthrie traveled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California while learning, rewriting, and performing traditional folk and blues songs along the way. Many of the songs he composed were about his experiences in the
Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of natural factors (severe drought) and hum ...
era during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, earning him the nickname the "Dust Bowl Balladeer". Throughout his life, Guthrie was associated with United States
communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
groups, though he never formally joined the Party.
[Spivey, Christine A. ''The Student Historical Journal 1996–1997'', Loyola University New Orleans, 1996.] During his later years Guthrie served as a prominent leader in the folk movement, providing inspiration to a generation of new folk musicians, including mentor relationships with
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Ramblin' Jack Elliott (born Elliott Charles Adnopoz; August 1, 1931) is an American folk singer, songwriter and story teller.
Life and career
Elliott was born in 1931 in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Florence (Rieger) and Abraham Adno ...
and
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
. Such songwriters as
Dylan,
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs (; December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American songwriter, protest song, protest singer (or, as he preferred, "topical singer"), and Political Activist, political activist. Ochs was known for his sharp wit, sardonic h ...
,
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...
,
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
,
Joe Strummer
John Graham Mellor (21 August 1952 – 22 December 2002), known professionally as Joe Strummer, was a British musician. He was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist, and lead vocalist of punk rock band the Clash, formed in 1976. The Clash' ...
and
Tom Paxton
Thomas Richard Paxton (born October 31, 1937) is an American folk singer-songwriter whose career spans more than sixty years. In 2009, Paxton received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. have acknowledged their debt to Guthrie as an influence. Guthrie's son
Arlo broke into the folk scene near the end of Woody's life and had significant success of his own.
*
The Almanac Singers Almanac members
Millard Lampell,
Lee Hays,
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
, and
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...
began playing together informally in 1940; the Almanac Singers were formed in December 1940.
They invented a driving, energetic performing style, based on what they felt was the best of American country string band music, black and white. They evolved towards controversial topical music. Two of the regular members of the group,
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
and
Lee Hays, later became founding members of
The Weavers
The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City originally consisting of Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, and Fred Hellerman. Founded in 1948, the group sang traditional folk songs from ...
.
*
Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American Folk music, folk singer and actor with a career that spanned more than six decades.
Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his o ...
– as a youth, Ives dropped out of college to travel around as an itinerant singer during the early 1930s, earning his way by doing odd jobs and playing his guitar and
banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin.
...
. In 1930 he had a brief local radio career on
WBOW radio in Terre Haute, Indiana, and in the 1940s he had his own radio show ''The Wayfaring Stranger'', titled after one of the
ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...
s he sang. The show was very popular, and in 1946 Ives was cast as a singing cowboy in the film ''Smoky''. Ives went on to play parts in other popular films as well. His first book, also titled ''The Wayfaring Stranger'', was published in 1948.
*
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
had met and been influenced by many important folk musicians and singer-songwriters with folk roots such as
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...
and
Lead Belly
Huddie William Ledbetter ( ; January 1888 or 1889 – December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk music, folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the ...
. Seeger had
labor movement
The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...
involvements, and he met Guthrie at a "Grapes of Wrath" migrant workers' concert on March 3, 1940, and the two thereafter began a musical collaboration that included the
Almanac Singers. In 1948 Seeger wrote the first version of his now-classic ''
How to Play the Five-String Banjo'', an instructional book that many banjo players credit with starting them off on the instrument.
*
The Weavers
The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City originally consisting of Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, and Fred Hellerman. Founded in 1948, the group sang traditional folk songs from ...
were formed in 1947 by Seeger,
Ronnie Gilbert,
Lee Hays, and
Fred Hellerman. After they debuted at the Village Vanguard in New York in 1948, they were then discovered by arranger
Gordon Jenkins and signed with
Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...
, releasing a series of successful but heavily orchestrated single songs. The group's political associations in the era of the
Red Scare
A Red Scare is a form of moral panic provoked by fear of the rise of left-wing ideologies in a society, especially communism and socialism. Historically, red scares have led to mass political persecution, scapegoating, and the ousting of thos ...
forced them to break up in 1952; they re-formed in 1955 with a series of successful concerts and album recordings on
Vanguard Records
Vanguard Recording Society is an American record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the so ...
. A fifth member,
Erik Darling, sometimes sat in with the group when Seeger was unavailable and ultimately replaced Seeger in The Weavers when the latter resigned from the quartet in a dispute about its commercialism in general and its specific agreement to record a cigarette commercial.
