Having trouble accessing government information? See the Libraries’ guide to Alternative Sources for Federal Information and Data.
Mike Seeger Research Guide: From the Library Catalog
Books
Gone to the Country by
Gone to the Country chronicles the life and music of the New Lost City Ramblers, a trio of city-bred musicians who helped pioneer the resurgence of southern roots music during the folk revival of the late 1950s and 1960s. Formed in 1958 by Mike Seeger, John Cohen, and Tom Paley, the Ramblers introduced the regional styles of southern ballads, blues, string bands, and bluegrass to northerners yearning for a sound and an experience not found in mainstream music. Ray Allen interweaves biography, history, and music criticism to follow the band from its New York roots to their involvement with the commercial folk music boom. Allen details their struggle to establish themselves amid critical debates about traditionalism brought on by their brand of folk revivalism. He explores how the Ramblers ascribed notions of cultural authenticity to certain musical practices and performers and how the trio served as a link between southern folk music and northern urban audiences who had little previous exposure to rural roots styles. Highlighting the role of tradition in the social upheaval of mid-century America, Gone to the Country draws on extensive interviews and personal correspondence with band members and digs deep into the Ramblers' rich trove of recordings.
Call Number: ML421.N515 A75 2010ISBN: 9780252077470Publication Date: 2010-09-24
John Cohen: Here and Gone by
John Cohen was a founding member of the New Lost City Ramblers, one of the folk revival's most authentic and respected musical groups. In the 1960s he made a series of photographs of the last years of Woody Guthrie's life, and early portraits of Bob Dylan on his arrival in New York, depicting two titans of American music at opposite ends of their careers. In the process, Cohen portrayed one of the great moments of American folk music history. The book contains other images from the 1960s including the music scenes at Washington Square and on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village, images of Jerry Garcia and the musicians in San Francisco's "Family Dog," as well as the psychedelic "Sky River Rock" festival. In 1970, Dylan requested Cohen make another set of color photographs of him with a "camera that could take photographs from a block away." By then, he had become world-famous. Bob was seen walking unrecognized on the streets of the city and at a farm in upstate NY. The photographs were used in Dylan's album "Self Portrait."
Call Number: TR642 .J64 2014ISBN: 9783869306049Publication Date: 2014-10-31
Young Bob by
In 1962, a young John Cohen and the young songwriter Bob Dylan went to Cohen's East Village loft and rooftop for a few hours to take some photos. Now these never-before-published, b/w photographs reveal the soon-to-be legendary musician on the cusp of fame, just before the release of his revolutionary self-titled first album. To complement the images, Cohen has painstakingly transcribed and edited forgotten radio interviews that aired between 1961 and 1963.
Call Number: ML420.D98 C64 2003ISBN: 1576871991Publication Date: 2003-09-01
Folk City by
From Washington Square Park and the Gaslight Cafe to WNYC Radio and Folkways Records, New York City's cultural, artistic, and commercial assets helped to shape a distinctively urban breeding ground for the folk music revival of the 1950s and 60s. Folk City explores New York's central role infueling the nationwide craze for folk music in postwar America. It involves the efforts of record company producers and executives, club owners, concert promoters, festival organizers, musicologists, agents and managers, editors and writers - and, of course, musicians and audiences.In Folk City, authors Stephen Petrus and Ron Cohen capture the exuberance of the times and introduce readers to a host of characters who brought a new style to the biggest audience in the history of popular music. Among the savvy New York entrepreneurs committed to promoting folk music were IzzyYoung of the Folklore Center, Mike Porco of Gerde's Folk City, and John Hammond of Columbia Records. While these and other businessmen developed commercial networks for musicians, the performance venues provided the artists space to test their mettle. The authors portray Village coffee houses notsimply as lively venues but as incubators of a burgeoning counterculture, where artists from diverse backgrounds honed their performance techniques and challenged social conventions. Accessible and engaging, fresh and provocative, rich in anecdotes and primary sources, Folk City is lavishlyillustrated with images collected for the accompanying major exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York in 2015.
