The Folk Music Revival, 1958-1970: Biographies of Fifty Performers and Other Influential People

325 Pages·2011·1.11 MB·English

by  David Dicaire

The Folk Music Revival,
1958–1970
ALSO BY DAVID DICAIRE
AND FROM MCFARLAND
The Early Years of Folk Music:
Fifty Founders of the Tradition(2010)
The New Generation of Country Music Stars:
Biographies of 50 Artists Born After 1940 (2008)
The First Generation of Country Music Stars:
Biographies of 50 Artists Born Before 1940 (2007)
Jazz Musicians, 1945 to the Present(2006)
Jazz Musicians of the Early Years, to 1945(2003)
More Blues Singers: Biographies of 50 Artists
from the Later 20th Century(2002)
Blues Singers: Biographies of 50 Legendary Artists
of the Early 20th Century(1999)
The Folk Music
Revival, 1958–1970
Biographies of Fifty Performers
and Other Influential People
D D
AVID ICAIRE
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Dicaire, David, 1963–
The folk music revival, 1958–1970 : biographies of fifty
performers and other influential people / David Dicaire.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-6352-7
softcover : 50# alkaline paper
1. Folk musicians—Biography. 2. Folk music—History
and criticism. I. Title.
ML394.D519 2011
781.62'1300922—dc23
[B] 2011034607
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
© 2011David Dicaire. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, i ncluding photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without p ermission in writing from the publisher.
On the cover: Joan Baez and Bob Dylan at the Civil Rights
March on Washington, D.C., 1963 (National Archives and
Records Administration); guitar © 2011Shutterstock
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To John Brownlie, who will
always have a folk tune in his heart.

Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Part One. The Revivalists: Behind the Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Gordon Friesen (1909–1996) and Agnes “Sis” Cunningham
(1909–2004) Broadside Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Harold Leventhal (1919–2005) The Star Maker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Milton Okun (1923– ) The Studio Chameleon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Irwin Silber (1925–2010) The Broker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Kenneth Goldstein (1927–1995) The Scholarly Folkie . . . . . . . . . 23
Ralph Rinzler (1934–1994) Background Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Frank Hamilton (1934– ) The Teacher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Part Two. The Revivalists: The Performers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Erik Darling (1933–2008) Walk Right In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Doc Watson (1923– ) Deep Gap Folkie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Harry Belafonte (1927– ) Caribbean Folk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Bob Gibson (1931–1996) 12-String Songs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott (1931– ) Hard Travelin’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Eric Von Schmidt (1931–2007) Cambridge Folk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Fred Neil (1936–2001) Cult Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Dave Van Ronk (1936–2002) The Mayor of MacDougal
Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
John “Spider” Koerner (1938– ) Spider Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Judy Collins (1939– ) A Golden Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Richie Havens (1941– ) Mixed Bag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
vii
viii Table of Contents
Tom Rush (1941– ) The Circle Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Tim Hardin (1941–1980) Bird on a Wire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Eric Andersen (1943– ) Blue River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Part Three. The Political Folk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Odetta Holmes (1930–2008) Voice of the Civil Rights
Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Utah Phillips (1935–2008) The Golden Voice of the Great
Southwest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Peggy Seeger (1935– ) Manchester Angel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Tom Paxton (1937– ) Ramblin’ Boy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Carolyn Hester (1937– ) Texas Songbird . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Phil Ochs (1940–1976) The Singing Journalist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Joan Baez (1941– ) Determined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Bob Dylan (1941– ) Folk Troubadour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Country Joe McDonald (1942– ) Fixin’ to Die . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Arlo Guthrie (1947– ) Family Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Part Four. Groups and Duos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
The Kingston Trio (1956– ) Trendsetters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem (1956–2007)
Irish Hearts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Chad Mitchell Trio (1958–1967) Missed Opportunities . . . . . . . 192
New Lost City Ramblers (1958–1975) Old- Time
Reintroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Ian and Sylvia Tyson (1959–1975) Canadian Folk Duo . . . . . . . 204
The Limeliters (1959–1965, 1973–2010) Successful Formula . . . 209
Peter, Paul and Mary (1961–1970) Deep Roots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Simon and Garfunkel (1964–1970) The Sounds of Silence . . . . . 221
The Byrds (1964–1973) Folk Rock Fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
The Lovin’ Spoonful (1965–1968) Good- Time Folk . . . . . . . . . . 236
Part Five. Other Performers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Miriam Makeba (1932–2008) Empress of African Song . . . . . . . 243
Table of Contents ix
Gordon Lightfoot (1938– ) Canadian Troubadour . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Buffy Sainte- Marie (1941– ) Canadian Native Folk . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Martin Carthy (1941– ) Father of the English Folk Revival . . . . 262
Bert Jansch (1943– ) English Finger Picker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Joni Mitchell (1943– ) Canadian Prairie Folk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Ralph McTell (1944– ) Streets of London . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Donovan Leitch (1946– ) Sunshine Superman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303