THE ALMANAC SINGERS
In the same time period that he released Dust Bowl Ballads, Woody Guthrie was one of the co-founders of the Almanac Singers, which were active between 1940 and 1943. The other founders were Millard Lampell, later a television and film screenwriter, plus Pete Seeger and Lee Hays, who were in the folk group the Weavers that formed later in the decade. As described in Wikipedia: “[The Almanac Singers] specialized in topical songs, mostly songs advocating an anti-war, anti-racism and pro-union philosophy. They were part of the Popular Front, an alliance of liberals and leftists, including the Communist Party USA . . . who had vowed to put aside their differences in order to fight fascism and promote racial and religious inclusiveness and workers’ rights.” Woody Guthrie hung around a lot of Communists during his career, but as far as anyone can tell, he never joined up.
(March 2015)
|