Call Number: ML3551.8.N49 P48 2015ISBN: 9780190231026Publication Date: 2015-07-06
Roots of the Revival by
In Roots of the Revival: American and British Folk Music in the 1950s, Ronald D. Cohen and Rachel Clare Donaldson present a transatlantic history of folk's midcentury resurgence that juxtaposes the related but distinct revivals that took place in the United States and Great Britain. nbsp; After setting the stage with the work of music collectors in the nineteenth century, the authors explore the so-called recovery of folk music practices and performers by Alan Lomax and others, including journeys to and within the British Isles that allowed artists and folk music advocates to absorb native forms and facilitate the music's transatlantic exchange. Cohen and Donaldson place the musical and cultural connections of the twin revivals within the decade's social and musical milieu and grapple with the performers' leftist political agendas and artistic challenges, including the fierce debates over "authenticity" in practice and repertoire that erupted when artists like Harry Belafonte and the Kingston Trio carried folk into the popular music mainstream. nbsp; From work songs to skiffle, from the Weavers in Greenwich Village to Burl Ives on the BBC, Roots of the Revival offers a frank and wide-ranging consideration of a time, a movement, and a transformative period in American and British pop culture.
Call Number: ML3545 .C64 2014ISBN: 9780252080128Publication Date: 2014-09-05
Rainbow Quest by
This study reconstructs the history of the folk-music revival in the States, tracing its origins to the early decades of the 20th century. Drawing on scores of interviews and numerous manuscript collections, as well as his own extensive files, Cohen shows how a broad range of traditions - from hillbilly, gospel, blues and sea shanties to cowboy, ethnic and political-protest music - all contributed to the genre known as folk.
Call Number: ML3551 .C58 2002ISBN: 1558493468Publication Date: 2002-11-01
'Wasn't That a Time!' by
In May 1991 the Richard Reuss Memorial Folk Music Conference, the first of its kind, was held at Indiana University in Bloomington. For two days a stellar gathering of folk music performers, scholars, journalists, and activists discussed their memories of the folk music revival in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. These presentations, now substantially revised and published for the first time, give an exciting overview of the revival from a variety of important and stimulating perspectives. Various key performers and folklorists give personal accounts of the time, while Irwin Sibler (editor of Sing Out ) and Jon Pankake and Barry Hansen (editors of The Little Sandy Review) discuss the development and role of the leading folk music magazines. These essays retain the idiosyncrasies of the original presentations, while giving multiple insights and understandings of the folk music revival, a crucial cultural and musical moment in recent U.S. history, as well as racial, gender, and political differences within the revival, popular versus traditional folk music styles, and much more. Scholars and students of folk music and popular music of the 1950s and 1960s, as well as those interested in American popular culture in general, will benefit from these wide-ranging and stimulating essays. Cloth edition 0-8108-2955-X] previously published in 1995.
Call Number: ML3551 .W38 1995ISBN: 9780810841703Publication Date: 1995-01-01
Transforming Tradition by
Transforming Tradition examines the phenomenon of the folk song revival, those vibrant meldings of popular and folk culture that captured public awareness in the 1950s and 1960s. We remember the folk revival as forums for performers like Joan Baez and the Kingston Trio, and as incubators for unlikely radio hits like "Tom Dooley" and "Blowin' in the Wind." But it also gave rise to a bustling and influential subculture of hootenanies, coffeehouses, and blues and bluegrass appreciation, sowing a legacy that remains a vital part of American culture. Many of the contributors to this collection performed during the revival era. Today, their expertise in folklore, ethnomusicology, and cultural history allow them to blend insider knowledge and trained analysis to offer unique perspectives.
Call Number: ML3551 .T72 1993ISBN: 0252019822Publication Date: 1993-07-01
When We Were Good by
In 1938, in Pick Britches Valley, North Carolina, a young mountaineer sang a ballad about an infamous murder for a visiting singer and collector of folk songs. Twenty years later, nearly every American within range of a radio was hearing about Tom Dooley from the Kingston Trio - and a folk tradition dating back to the days of the minstrel show had intersected with the emergent youth culture of the late-50s. How did Tom Dooley get from Pick Britches to the top of the charts in 1958?