*
Josh White
Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names Pinewood Tom and Tippy Barton in the 1930s.
White grew up in the Sou ...
was an authentic singer of rural blues and folk music, a man who had been born into abject conditions in
South Carolina
South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
during the
Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation, " Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African American. The last of the ...
years. As a young black singer, he was initially dubbed "the Singing Christian" (he sang some Gospel songs, and was the son of a preacher), but he also recorded blues songs under the name Pinewood Tom. Later discovered by
John H. Hammond
John Henry Hammond Jr. (December 15, 1910 – July 10, 1987) was an American record producer, civil rights activist, and music critic active from the 1930s to the early 1980s. In his service as a talent scout, Hammond became one of the most in ...
and groomed for both stage performance and a major-label recording career, his repertoire expanded to include urban blues, jazz, and gleanings from a broad folk repertoire, in addition to rural blues and gospel. White gained a very wide following in the 1940s and had a huge influence on later blues artists and groups, as well as the general folk-music scene. His pro-justice and civil-rights stances provoked harsh treatment during the suspicious
HUAC
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty an ...
era, seriously harming his performing career in the 1950s and keeping him off television until 1963. In folk-music circles, however, he retained respect and was admired both as a musical hero and a link with the Southern rural-blues and gospel traditions.
*
Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte ( ; born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023) was an American singer, actor, and civil rights activist who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. Belafonte ...
, another influential performer inspired in part by
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for h ...
, started his career as a club singer in New York to pay for his acting classes. In 1952, he signed a contract with
RCA Victor
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...
and released his first record album, ''Mark Twain and Other Folk Favorites''. His breakthrough album ''Calypso (album), Calypso'' (1956) was the first LP to sell over a million copies. The album spent 31 weeks at number one, 58 weeks in the top ten, and 99 weeks on the US charts. It introduced American audiences to Calypso music, and Belafonte was dubbed the "King of Calypso". Belafonte went on to record in many genres, including blues, American folk, Gospel music, gospel, and more.
Odetta
Odetta Holmes (December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008), known as Odetta, was an American singer, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and s ...
sang "Waterboy (song), Water Boy" and performed a duet with Belafonte of "There's a Hole in My Bucket" that hit the national charts in 1961.
*Odetta, Odetta Holmes – Starting in 1953 singers Odetta & Larry, Odetta and Larry Mohr recorded some songs, with the LP being released in 1954 as ''The Tin Angel, Odetta and Larry'', an album that was partially recorded live at San Francisco's Tin Angel bar. Odetta enjoyed a long and respected career, with a repertoire of traditional songs (e.g., spirituals) and blues until her death in 2008, becoming known as "the Voice of the Civil Rights Movement", and "the Queen of American Folk Music" (Martin Luther King Jr.).
*
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, ...
was formed in 1957 in the Palo Alto, California area by Bob Shane, Nick Reynolds, and Dave Guard, who were just out of college. They were greatly influenced by the Weavers, the calypso sounds of Belafonte, and other semi-pop folk artists such as the Gateway Singers and The Tarriers. The unexpected and surprising influence of their hit record "
Tom Dooley" (which sold almost four million units and is often credited with initiating the pop music aspect of the folk revival) and the unprecedented popularity and album sales of this group from 1957 to 1963, including fourteen top ten and five number-one LPs on the ''Billboard'' charts, were significant factors in creating a commercial and mainstream audience for folk-style music where little had existed prior to their emergence.
The Kingston Trio's success was followed by other highly successful 60s pop-folk acts, such as
The Limeliters and
The Highwaymen (whose version of "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" reached No. 1 on the U.S. hit parade in September 1961).
*
Dave Van Ronk was a mainstay of the scene, the so-called "Mayor of Macdougal Street". He was a mentor and inspiration for
Tom Paxton
Thomas Richard Paxton (born October 31, 1937) is an American folk singer-songwriter whose career spans more than sixty years. In 2009, Paxton received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. , Christine Lavin,
Joni Mitchell
Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...
,
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Ramblin' Jack Elliott (born Elliott Charles Adnopoz; August 1, 1931) is an American folk singer, songwriter and story teller.
Life and career
Elliott was born in 1931 in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Florence (Rieger) and Abraham Adno ...
