Montville U: Hootenanny - The Great Folk Song Revival of the '50s & '60s

A Lecture in Song Program by Lecturer/Singer/Pianist Fred Miller

Long before there was Gershwin, Porter, Kern, Astaire, Broadway, Hollywood, even before there was Stephen Foster, there were the folk songs of the Old World and early America.  These colorful musical tales enjoyed a huge resurgence of interest beginning in the late 1950s through the 60s. What made them and their many celebrated interpreters (Baez, Seeger, Collins, Lightfoot, PP&M) popular was their simplicity and the quaint, anonymous antiquity of their authors. This musical leap back into the mysteries of history allowed millions of imaginations to live in a romantic past, an idyllic respite from the realities of the post-WWII present. These songs are by and about “folks,” people of history who worked & played and loved and painted vivid portraits of their agrarian lives and natural surroundings.

Hootenanny! begins in the Old World-Scotland, Wales, Ireland, England, France, Germany, Spain, Russian, Australia, Hawaii-and then travels on to the New World of 18th & 19th century America. Whether from patriotic Scottish bards, black slaves, tired railroad workers, impassioned warriors, steadfast pioneers, disappointed lovers, reflective old folks, these songs have a universal appeal because the essence of human life is immutable.  

Adults only.  Registration required.