Call Number: ML3551 .C36 1996ISBN: 0674951328Publication Date: 1996-04-01
Which Side Are You On? by
In 1932 Florence Reece, the wife of a Kentucky coal miner, wrote one of the classic topical songs preserved in the folk musical revival. The song, "Which Side Are You On?," contrasts the lot of the working class and the bosses, and asks the listener to choose. This politically charged song was performed again during the Civil Rights Movement, with its lyrics appropriate to the 1960s. It was recorded more recently by Billy Bragg. Indeed, the story of this song might serve as a microcosm of the entire history of the folk music revival. Dick Weissman, former member of the Journeymen and a musician still releasing CDs of his original compositions, brings his personal and professional involvement to this definitive history. Which Side Are You On? includes chapters and sections on the Lomaxes, Harry Smith, the little known Lawrence Gellert, Woody Guthrie, Josh White, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, groups such as the Weavers and the Kingston Trio, Dave Van Ronk, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Natalie Merchant, Ani Difranco, Bela Fleck, Nickel Creek, the Indigo Girls, and many others. Which Side Are You On? also explores the folk music business in depth: how it all works, where the power really lies, how the artists have been manipulated and often exploited, the dynamic between artist and audience. Though he writes as a historian, Weissman also has seen it all from the inside, and includes anecdotes that are both funny and poignant: My friend and guitarist-singer Artie Traum took care of one of two houses that Bob Dylan owned in Woodstock, some thirty five years ago. The house had thirty seven rooms! Artie was instructed not to give out Dylan's phone number to any caller. The first caller was Joan Baez, and Artie followed instructions, calling Dylan at the other house to relay the call. During Artie's house-sitting chores, I visited him. He took me on a brief tour of the house. In one room were sacks of mail. We randomly opened a half-dozen letters. The one that I remember was by a female fan in North Dakota. She had been to a Dylan concert and reminded him that they had met. There was something touching though pathetic about the letter.
Call Number: ML3551 .W43 2005ISBN: 0826416985Publication Date: 2006-10-15
Singing Out by
Intimate, anecdotal, and spell-binding, Singing Out offers a fascinating oral history of the North American folk music revivals and folk music. Culled from more than 150 interviews recorded from 1976 to 2006, this captivating story spans seven decades and cuts across a wide swath ofgenerations and perspectives, shedding light on the musical, political, and social aspects of this movement. The narrators highlight many of the major folk revival figures, including Pete Seeger, Bernice Reagon, Phil Ochs, Mary Travers, Don McLean, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, Ry Cooder, and HollyNear. Together they tell the stories of such musical groups as the Composers' Collective, the Almanac Singers, People's Songs, the Weavers, the New Lost City Ramblers, and the Freedom Singers. Folklorists, musicians, musicologists, writers, activists, and aficionados reveal not only what happenedduring the folk revivals, but what it meant to those personally and passionately involved. For everyone who ever picked up a guitar, fiddle, or banjo, this will be a book to give and cherish. Extensive notes, bibliography, and discography, plus a photo section.
Call Number: ML3551 .D83 2010ISBN: 9780195378344Publication Date: 2010-04-14
The Conscience of the Folk Revival by
Israel G. "Izzy" Young was the proprietor of the Folklore Center in Greenwich Village from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. The literal center of the New York folk music scene, the Center not only sold records, books, and guitar strings but served as a concert hall, meeting spot, and information kiosk for all folk scene events. Among Young's first customers was Harry Belafonte; among his regular visitors were Alan Lomax and Pete Seeger. Shortly after his arrival in New York City in 1961, an unknown Bob Dyan banged away at songs on Young's typewriter. Young would also stage Dylan's first concert, as well as shows by Joni Mitchell, the Fugs, Emmylou Harris, and Tim Buckley, Doc Watson, Son House, and Mississippi John Hurt. The Conscience of the Folk Revival: The Writings of Israel "Izzy" Young collects Young's writing, from his regular column "Frets and Frails" for Sing Out Magazine (1959-1969) to his commentaries on such contentious issues as copyright and commercialism. Also including his personal recollections of seminal figures, from Bob Dylan and Alan Lomax to Harry Smith and Woody Guthrie, this collection removes the rose tinting of past memoirs by offering Young's detailed, day-by-day accounts. A key collection of primary sources on the American countercultural scene in New York City, this work will interest not only folk music fans, but students and scholars of American social and cultural history.
