The Weavers - Biography
By J Poet
The Weavers - Pete Seeger, Fred Hellerman, Ronnie Gilbert, and Lee Hayes - are the most important group of folksingers in the history of American popular music. They laid the foundations for the folk revival 10 years before anybody thought about the possibility of playing folk music for a living, and presented folk music from all over the world, 40 years before the world music movement of the late 70s. In their early days they were genuine pop superstars, performing blues, gospel, protest songs, folk music from all over the world and their own compositions on a series of singles that would have gone gold if gold records had been awarded at that time. Then the anti-communist mania of the 50s struck and they were banned as being anti-American and disbanded for three years. What was to be a one off reunion concert in 1955 was recorded by Vanguard, an early indie label, and sold well enough to make Vanguard a folk powerhouse and The Weavers a force to be reckoned with. They made nine albums for the label that still sound fresh and timeless today, created the climate for the folk revival, set a high standard for musical and political integrity, and wrote or introduced to the public many of the songs that became folk classics. They officially broke up in 1964, but individual Weavers went on to have a major cultural impact on America, especially Seeger, the godfather of American Folk Music. The Weavers were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award Grammy in 2006.
Pete Seeger was the son of folklorist Charles Seeger, who traced his ancestry back to the Pilgrims who came to America on The Mayflower. He started playing banjo at 17 and a trip through the South with his father in the mid 30s exposed him to blues, gospel, work songs and other forms of what John Fahey called “primitive American music.” He met Alan Lomax, son of legendary folklorist John Lomax in the late 30s and they decided to create a form of American protest music drawing on the folk tradition to foster populism, revitalize the union movement and encourage international peace. Seeger’s first populist group was The Almanac Singers with Millard Lampell, Lee Hays, and Woody Guthrie. The group members varied from gig to gig and often included blues singer Josh White making it the only integrated group of its time. The Almanacs were communists and sang mostly for left wing rallies, union meetings and pacifist rallies, but when America entered WWII their politics made it impossible to get bookings.
Hays asked Seeger to try again with a more mainstream, less political approach to the music and after enlisting Fred Hellerman and Ronnie Gilbert, The Weavers were born. In the early 50s an anti-communist mania swept the US, and the atmosphere of fear and paranoia many leftists and peaceniks felt is hard to explain, but progressive people often felt in fear of their lives from the FBI and local police. Still The Weavers sang on, even though concerts often turned into physical confrontations. Oscar Brand, host of WNYC’s folk music program, invited them onto the radio, which led to a record deal with Charter Records. The label went bankrupt before anything was released. In 1949, just about ready to call it quits, the band got booked for a week long gig at the Village Vanguard, a famous jazz club. They went over so well that they played The Vanguard every weekend for six months, just as the first stirrings of the folk revival started.
Gordon Jenkins, a producer at Decca records wanted to sing them, but the label passed until they heard that Columbia was also interested in the band. Their first release was a 10 inch EP We Wish You a Merry Christmas (1952 Decca) but their first single “Tzena Tzena Tzena” b/w “Goodnight Irene” hit #1 for four months and sold more than two million copies. More hit singles followed including “Midnight Special,” “Wimoweh,” a South African song that was also a hit for the Tokens as “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” and “On Top of Old Smoky,” cut with guest vocalist Terry Gilkyson, who led another successful folk group, The Easy Riders. These early sides are collected on Goodnight Irene (1995 MCA.)
Their success alienated their leftist fans because the records were “too pop” and they refused to do political material in their concerts. At the same time, the FBI was watching them, afraid that folk music would have a revolutionary affect on America, which it ultimately did. Seeger was accused of being a communist, gigs vanished and Decca refused to release their music. The group broke up in 1952, but their manager Harold Leventhal (who later handled Joan Baez, Judy Collins and Arlo Guthrie) convinced them to do one last reunion concert at Carnegie Hall on Christmas Eve 1955. The show sold out and the band started performing again. The evening was also recorded and when Vanguard Records released it a few years later as The Weavers at Carnegie Hall (1957 Vanguard, 1988 Vanguard) its success helped kick off the folk revival. A year later The Kingston Trio hit with “Tom Dooley” and folk music became respectable. [Additional material from the 1955 concert was released as The Weavers on Tour (1970 Vanguard, 1993 Vanguard)]
Seeger got a solo deal with Columbia, despite his leftist credentials and was replaced by Erik Darling, the multi-instrumentalist who fronted The Tarriers and went on to found the jazz/folk band Rooftop Singers. That line up made The Weavers at Carnegie Hall, Vol. 2 (1960 Vanguard, 1992 Vanguard) The Weavers at Home (1962 Vanguard) and The Weavers Almanac (1963 Vanguard, 1991 Vanguard) before Darling left to start the Rooftops. Frank Hamilton and Bernie Krause played with the band before their demise, but only appear on The Weavers Reunion at Carnegie Hall (1963 Vanguard, 1992 Vanguard) and The Weavers Reunion at Carnegie Hall, Vol. 2 (1963 Vanguard, 1992 Vanguard.) The concert included all past and present Weavers, Seeger, Darling, Hamilton, Krause, Hays, Hellerman and Gilbert.
In 1980 the original Weavers got together one last time to celebrate the life of Lee Hays, who was dying of complications due to diabetes. Their last Carnegie Hall concert and their turbulent history is captured by the documentary Wasn’t That a Time (soundtrack 2006 ASV Living Era.) The movie was released on videocassette but is currently out of print.
The music of the Weavers has been extensively repackaged; good bets are The Weavers Greatest Hits (1957 Vanguard, 1990 Vanguard), Best of the Decca Years (1996 MCA) and Rarities from the Vanguard Vaults (2003 Vanguard.)