WOODY
SEZ...
"There's
several ways of saying what's on your mind. And in states and
counties where it ain't any too healthy to talk too loud, speak
your mind, or even to vote like you want to, folks have found
other ways of getting the word around.
One of the mainest ways is by singing. Drop the word 'folk' and
just call it real old honest to god American singing. No matter
who makes it up, no matter who sings it and who don't, if it talks
the lingo of the people, it's a cinch to catch on, and will be
sung here and yonder for a long time after you've cashed in your
chips.
If the fight gets hot, the songs get hotter. If the going gets
tough, the songs get tougher."
-
Source: Big
Guns (by the Almanac Singers)
Pastures
of Plenty, pg. 78
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From
left: Woody, Millard Lampell, Bess Lomax, Pete Seeger, Arthur
Stern, and Sis Cunningham. The
Almanac Singers in 1941. |
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NEW
YORK TOWN (1940-1941)
New York City, New York
Never comfortable with
success, or being in one place for too long, Woody headed east for
New York City, arriving in 1940. He was quickly embraced for his
Steinbeckian homespun wisdom and musical "authenticity"
by leftist organizations, artists, writers, musicians, and progressive
intellectuals. That same year, folklorist Alan Lomax recorded Woody
in a series of conversations and songs for the Library of Congress
in Washington, DC. Woody also recorded “Dust Bowl Ballads” for RCA Victor, his first album of original songs, and throughout
the 1940s he continued to record hundreds of discs for Moses Asch,
founder of Folkways Records. The recordings from this early period
continue to be touchstones for folk music singer-songwriters everywhere.
In New York City, Lead
Belly, Cisco Houston, Burl Ives, Pete Seeger, Will Geer, Sonny Terry,
Brownie McGhee, Josh White, Millard Lampell, Bess Hawes, Sis Cunningham,
among others, all became Woody's close friends and musical collaborators.
Forming a loosely knit folk group called The Almanac Singers, they
took up social causes such as union organizing, anti-Fascism, strengthening
the Communist Party, peace, and generally fighting for the things
they believed in the best way they could: through songs of political
protest and activism. Woody became one of the prominent songwriters
for the Almanac Singers.
The Almanacs helped to
establish folk music as a viable commercial genre within the popular
music industry. A decade later, original members of the Almanacs
would re-form as the Weavers, the most commercially successful and
influential folk music group of the early 1950s. It was through
their tremendous popularity that Woody’s songs would become
known to the larger public.
With increasing
popularity, prosperity and critical success from public performances,
recordings, and even his own radio show, Woody could afford to bring
his struggling family to New York to enjoy his new found success.
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READ
LYRICS FROM THIS TIME:
Talkin'
Subway Blues This
Land Is Your Land
Tom
Joad
Union
Maid |
