Oscar Brand Celebrates His 90th!
Oscar Brand turns 90!
Our good friend and mentor, OSCAR BRAND, one of the last remaining fathers of North American Folk Music, author of 11 best selling books, pioneering star of radio and early television, and a composer for Broadway and film, is celebrating his 90th Birthday this Sunday, February 7th. Pass it along!
Oscar, a native of Winnipeg, who recently released his 100th record album, has been performing for 70 years, and has begun the 65th year of his weekly radio show Folksong Festival (the only radio show in the USA who dared feature blacklisted folk singers during the McCarthy era). While helping to preserve American folk music, some of the folk artists who regularly appeared on Oscar’s radio show in the 1940s and 1950s included Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie (and young Arlo), Josh White (and Josh, Jr.), Paul Robeson, Burl Ives, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Pete Seeger and The Weavers, Jean Ritchie, Ed McCurdy, Theo Bikel, Odetta, Bob Gibson, The Clancy Brothers, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. In the early 1960s, the next folk generation of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary, Phil Ochs and Judy Collins joined Oscar on his show. . . . and it has continued as so with each decade into 2010. Oscar has also written eleven best selling books; his 1952 million selling song “A Guy is a Guy” was Song of the Year; and he is the co-founder (with Johnny Mercer, Sammy Cahn and Frank Sinatra) and Curator of the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. His song, “Something to Sing About” (theme song of his popular CBC-TV folk music variety show of the 1960s, Let’s Sing Out!) has become the alternative national anthem of Canada. Oscar is one of the last three remaining performing artists to have shared the stage with Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Josh White, Burl Ives and Paul Robeson (along with Pete Seeger and Josh White, Jr.). He is also an EMMY and 2 time Peabody Award (the 2nd one shared with Oprah Winfrey) star of television and radio and a member of the board that founded “Sesame Street.” He hosted, produced and composed for more than 70 documentary films; in addition to hosting a variety of Talk Shows on virtually every national radio and television network, interviewing a broad-range of guests, including: Eleanor Roosevelt, Carl Sandburg, John Garfield, Buckminster Fuller, Johnny Mercer, Marshal McLuhan, Supreme Court Justice Douglas, Robert Kennedy, Kate Smith, Merv Griffin, Sargent Shriver, Edward G. Robinson, Mayors LaGuardia, Koch and Lindsey, Mitch Miller and Stiller & Meara, to name a few. “Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour” (the national radio and webcast concert show broadcasting to 500 markets in America and abroad), recorded and filmed a concert two weeks in Lexington, Kentucky to celebrate Oscar’s birthday and his massive contribution to the arts (which will be aired in March). CBC-Radio is broadcasting a 30 minute tribute to Oscar this Sunday on his birthday, and many celebration requests are now being considered. In addition to his weekly radio show, Oscar is busy writing his long anticipated autobiography, recording a new composition for Presidents Day to honor all the past presidents of America, and as always, preparing for his next concert.
For more info, check out www.oscarbrand.com.