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Saturday Night Jukebox Folk Era |
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"How many roads must a man walk down"... Folk Music... a very brief history... Folk Music as we know it began to be collected in the mid 1930's by Allan Lomax touring the rural South recording what was believed to be "Folk Music" and discovered unknown folk artists such as "Leadbelly". Woody Guthrie met the "Folk" diffinition and arrived in New York City in 1940 and recorded many traditional and new songs some along with Leadbelly and further established it as a genre associated with the common man and their polital causes. But the unpolished genre of prison and dustbowl ballads cold not compete with popular music on the radio waves. In 1950 The Weavers more polished sound revived folk music. It was soon followed by others as well. Pete Seeger an origial foundeing member of The Weavers,cemmented the genre with political causes and delivered it to awaiting youthful audiance (us) in the early 1960s. 1963 was a historical high point (Newport Folk Festival 1963) for folk music which coincided with our graduatiion. Folk Music enjoyed a popular parallel track with Pop Music during the 1960's on the radio, TV and importantly in the record shops. The Folk music scene was vastly more reflective of the growing political unrest and activism in the country during that time.Buz Franquemont and I would go into Greenwich Village on Tuesday (school) nights to hear so many rising folk artisits perform at the Gaslight Cafe. I learned to nurse a grilled cheese and a cup of coffee for an entire evening... so many memories |
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