, and Bob Dylan (who described Van Ronk as "the king who reigned supreme" in the Village)
*
The Brothers Four: Their first album, ''The Brothers Four (album), The Brothers Four'', released toward the end of the year, made the top 20. Other highlights of their early career included singing their fourth single, "The Green Leaves of Summer", from the John Wayne movie ''The Alamo (1960 film), The Alamo'', at the 1961 Academy Awards. Their third album, ''BMOC: Best Music On/Off Campus'', was a top 10 LP. They also recorded the title song for the Hollywood film ''Five Weeks in a Balloon (film), Five Weeks in a Balloon'' in 1962 and the theme song for the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television series ''Hootenanny (U.S. TV series), Hootenanny''.
*
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs (; December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American songwriter, protest song, protest singer (or, as he preferred, "topical singer"), and Political Activist, political activist. Ochs was known for his sharp wit, sardonic h ...
is most known for his topical songs such as "I Ain't Marching Anymore" and "Draft Dodger Rag", but he can also be credited as one of the major figures in the antiwar movement during the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
. Ochs started a rally in Los Angeles and penned War is Over detailing the cause. He also wrote gentler and more poetic tunes such as "When I'm Gone" and "Changes".
*
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (, ; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing mo ...
's career got started in 1958 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where at 17 she gave her first coffee-house concert. She was invited to perform at the 1959
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival. The festival was founded by music promoter and Jazz Festival founder Geor ...
by pop-folk star Bob Gibson (musician), Bob Gibson, after which Baez was sometimes called "the barefoot Mary (mother of Jesus), Madonna", gaining renown for her clear voice and three-octave range. She recorded her Joan Baez (album), first album for an established label the following year – a collection of laments and traditional folk ballads from the British Isles, accompanying the songs with guitar. Her Joan Baez, Vol. 2, second LP release went gold, as did her next (live) albums. One record featured her rendition of a song by the then-unknown Bob Dylan. In the early 1960s, Baez moved into the forefront of the American folk-music revival. Increasingly, her personal convictions – peace, social justice, anti-poverty – were reflected in the topical songs that made up a growing portion of her repertoire, to the point that Baez became a symbol for these particular concerns.
*
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
often performed and sometimes toured with Joan Baez, starting when she was a singer of mostly traditional songs. As Baez adopted some of Dylan's songs into her repertoire and introduced Dylan to her avid audiences, it helped the young songwriter to gain initial recognition. By the time Dylan recorded his Bob Dylan (album), first LP (1962), he had developed a style reminiscent of Woody Guthrie. He began to write songs that captured the "progressive" mood on the college campuses and in the coffee houses. Though by 1964 there were many new guitar-playing singer-songwriters, it is arguable that Dylan eventually became the most popular of these younger folk-music-revival performers.
*Peter, Paul, and Mary debuted in the early 1960s and were an American trio who ultimately became one of the biggest musical acts of the 1960s. The trio was composed of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers. They were one of the main folk music torchbearers of social commentary music in that decade. During the 1960s, they won five Grammy Awards. As the decade passed, their music incorporated more elements of pop and rock.
*
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning nearly seven decades. An Academy Awards, Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Awards, Grammy Award-winning rec ...
, sometimes known as Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, ""Judy Blue Eyes"" debuted in the early 1960s. At first, she sang traditional folk songs or songs written by others – in particular the protest poets of the time, such as
Tom Paxton
Thomas Richard Paxton (born October 31, 1937) is an American folk singer-songwriter whose career spans more than sixty years. In 2009, Paxton received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. ,
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs (; December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American songwriter, protest song, protest singer (or, as he preferred, "topical singer"), and Political Activist, political activist. Ochs was known for his sharp wit, sardonic h ...
, and
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
. She also recorded her own versions of important songs from the period, such as Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man", Ian Tyson's "Someday Soon (Ian Tyson song), Someday Soon", and
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
's "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season), Turn, Turn, Turn". Collins eventually started writing her own songs, several of which became hits both for herself and for other artists.
*The Smothers Brothers, composed of Tom and Dick Smothers, used comedy to promote folk music on their CBS-TV variety series (1967–1969), along with social protest against the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
et al. They had many notable music guests such as blacklisted folk singer
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
.
Gallery
File:Woody Guthrie 2.jpg, Woody Guthrie in 1943
File:Burlives.jpg, Burl Ives in 1955
File:Pete Seeger NYWTS.jpg, Pete Seeger in 1955
File:Josh White, Café Society (Downtown), New York, N.Y., ca. June 1946 (William P. Gottlieb 09091).jpg, Josh White, Café Society (Downtown), New York, N.Y., c. June 1946
File:Harry Belafonte Civil Rights March 1963.jpg, Harry Belafonte speaking at the 1963 March on Washington, Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C.
