1909 – 1995

Ives was raised on a farm, his father was also a contractor. One day he was tending the garden with his mother and both were singing. An uncle heard the young Burl sing and invited him to sing at a soldier’s reunion that was about to take place. He saing “Barbara Allen” and his sweet voice was well received.

He would enroll in a teacher’s college, where he also played football, but soon realized that school was not for him. He traveled the country picking up odd jobs and singing, and at one point was arrested for vagrancy and for singing the bawdy song “Foggy Foggy Dew”.

By 1940 Burl Ives was singing his songs on national radio and was given his own show. Ives would popularize a number of traditional folk songs on the show, including “Blue Tail Fly”, the 17th century song “Lavendar Blue”, and the song that became the title for the program – “The Wayfaring Stranger”. He also sang the old hobo ballad “The Big Rock Candy Mountain”, one of the first songs that I recall singing as a child. Of course, Ives did not sing the last stanza of the song that reveals the hobo was trying to entice a child to join him on the road for decidely perverse reasons.

Ives became friends with the folk community of the time, traveling with Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. He performed folk songs and New York City nightclubs and recorded a number of albums for Stinson Records – including “Wayfaring Stranger” and would then record for Decca with albums such as a three volume set titled ” Ballads & Folk Songs, Women: Folk Songs About the Fair Sex”, “Folk Songs Dramatic and Humorous”, and his first holiday album “Christmas Day in the Morning”. Later albums would include “Return of the Wayfaring Stranger”, “More Folk Songs” and “American Hymns”. Ives acting career was taking off, and he appeared on Broadway in various productions including the 1944 production of the folk-music based “Sing Out Sweet Land”.

For all his influence during the period, and even though Ives albums were the best selling albums of folk music during the 1940’s, it is rare to hear Ives name mentioned in folk circles or even heard on the radio. I admit my own reluctance – for a number of reasons which include the lack of available sonically pleasing recordings, the commercial tone of some of his work, and of course – his infamous dealing with the House on UnAmerican Activies Committee.

In 1950, Ives name appeared in a pamphlet called “Red Channels”. The publication identified individuals in the entertainment industry with communist ties or simply connections to leftist politics. HUAC began investigating and a number of individuals became scared. Ives cooperated with HUAC and volunteered to appear. He declared that he was never a communist but had accompanied Pete Seeger to a number of union meetings and rallies. Ives would claim he did this to remain connected to the working class, but in front of the committee he was forthcoming about “naming names”.

Obviously, there were many people who felt Ives betrayed them. Ives appeared to be saving his own butt and cooperating simply to save his own career. The fact that he was adding to the blacklisting of his friends did not seem to enter into his decision to cooperate. Ives and the folk music community came to the end of the road, and Ives would rarely be involved in events organized by folk organizations.

That is not to say that Ives was finished with folk music. He continued to record and his recordings would become very popular in the United Kingdom. During the 1960’s, Ives began recording country music – although he continued to explore “folk” artists as evidenced by his 1968 recording of Dylan’s “The Times They Are a Changin”.

There is a famous story, repeated in the late Dave Van Ronk’s autobiography, about the time Oscar Brand was playing Burl Ives on his WNYC radio show. Brand’s show was argueably the most important folk music radio program of the time, and Van Ronk was incensed that Brand would play the music of this “traitor”. Oscar simply looked at Van Ronk and said “those of us on the left do not blacklist”.

Oscar’s remarkable sense of fairness and judgement was lost on many others however. Ives had a remarkable career as an actor – who will ever forget Ives as “Big Daddy Cane” in a role that was specially written for the actor by Tennessee Williams for “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof”. And of course, for the rest of time, he will be recalled at Christmastime as the Snowman in the classic TV-cartoon “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”. Ives introduced “new” holiday classics in that one program such as “Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Silver and Gold”.

Unfortunately, the folk community would not forgive and forget easily. In 1993, Ives was invited to appear at an “all-star” benefit concert at the 92nd Street Y that was honoring folk music and the artists had appeared there. Seeger and Ives were invited, to the horror of many. The two were kept separate backstage. Ives, who was still persona non grata and 83 years old at the time, was met with a cold reception by the audience. After Ives played a few songs to polite applause, Pete silently walked out on stage and without saying a word, bent over and kissed Ives on the top of his head and then started singing “Blue Tail Fly” with Ives. A simple gesture that spoke volumes.

Ives may have made a decision to save his own ass – as many others did, and that decision would separate him from what could have been a strong legacy. Ives contribution to folk music should not be underestimated in the 1940’s. We can only imagine what else could have occured if did not cooperate with HUAC.

In a day and age where we see Pete Seeger honored by those who shunned him decades earlier, perhaps we should also re-examine the career and legacy of Burl Ives. While the Weavers are given credit for bringing folk music to mass audiences, it should be remembered that Ives was on the scene a decade earlier and perhaps in some respects made it easier for all the music that was to follow.