The Weavers
The Weavers | |
---|---|
Origin | Frank Hamilton Bernie Krause |
The Weavers were an American
During the
Seeger left the group in 1958. His tenor and banjo part was covered in succession by
History
Formation
In 1940,
The Weavers were formed in November 1948 by Hays, Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, and Fred Hellerman.[4] At Hellerman's suggestion,[5] the group took its name from a play by Gerhart Hauptmann, Die Weber (The Weavers 1892), a powerful work depicting the uprising of the Silesian weavers in 1844 which contains the lines, "I'll stand it no more, come what may".
Early career
After a period of being unable to find much paid work, they landed a steady and successful engagement at the Village Vanguard jazz club. This led to their discovery by arranger-bandleader Gordon Jenkins and their signing with Decca Records. The group had a big hit in 1950 with Lead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene", backed with the 1941 song "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena", which in turn became a best seller.[4] The recording stayed at number one on the charts for 13 weeks, the first folk song arrangement to achieve such success. "Goodnight, Irene" sold one million copies in 1950.[6] (Pete Seeger later wrote that total sales were about two million records.[7][8]) In keeping with the audience expectations of the time, these and other early Weavers' releases had violins and orchestration added behind the group's own string-band instruments. Because of the deepening Red Scare of the early 1950s, their manager Pete Cameron advised them not to sing their most explicitly political songs and to avoid performing at "progressive" venues and events. Because of this, some folk song fans criticized them for watering down their beliefs and commercializing their singing style. But the Weavers felt it was worth it to get their songs before the public, and to avoid the explicit type of commitment which had led to the demise of the Almanacs. The new approach proved a success, leading to many bookings and increased demand for the group's recordings.[9]
The successful concerts and hit recordings of the Weavers helped introduce to new audiences such folk revival standards as "
Film footage of the Weavers is relatively scarce. The group appeared as a specialty act in a B-movie musical, Disc Jockey (1951), and filmed five of their record hits that same year for TV producer Lou Snader: "Goodnight, Irene", "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena", "So Long", "Around the World", and "The Roving Kind".
McCarthy era
During the 1950s
Reunited and later reconstituted
In December 1955, the group reunited to play a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall.[6] The concert was a huge success. A recording of some of the concert, The Weavers at Carnegie Hall, was issued by the independent Vanguard Records, and this led to their signing by that record label. (Additional tracks from the 1955 Carnegie Hall concert were included on 1957's The Weavers on Tour.[14]) By the late 1950s, folk music was surging in popularity and McCarthyism was fading. Yet it was not until the height of the 1960s that Seeger was able to end his blacklisting by appearing on the nationally broadcast CBS-TV variety show The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967.[15]
After the April 1957 LP release of the Carnegie Hall concert, the Weavers launched a month-long concert tour. That August, the group reassembled for a series of recording sessions for Vanguard. As Seeger's college concert bookings grew, the singer felt restricted by his obligations to the group. Vanguard booked the Weavers for a January 15, 1958, session to record a
Seeger recommended
Music style
In a 1968 interview, in response to claims that record companies found the Weavers difficult to classify, Seeger told the Pop Chronicles music documentary to "leave that up to the anthropologists, the folklorists. ... For you and me, the important thing is a song, a good song, a true song. ... Call it anything you want."[4][17]
A documentary film, The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time! (1982), was released after the 1981 death of Hays. The film chronicled the history of the group, including the events leading up to their final reunion.[6] Critic Roger Ebert gave the film four stars out of a possible four in his Chicago Sun-Times review and named it one of his top 10 films for 1982.
After disbanding
Following the Weavers' dissolution, Ronnie Gilbert toured America as a soloist, and Fred Hellerman worked as a recording engineer and producer. Gilbert also performed and recorded with Holly Near, and then (in 1985) as "HARP," featuring Holly Near, Arlo Guthrie, Ronnie Gilbert, and Pete Seeger.
The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. In February 2006, the Weavers received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Represented by members Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman, they struck a chord with the crowd as their struggles with political witch hunts during the 1950s were recounted. "If you can exist, and stay the course – not a course of blind obstinacy and faulty conception – but one of decency and good sense, you can outlast your enemies with your honor and integrity intact", Hellerman said. Some commentators see the reference to "blind obstinacy" as a veiled criticism of those who believed uncritically in all the actions of the Communist Party.
