Irwin Silber 1925-2010

We received the news last night that Irwin Silber, the long-time editor of Sing Out! (from 1950-1977), passed away yesterday (September 8th) at 2:30pm P.S.T.

I didn’t know Irwin well, having come to Sing Out! almost 15 years after he had moved on, but was a big fan of his work for the first 17 years of the magazine, as well as his work as Executive Secretary of People’s Songs from the late 1940s, and his work with Oak Publications during the boom years. It was an honor to have worked with him several times through my editorship and to have shared kudos with him and other Sing Out! editors when Folk Alliance honored Sing Out! with a lifetime achievement award early this decade. (Irwin, Happy Traum, Bob Norman and I accepted the award together, and it was really cool to hear the stories about Sing Out!’s early days and folk music’s intertwining with the HUAC hearings and more.) Irwin’s “Folksingers Wordbook” was something of an inspiration for “Rise Up Singing,” and his “Hard Hitting Songs for Hard Hit People” remains one of the essential guides to the music that rose out of the great depression … there’s no question that his impact on the history of our music is immeasurable.

We’ll be running a full obit in the next issue of the magazine, of course … but I thought folks should know. In the meantime, for more background check out Irwin’s wiki entry. — Mark D. Moss