File:Odetta (1961).jpg, Odetta, 1961
File:Joan Baez 1963.jpg, Joan Baez playing at the March on Washington in August 1963
File:Joan Baez Bob Dylan.jpg, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan at the March on Washington, 1963
File:Bob Dylan in November 1963.jpg, Bob Dylan in November 1963
File:Peter paul and mary publicity photo.JPG, Peter, Paul and Mary
File:Judy Collins solo performance 1967.JPG, Judy Collins performing on ''The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour'', 1967
File:Tom Smothers Dick Smothers Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour 1968.JPG, The Smothers Brothers in 1967
Other performers
*Eric Andersen
*Leon Bibb (musician), Leon Bibb
*David Blue (musician), David Blue
*David Bromberg
*Bud & Travis
*Guy Carawan
*Johnny Cash
*
Harry Chapin
Harry Forster Chapin (; December 7, 1942 – July 16, 1981) was an American singer-songwriter, philanthropist, and hunger activist best known for his folk rock and pop rock songs. He achieved worldwide success in the 1970s. Chapin, a Grammy Award- ...
*Sam Charters
*Guy Clark
*Paul Clayton (folksinger), Paul Clayton
*John Cohen (musician), John Cohen
*Leonard Cohen
*Shawn Colvin
*Elizabeth Cotten
*Karen Dalton
*Barbara Dane
*
Erik Darling
*
John Denver
Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American Country music, country and Folk music, folk singer, songwriter, and actor. He was one of the most popular acoustic m ...
*Donovan
*
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Ramblin' Jack Elliott (born Elliott Charles Adnopoz; August 1, 1931) is an American folk singer, songwriter and story teller.
Life and career
Elliott was born in 1931 in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Florence (Rieger) and Abraham Adno ...
*Logan English
*Even Dozen Jug Band
*Mimi Fariña
*Richard Fariña
*Jackson C. Frank
*The Freedom Singers
*Gale Garnett
*Gateway Singers
*Bob Gibson (musician), Bob Gibson
*Cynthia Gooding
*The Greenbriar Boys
*David Grisman
*Stefan Grossman
*John P. Hammond
*Tim Hardin
*Richie Havens
*
Lee Hays
*John Herald
*
Carolyn Hester
Carolyn Sue Hester (born January 28, 1937) is an American folk singer and songwriter. She was a figure in the early 1960s American folk music revival.
Biography
Hester's first album was produced by Norman Petty in 1957. She made her second a ...
*Joe Hickerson
*The Highwaymen (folk band)
*David Holt (musician)
*The Holy Modal Rounders
*
Cisco Houston
Gilbert Vandine "Cisco" Houston (August 18, 1918 – April 29, 1961) was an American folk singer and songwriter, who is closely associated with Woody Guthrie due to their extensive history of traveling and recording together.
Houston was a reg ...
*Janis Ian
*Skip James
*Joe and Eddie
*Lisa Kindred
*Kossoy Sisters
*Peter La Farge
*Bruce Langhorne
*
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (November 17, 1938 – May 1, 2023) was a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved worldwide success and helped define the singer-songwriter era of the 1970s. Widely considered one of Canada's greatest songwriters, ...
*
The Lovin' Spoonful
The Lovin' Spoonful is a Canadian-American folk-rock band formed in Greenwich Village, New York City, in 1964. The band were among the most popular groups in the United States for a short period in the mid-1960s and their music and image influ ...
*Ewan MacColl
*Ed McCurdy
*Roger McGuinn
*Maria Muldaur
*Geoff Muldaur
*Jo Mapes
*
Joni Mitchell
Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...
*Bob Neuwirth
*New Lost City Ramblers
*
Tom Paxton
Thomas Richard Paxton (born October 31, 1937) is an American folk singer-songwriter whose career spans more than sixty years. In 2009, Paxton received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
*Malvina Reynolds
*Fritz Richmond
*Gil Robbins
*The Rooftop Singers
*Dick Rosmini
*
Tom Rush
Tom Rush (born February 8, 1941) is an American folk and blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter whose success helped launch the careers of other singer-songwriters in the 1960s and who has continued his own singing career for 60 years.
Life ...
