ROOTS OF THE REVIVAL: American and
British Folk Music in the 1950s
Ronald D. Cohen and Rachel Clare Robinson
Roots of the Revival: American and
British Folk Music in the 1950s
University of Illinois Press 978-0-252-08012-8
From chain-gang work songs and the skiffle music of Lonnie Donegan to the folk-blues of Josh White, the calypso of the Trinidad Steel Band and the gospel-singing of Rev. Gary Davis, from the bawdy ballads of Oscar Brand and the protest songs of the Pete Seeger banjo-driven Weavers and Woody Guthrie to the string band sounds of the New Lost City Ramblers and the ever-ingratiating Burl Ives on BBC radio, Roots of the Revival is an exhaustively documented, well-written and long overdue study of the intertwining yet distinct revivals of both the American and British folk music scenes that developed over the course of the 1950s. After setting the stage, in early chapters, with the scholarly work of early music collectors such as Alan Lomax, Francis James Child, Cecil Sharp and Alistair Cooke (who were often performers and radio show hosts as well ) along with documenting the emergence of various traditional folk festivals and the groundbreaking role that Carl Sandburg played in the process, the authors seamlessly move through a decade when the media-driven coverage of the idiom – in song folios and national magazines, on television, juke-boxes, recordings, country radio and at personal appearances – made commercial successes in the States out of the diverse likes of the soon-to-be-blacklisted Weavers, the “questionably authentic” Kingston Trio, calypso-catalyst Harry Belafonte and countless others. Across the pond, BBC radio shows, indie record labels and concerts featuring the likes of Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Shirley Collins (Lomax’s longtime companion), Peggy Seeger, Big Bill Broonzy, Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd led the way. The roles played by lesser-knowns like Billy Faier, Guy Carawan, Sing Out! publisher Moses Asch, Lee Hoffman, Jean Ritchie, Archie Green, Dave Van Ronk and Izzy Young are also delineated. The final two chapters (“Further Developments” and “The Decade Ends”) presage the folk music boom of the 1960s, where Lomax, Seeger and their colleagues (along with Sing Out! Magazine) would play an integral role, while the British 1950s folk revival, keenly indebted to the infusion of songs and performers from the United States would, likewise, ripen into its own folk and rock explosion – complete with out-front transatlantic political overtones. A ten-page photo section (Sing Out!’s initial, May 1950 issue has the sheet music for “The Hammer Song” by Lee Hays and Pete Seeger emblazoned on the cover) is also edifying.
— Gary von Tersch