Lee Hays died in 1981, aged 67.[18] His biography, Lonesome Traveler by Doris Willens, was published in 1988.[19] Erik Darling died August 3, 2008, aged 74, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, from lymphoma.[20] After a long career in music and activism, Pete Seeger died at the age of 94 on January 27, 2014, in New York City. Ronnie Gilbert died at the age of 88 on June 6, 2015.[21] Last-surviving founding member Fred Hellerman died at the age of 89 on September 1, 2016.[22]
Members
- Ronnie Gilbert – alto (1948–1952, 1955–1964, 1980; died 2015)
- Lee Hays – bass (1948–1952, 1955–1964, 1980; died 1981)
- Fred Hellerman – baritone, guitar (1948–1952, 1955–1964, 1980; died 2016)
- Pete Seeger – tenor, long-neck banjo (1948–1952, 1955–1958, 1980; died 2014)
- Erik Darling – tenor (1958–1962; died 2008)
- Frank Hamilton– tenor (1962–1963)
- Bernie Krause – tenor (1963–1964)
Partial discography
- The Weavers' Greatest Hits
- The Weavers at Carnegie Hall (live)
- The Weavers at Carnegie Hall Vol. 2 (live)
- Wasn't That a Time! boxed set
- Best of the Vanguard Years
- The Weavers Reunion at Carnegie Hall: 1963 (live)
- The Reunion at Carnegie Hall, 1963, Pt. 2 (live)
- The Weavers at Home – Vanguard VRS 9024 (1957–58)
- Travelling On with The Weavers VRS 9043 (1957–58)
- Reunion at Carnegie Hall No. 2 (live)
- Rarities from the Vanguard Vault
- Kisses Sweeter Than Wine (compilation of 1950–51 live shows, edited by Fred Hellerman)
- The Weavers Almanac
- The Best of the Decca Years
- Ultimate Collection
- The Weavers Classics
- Best of the Weavers
- Gospel
- Goodnight Irene: Weavers 1949–53 boxed set
- We Wish You a Merry Christmas (1952)
- The Weavers on Tour (Live) – Vanguard VRS 9013
- Together Again (Live at Carnegie Hall in 1980, recorded in 1981) Loom 10681
- The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time! (video)
See also
- American folk music revival
- The Kingston Trio
- Red Scare
- "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy", the song that ended Pete Seeger's blacklisting in 1968
References
- ^ "Radicals: Purely for Peace", Time, July 14, 1941, archived from the original on October 19, 2012
- ^ "American Peoples Mobilization Collected Records, 1940-1941". Peace Collection, Swarthmore College.
- ISBN 9780807018910.
- ^ a b c d e Pete Seeger interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969)
- ^ Grimes, William, "Fred Hellerman, Last of the Weavers Folk Group, Dies at 89", The New York Times, September 2, 2016. Retrieved 2016-09-03.
- ^ ISBN 1-85227-745-9.
- ISBN 0-671-22304-6.
- ISBN 978-1-60980-656-9.
- ISBN 0-671-22304-6.
- ^ Edward Renehan. Pete Seeger vs. The Un-Americans: A Tale of the Blacklist. p. 43.
- ^ Edward Renehan. Pete Seeger vs. The Un-Americans: A Tale of the Blacklist. p. 42.
- ^ "Sing out, warning! sing out, love!": the writings of Lee Hays, by Lee Hays and Steven Koppelman (Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2003), p. 116.
- ^ "The Weavers - Inductees - The Vocal Group Hall of Fame Foundation". Vocalhalloffame.com. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved June 26, 2015.
- ^ The Weavers. "On Tour". Discogs. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
- ^ Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, by David Bianculli, Touchstone, 2009.
- ^ Blau, Eleanor (June 19, 1981). "Weavers to Be Reunited at Hudson River Revival". New York Times. Retrieved April 25, 2016.
- ^ Gilliland, John (1969). "O-S interview index" (audio). Pop Chronicles. University of North Texas Libraries.
- ^ Wilson, John S. (August 27, 1981). "Lee Hays, a Co-Founder of The Weavers, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
- ^ Willens, D. Lonesome Traveler: The Life of Lee Hays, W.W. Norton, 1988.
- ^ Weil, Martin (August 7, 2008). "Erik Darling, 74; Singer-Songwriter and Folk Musician". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
- ^ Doc Rock. "January to June 2015". The Dead Rock Stars Club. Retrieved June 26, 2015.
- ^ John Burgeson. "Fred Hellerman, 89, the last of the Weavers". ctpost. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
External links
- Folk music archives article on the Weavers
- Pete Seeger interviewed
- The Weavers discography at Discogs
- The Weavers at IMDb