*Tony Saletan
*John Sebastian
*Mike Seeger
*Peggy Seeger
*The Serendipity Singers
*Simon & Garfunkel
*Patrick Sky
*Rosalie Sorrels
*Ellen Stekert
*The Tarriers
*Artie Traum
*Happy Traum
*Ian and Sylvia
*Eric Von Schmidt
*The Washington Squares
*
Doc Watson
Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson (March 3, 1923 – May 29, 2012) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music. He won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His ...
*Gillian Welch
*Hedy West
*Robin and Linda Williams
*Glenn Yarborough
Managers
* Albert Grossman
* Harold Leventhal
* Victor Maymudes
* Fred Weintraub
*
Frank Werber
Venues
* The Bitter End
* Cafe Au Go Go
* Caffè Lena
* Cafe Wha?
* Calliope: Pittsburgh Folk Music Society
* Club Passim
* Eighth Step Coffee House
* Gate of Horn
* Gerdes Folk City
* The Gaslight Cafe
* Hungry i
* The Ice House (comedy club)
* The Main Point
* The Purple Onion
* Shaker Village Work Group
* The Tin Angel
* Troubadour (West Hollywood, California), The Troubadour
* Village Vanguard
Periodicals
* ''Broadside (magazine), Broadside''
* ''
People's Songs''
* ''Sing Out!''
See also
*
American folk music
The term American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as ''traditional music'', ''traditional folk music'', ''contemporary folk music'', ''vernacular music,'' or ''roots music''. Many traditional songs have been sung ...
*
Anthology of American Folk Music
''Anthology of American Folk Music'' is a three-volume compilation album released in August 1952 by Folkways Records. The album was compiled by experimental filmmaker Harry Smith from his own personal collection of 78 rpm records. It consists ...
* British folk revival
* Contemporary folk music
* Festival (1967 film), Festival
* Folk club
* Folk music
* Folk rock
*
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.
History
The Folkways Records & Service ...
* Hootenanny (U.S. TV series)
* March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
* A Mighty Wind
*
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival. The festival was founded by music promoter and Jazz Festival founder Geor ...
* New Weird America
* No Direction Home
* A Prairie Home Companion
* Protest songs in the United States
* Roots revival
Notes
Bibliography
*Cantwell, Robert
''When We Were Good: The Folk Revival'' Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996.
* Cohen, Ronald D.
''Folk music: the basics'' Routledge, 2006.
* Cohen, Ronald D.
''A history of folk music festivals in the United States'' Scarecrow Press, 2008
*Cohen, Ronald D.
''Rainbow Quest: The Folk Music Revival & American Society, 1940–1970'' Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2002.
*Cohen, Ronald D., ed. ''Wasn't That a Time? Firsthand Accounts of the Folk Music Revival. American Folk Music Series no. 4''. Lanham, Maryland and Folkestone, UK: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. 1995.
*Cohen, Ronald D., and Dave Samuelson. ''Songs for Political Action''. Booklet to Bear Family Records BCD 15720 JL, 1996.
*Cray, Ed, and Studs Terkel. ''Ramblin Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie''. W.W. Norton & Co., 2006.
*Cunningham, Agnes "Sis", and Gordon Friesen. ''Red Dust and Broadsides: A Joint Autobiography''. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.
* De Turk, David A.; Poulin, A. Jr., ''The American folk scene; dimensions of the folksong revival'', New York : Dell Pub. Co., 1967
*Denisoff, R. Serge. ''Great Day Coming: Folk Music and the American Left''. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1971.
*Denisoff, R. Serge. ''Sing Me a Song of Social Significance''. Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1972.
*Denning, Michael. ''The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century''. London: Verso, 1996.
* Donaldson, Rachel Clare
''Music for the People: the Folk Music Revival And American Identity, 1930–1970'' PhD Dissertation, Vanderbilt University, May 2011, Nashville, Tennessee
*David King Dunaway, Dunaway, David. ''How Can I Keep From Singing: The Ballad of Pete Seeger''. [1981, 1990] Villard, 2008.
*Eyerman, Ron, and Scott Barretta. "From the 30s to the 60s: The folk Music Revival in the United States". ''Theory and Society'': 25 (1996): 501–43.
*Eyerman, Ron, and Andrew Jamison. ''Music and Social Movements. Mobilizing Traditions in the Twentieth Century''. Cambridge University Press, 1998.
*Filene, Benjamin. ''Romancing the Folk: Public Memory & American Roots Music''. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000.
*Goldsmith, Peter D. ''Making People's Music: Moe Asch and Folkways Records''. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998.