Call Number: ML429.Y68 A5 2013ISBN: 9780810883086Publication Date: 2012-12-19
Audio
- New Lost City Ramblers by New Lost City RamblersCall Number: 28,002 LP
Publication Date: 2019 (Originally 1958) - Songs from the Depression by New Lost City RamblersCall Number: 11,221s
Publication Date: 1959 - New Lost City Ramblers - Vol. 2 by New Lost City RamblersCall Number: FC-4708
Publication Date: 1960 - New Lost City Ramblers - Vol. 3 by New Lost City RamblersCall Number: FC-4707
Publication Date: 1961 - American Moonshine and Prohibition Songs by New Lost City RamblersCall Number: 11,222s
Publication Date: 1962 - New Lost Ramblers - Vol. 4 by New Lost City RamblersCall Number: FC-25242
Publication Date: 1962 - New Lost City Ramblers - Vol. 5 by New Lost City RamblersCall Number: FC-11945
Publication Date: 1963 - Gone to the Country by New Lost City RamblersCall Number: FC-4727
Publication Date: 1963 - Rural Delivery No. 1 by New Lost City RamblersCall Number: FC-25240
Publication Date: 1964 - String Band Instrumentals by New Lost City RamblersCall Number: FC-4726
Publication Date: 1964 - Modern Times by New Lost City RamblersCall Number: FC-4763
Publication Date: 1968 - On the Great Divide by New Lost City RamblersCall Number: FC-25235
Publication Date: 1975
Additional source:
Browse and stream other Folkways audio recordings of the NLCR with Alexander Street.
Video
- Always Been a Rambler by Yasha AginskyCall Number: DVD-187
Publication Date: 2009 - No Direction Home: Bob Dylan by Martin ScorseseCall Number: 65-DVD2609 pt.1, 65-DVD2609 pt. 2
Publication Date: 2005
Additional source:
Browse and stream other videos about the American folk music revival and members of the NLCR, such as Remembering the High Lonesome, on Folkstreams.
Music Scores and Songbooks
- The New Lost City Ramblers Songbook by John Cohen and Mike Seeger (Edited by)Call Number: M1629 .N48
ISBN: 0825600464
Publication Date: 1964 - Old-Time String Band Songbook by John Cohen and Mike Seeger (Edited by)Call Number: M1629 .O54 1976
ISBN: 9780825601798
Publication Date: 1976
Periodicals
- Banjo NewsletterBanjo Newsletter publishes content related to players, styles, techniques, culture, and reviews surrounding the banjo. Mike Seeger appears on the cover of the Feb 1980 issue, which also includes an interview with Richard W. Brislin.
- BroadsideAn essential publication to the folk music revival, Broadside magazine published topical songs and articles about the genre, generating conversations about what it means to be “folk.”
- CaravanCaravan was a folk fanzine that served as a place for enthusiasts to exchange information and knowledge about the genre. Billy Faier is credited for giving the NLCR one of their first positive reviews in 1959 (no. 15).
- HootenannyHootenanny was a musical television show that featured popular folk artists and had a bi-monthly magazine to accompany the program. One article of importance is Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” which applauds Mike Seeger for being “really real” (vol. 1, no. 1).
- FretsFrets is a music magazine dedicated to stringed instruments. Mike Seeger held a column with the magazine from 1982 to 2009, which continued his mission to educate the public about the tradition, history, and practice of old-time and folk music.
- The Little Sandy ReviewThe Little Sandy Review was a folk fanzine published by Jon Pankake and Paul Nelson. It followed the musical releases of folk artists. Specific reviews of the NLCR include: “The New Lost City Ramblers: Vol. 2” (no. 1), “The New Lost City Ramblers: Vol. 3” (no. 12), “The New Lost City Ramblers: Vol. 4” (no. 22), “New Lost City Ramblers: American Moonshine and Prohibition” (no. 28), “The Old and the New Lost City Ramblers” (no. 28), “John Cohen’s Column” (no. 29), and “String Band Instrumentals (no. 30).
- The New York TimesDuring the late 1950s and early 1960s, music critic Robert Shelton wrote extensively on the folk music scene for The New York Times. He is credited with launching the career of Bob Dylan with his positive reviews. Shelton also wrote positive reviews on the New Lost City Ramblers, which include “Folk Joins Jazz at Newport” (July 19, 1959), “Musical Energy Without Style” (January 8, 1961), “Country Music Comes to Town” (June 20, 1961), and “Lost City Ramblers Back After Four Years” (February 1, 1965).
- Sing Out!Created by Irwin Silber and Pete Seeger, Sing Out! magazine reflected on the contemporary folk music scene and its musicians. A couple of significant articles on the NLCR are Peter Welding’s “Crusaders for Old-Time Music: The New Lost City Ramblers” (no.11) and Jon Pankake’s “Ten Years in the New Lost City” (no.18).
Additional source:
Read articles, reviews, and features about other folk revival artists online from Rock's Backpages.