tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post1263300214019432554..comments2024-03-28T11:33:16.271-05:00Comments on Adventus: Putting Seeger (meagerly) in contextUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-19959511561558086242014-01-29T16:34:07.837-06:002014-01-29T16:34:07.837-06:00I count myself as an old folkie from my earlier da...I count myself as an old folkie from my earlier days, but I'm afraid I was always more a pop-folkie than an authentic folkie. When I was a kid I loved Peter Paul & Mary and the Byrds and the Hollies and the Kingston Trio and, God help us, the New Christy Minstrals (mercilessly portrayed as the New Main Street Singers in the wonderful A Mighty Wind). Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan weren't even on my radar in those early days. Even my first encounter with Simon and Garfunkle was The Sounds of Silence--it wasn't till years later that I listed to Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., to hear two Jewish kids from New York pounding out "He Brought Joy, Joy, Joy into My Heart."<br /><br />A few years back I was invited to a friend's house and told to bring my mandolin--an instrument I took up at age 16, and haven't improved on since age 17--and was introduced to an old folk singer named Billy--I forget his last name--who claimed to have taught Paul Stokey how the play the guitar. No recordings, just a lot of playing. I have no idea how accurate that claim was, but I have no reason to doubt it, how the old folk scene was populated by singers and players like Roscoe Holcomb, who actually spent much of their lives doing things like coal mining.<br /><br />That split between the rough and the smooth, the amateur the commercial, was illustrated on a CD I once borrowed from my son, who was taking a course on American Popular Song at college. The first of the two CD's that came with his book began with Stephen Foster. The second CD began with 6 rock and roll recordings of three songs, three original versions by African Americans, and the same three songs as popularized by white performers. Not a split confined to folk music.<br /><br />So Seeger wasn't on my radar in his heyday. My only highly tenuous connection with him was the fact that my Evidence professor, in an earlier life as a federal prosecutor, conducted Seeger's trial for not testifying before HUAC. Though a popular teacher, he was roundly hissed by the class when that little gem slipped out.<br /><br />Turn, turn, turn. rick allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07612435616018593956noreply@blogger.com