*Hajdu, David. ''Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña and Richard Fariña''. New York: North Point Press, 2001.
*Hawes, Bess Lomax. ''Sing It Pretty''. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008
*Jackson, Bruce, ed. ''Folklore and Society. Essay in Honor of Benjamin A. Botkin''. Hatboro, Pa Folklore Associates, 1966
*Lieberman, Robbie. ''"My Song Is My Weapon:" People's Songs, American Communism, and the Politics of Culture, 1930–50''. 1989; Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995.
*Lomax, Alan, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger, eds. ''Hard Hit Songs for Hard Hit People''. New York: Oak Publications, 1967. Reprint, Lincoln University of Nebraska Press, 1999.
*Lynch, Timothy. ''Strike Song of the Depression (American Made Music Series)''. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001.
* Mitchell, Gillian
''The North American folk music revival: nation and identity in the United States and Canada, 1945–1980'' Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2007
*Reuss, Richard, with [finished posthumously by] Joanne C. Reuss. ''American Folk Music and Left Wing Politics. 1927–1957. American Folk Music Series no. 4''. Lanham, Maryland and Folkestone, UK: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. 2000.
*Rubeck, Jack; Shaw, Allan; Blake, Ben et al. ''The Kingston Trio On Record''. Naperville, IL: KK, Inc, 1986.
*Scully, Michael F. ''The Never-Ending Revival: Rounder Records and the Folk Alliance''. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 200
*Seeger, Pete. ''Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Singer's Stories''. Bethlehem, Pa.: Sing Out Publications, 1993.
*"The Smothers Brothers". The Sixties in America Reference Library. Encyclopedia.com. 6 Apr. 2021
Encyclopedia.com , Free Online Encyclopedia.
*Willens, Doris. ''Lonesome Traveler: The Life of Lee Hays''. New York: Norton, 1988.
*Weissman, Dick. ''Which Side Are You On? An Inside History of the Folk Music Revival in America''. New York: Continuum, 2005.
*Wolfe, Charles, and Kip Lornell. ''The Life and Legend of Leadbelly''. New York: Da Capo [1992] 1999.
External links
Folk Music Revival. American Folklife Center. Library of Congress.Field Recorders Collective– a collection of CDs of American traditional styles; Appalachian, fiddling, banjo, Cajun, Gospel from private collections now made available to the public
"Blowin in the Wind: Pop discovers folk music" Part 1 Show 18 of John Gilliland's ''The Pop Chronicles'', Digital Library of the University of North Texas. The story of the origins of the American Folk Revival is narrated by
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk music, folk singer-songwriter. He is known for singing protest song, songs of protest against social injustice, and storytelling while performing songs, following the tradition of his fa ...
,
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
, Nick Reynolds of
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, ...
, Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, with satirist Stan Freberg (as a bongo-playing 1950s beatnik). It features
Lead Belly
Huddie William Ledbetter ( ; January 1888 or 1889 – December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk music, folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the ...
,
The Almanac Singers,
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...
,
Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte ( ; born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023) was an American singer, actor, and civil rights activist who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. Belafonte ...
, and
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, ...
. In it, Pete Seeger is heard repeatedly crediting
Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music during the 20th century. He was a musician, folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activ ...
as the most important figure in initiating the American folk revival by taking folk music out of the archives and "giving it to singers". Nick Reynolds and Roger McGuinn credit The Weavers and the labor songs of the
Almanac Singers as the inspiration for
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, ...
and The Byrds. The role of ''
Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine in asserting distinctions between pop versus "purist" folk music is also discussed. See also the continuation of this sho
"Blowin in the Wind: Pop discovers folk music" Part 2Show 19, featuring
Odetta
Odetta Holmes (December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008), known as Odetta, was an American singer, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and s ...
,
The Limeliters,
The Brothers Four, Peter Paul and Mary, Glenn Yarbrough,
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie (born Beverley Jean Santamaria; February 20, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and social activist.
Sainte-Marie's singing and writing repertoire includes subjects of love, war, religion, and mysticism, and h ...
,
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning nearly seven decades. An Academy Awards, Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Awards, Grammy Award-winning rec ...
, and
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (, ; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing mo ...
.
The HistoryscoperThe Folk File: A Folkie's Dictionaryby Bill Markwick (1945–2017) – musical definitions and short biographies for American and U.K. Folk musicians and groups. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
{{Folk music
American folk music, Revival
Retro-style music