Lead Belly’s death was not the only significant event at decade’s end. In late August 1949 People’s Artists, the successor to the leftwing People’s Songs, had planned a concert with Paul Robeson and Pete Seeger to be held in Peekskill, New York, just north of New York City. An anticommunist mob rioted, preventing the concert from occurring, but a second conLead Belly died in Bellevue Hospital on December 6, 1949, a victim of the debilitating ALS. While his career had not particularly flourished following the war, he had continued to give concerts and make records. His musical legacy would expand over the coming decades. But Lead Belly’s death was not the only significant event at decade’s end. In late August 1949 People’s Artists, the successor to the leftwing People’s Songs, had planned a concert with Paul Robeson and Pete Seeger to be held in Peekskill, New York, just north of New York City. An anticommunist mob rioted, preventing the concert from occurring, but a second concert with Robeson and Seeger did take place on September 4. While the performers were protected during the concert, as the crowd was leaving they were stoned by the angry mob, resulting in numerous casualties. This indication of mounting Cold War hysteria was a cruel blow to those who thought a peaceful world might be possible.
While the Cold War was escalating, at the end of 1949 four members of People’s Songs, Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays, and Fred Hellerman, who had been informally performing together, began a limited engagement at the Village Vanguard nightclub in Greenwich Village. Using the name “The Weavers,” they initially attracted little attention, but by the end of their extended six-month stay they were getting rave reviews and a record contract with Decca. This was the start of a Cinderella story that was all too brief, but certainly indicated the potential for folk music to reach a broad, enthusiastic public. Their recording of the single “Tzena, Tzena”/“Goodnight, Irene” hit a popular nerve. The Israeli tune shot up the popular record charts in midsummer, reaching number three.
The Lead Belly song “Goodnight, Irene” made it to number one, and remained popular for 25 weeks. The Weavers followed with a string of other hits, including “The Roving Kind,” the Woody Guthrie song, “So Long (It’s Been Good to Know Yuh),” “On Top of Old Smoky,” “Wimoweh,” a South African song adapted by Seeger, and Lead Belly’s “Midnight Special.” “Songs like ours getting on the Hit Parade broke down the barriers between country and pop,” Lee Hays argued. While the Weavers expressed no overt radical politics in their music, their selection of African-American songs and those from other countries certainly hinted at their commitment to civil rights and international understanding and cooperation. Many of their hits were covered by others, such as popular singers Frank Sinatra and Jo Stafford, and their lush melodies with big band backing were a far cry from the rustic, acoustic sources of many of their songs. While this could not be considered traditional folk music, their repertoire was based on a wide range of folk materials and certainly possessed a folk sensibility.
The Weavers’s influence would reach across the following two decades, for they would serve as the inspiration and prototype for the plethora of folk trios, quartets, and so many more that would soon spring up, but their initial career was cut short by the gathering forces of anticommunism. By 1953 they were no longer recording or performing. Other folk musicians also had their careers curtailed, if not crushed, by the Red Scare. Paul Robeson lost his passport, crippling his career for some years. BurlIves, on the other hand, informed on a couple of his old friends, including Richard Dyer-Bennet, in his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Josh White was forced to denounce his former political affiliations before the same committee, although he did not name any names of former “communists.” The anticommunist climate certainly threatened to destroy popular folk performers, but its harsh effect was of limited duration. Indeed, the Weavers regrouped in late 1955, at a famous Christmas concert at Carnegie Hall, and continued to perform for many years. Coincidentally, in 1953 John Greenway published American Folk Songs of Protest, the first scholarly study of the country’s left-wing musical legacy, a rich collection of workers, farmers, and radical songs just as the red scare was reaching its height.
Pete Seeger the American Folk Music Superstar
