The Almanac Singers

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The Almanac Singers were a short-lived American band formed in New York in early 1941 by Pete Seeger , Lee Hays and Millard Lampell .

Their aim was to develop the political folk song further as an anonymous musicians' collective. Other musicians joined the founders, e. B. Bess Lomax , Alan Lomax's sister , Josh White , his wife Carol, Sam Gary , Woody Guthrie , Arthur Stern, Butch Hawes , Sis Cunningham, and Cisco Houston .

history

In June 1941 Woody Guthrie , who had returned to New York from Los Angeles, also became a member of the band. Their first album Songs For John Doe contained dedicated anti-war songs and was later to serve as evidence of the band's subversive politics to the FBI. Due to the political events - the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union on June 22nd and the entry of the United States into the war after the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor on December 7th - the band, which is politically close to the Communist Party of the USA, changed its stance twice. At first the repertoire did not include anti-war songs and concentrated on anti-fascist and union songs, then it was decided to actively support the war in Europe.

As early as 1941 they had rented an apartment that they called the "Almanac House". Regular music events took place there, which they referred to as "Hootenannies". There the visitors were asked to pay a small entrance fee, but the usual barriers between the audience and the actors at concerts did not exist there, which made it possible to sing and make music together.

The band also went on a US tour that took them to San Francisco . Along the way, the Almanacs performed in front of thousands of workers at union events and performed songs such as Florence Reese's "Which Side Are You On," which the band saw as "direct support for the workers' political and economic struggles." The money for the onward journey was brought in through collections after the concerts.

After they had given up their pacifist and isolationist stance and released an album in early 1942 with "Dear Mr. President" on which they supported the war activities of the US government in the lyrics, the band enjoyed national fame for a short time. Thanks to friends like Alan Lomax, who sat in crucial positions in the war propaganda apparatus, but also the approval of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor , who saw the previous hostility towards their politics, they were able to receive several radio broadcasts and the like. a. doing for CBS . The songs were on the radio, "The Sinking of the Reuben James " by Woody Guthrie became something of a hit. They also got commercially lucrative offers not only for gigs, but also from major labels such as B. Decca . However, the FBI had become aware of the Almanacs' first album, although with some delay, and was now working against them. The offers were withdrawn after several negative newspaper articles about the band's political stance had appeared. In addition, there were personal friction, so that the band broke up in the course of the year.

After the war, some band members re-formed into the Weavers , who also became very popular for a short time, but then fell victim to the anti-communist spirit of the McCarthy era because they were on the black list and were no longer given the opportunity to perform.

In addition to their importance for the radical American trade union movement around the industrial union CIO, which had organized large nationwide strikes up to the start of the war and whose most popular and most important music group they were, the Almanac Singers were also important forerunners of the political folk movement in the USA.

Discography

Albums:

  • 1941 - Songs for John Doe
  • 1941 - Deep Sea Chanteys and Whaling Ballads
  • 1941 - Sod-Buster Ballads
  • 1941 - Talking Union
  • 1942 - Dear Mr. President
  • 1944 - Songs of the Lincoln Battalion

Compilations:

  • 1973 - Talking Union & Other Union Songs
  • 1996 - Their Complete General Recordings
  • 2001 - Songs of Protest
  • 2006 - Which Side Are You On? The Best of The Almanac Singers

Singles:

  • 1941 - Song for Bridges / Babe O 'Mine
  • 1942 - Boomtown Bill / Keep That Oil A-Rollin '

literature

Kaufman, Will - Woody Guthrie - American Radical, University Of Illinois Press 2011 (a chapter on the Almanac Singers)

Web links