 |
| The Weavers, circa 1950 |
The very sad news came through last night
that Ronnie Gilbert has passed away
at age 88.
Along with Pete Seeger, Lee Hays and
Fred Hellerman, Ronnie was a founding
member of the Weavers, the folk
music group founded in the late-1940s that inspired and paved the way for all
who followed.
The Weavers recordings occupy a valued place
in my music library. So, too, do other recordings Ronnie made over the years in
a duo with Holly Near, and as a
member of HARP with Holly, Arlo Guthrie
and Pete.
I got to meet Ronnie and hear her perform a
number of times over the years at folk festivals. I particularly remember a delightful time
having breakfast with her at the hotel during the Winnipeg Folk Festival sometime
in the 1980s. She was very encouraging when I started the Folk Roots/Folk Branches radio show in 1994 and often responded graciously when I'd let her know that I was playing her music on the show.
The last time I saw Ronnie was September
17, 2004 when I was invited to the world premiere of the film, Isn’t This a Time! A Tribute Concert for
Harold Leventhal, at the Toronto International Folk Festival. The film was
a documentary on the tribute concert held the year before at Carnegie Hall for Harold Leventhal and told the story of Harold’s
lifetime involvement in folk music and how he defied
and masterminded the end of the McCarthy-era blacklist.
After the screening, there was a brief
concert by the surviving members of the Weavers – Ronnie, Pete, Fred and Erik Darling (who replaced Pete when he left the group in 1958) along
with Eric Weissberg, who played bass
and sang Lee’s vocal parts. A once-in-a-lifetime
occasion for me to experience the Weavers live.
Ronnie was also an actor and practiced as a
psychologist for several years. The New York Times has published a good obituary.
Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif
And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif
And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif
--Mike
Regenstreif
