Ronnie Gilbert 1926-2015

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.

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--Mike Regenstreif

John McCutcheon – Joe Hill’s Last Will

JOHN McCUTCHEON

Joe Hill’s Last Will

Appalsongs

folkmusic.com

Joe Hill (1879-1915) is a legendary figure in the history of folk music and the labor movement. A Swedish immigrant (born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund), he immigrated to the United States in 1902 and learned to speak English as a migrant laborer. Sometime around 1910, Hill joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Wobblies, a union that believes in industrial unionization, “One Big Union,” as opposed to trade unionism, and began to write songs for them – often set to tunes borrowed from popular songs of the day. In some ways, Woody Guthrie followed in Hill’s footsteps a generation later.

In 1914, Hill was arrested in Salt Lake City, Utah for a murder he did not commit, and was tried and convicted. He was executed by firing squad on November 19, 1915 at the age of 36.

Like many of my generation, I initially learned about Joe Hill from the song written about him in the 1930s by Alfred Hayes and Earl Robinson via recordings by Paul Robeson and recordings and performances in the ‘60s by Pete Seeger and Joan Baez. Much of what I know about Joe Hill, though, came from another great Wobblie songwriter, my late friend Bruce “Utah” Phillips, who I heard sing many of Joe Hill’s songs, and tell many stories about him, over a period of many years.

This year is the 100th anniversary of Hill’s execution and John McCutcheon marks the occasion with Joe Hill’s Last Will, an inspired and inspiring collection of Joe Hill songs – a couple of which I’m hearing for the first time on this CD, others which I know from recordings by such artists as Utah Phillips, Pete Seeger, Cisco Houston, and Hazel Dickens.

One of the astounding things that hits home about these songs is the so very brief period in which they were created. The earliest is from 1911 and the latest from 1915 – just a four year period. But, although these songs date from a century and more ago and are essentially topical songs, most – particularly with John’s infectious and creative arrangements – seem relevant to the (economic) times we’re living in now.

While the entire album is entirely praiseworthy, some of the finest moments include “It’s a Long Way to the Soup Line,” a song Hill wrote in prison in 1915 to the tune of “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary”; “The Preacher & the Slave,” a parody of “In the Sweet Bye and Bye,” that Hill used to mock the Salvation Army (the “Starvation Army”) and their brass bands that were used back in the day to disrupt IWW rallies; and the rousing finale, “There is Power in the Union,” on which John is joined by a bunch of fellow workers from the American Federation of Musicians, Local 1000 (the folksingers' local), and the Seattle Labor Chorus.

Certainly the most moving song is the title track, “Joe Hill’s Last Will,” whose words Hill wrote the day before his execution and which were smuggled out of the prison by a guard.

My will is easy to decide,
For there is nothing to divide.
My kind don't need to fuss and moan –
“Moss does not cling to a rolling stone.”

My body? Ah, If I could choose,
I would to ashes it reduce,
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow.

Perhaps some fading flower then
Would come to life and bloom again.
This is my last and final will.
Good luck to all of you.

Joe Hill

“Joe Hill’s Last Will” has been set to music several times over the years – I have a bluegrass version on the collaborative 1976 album by Country Cooking and the Fiction Brothers – but John’s lovely version is to a melody of his own. (I’ve also heard it performed as recitation by both Utah Phillips and the late Tex König.)

I’ll also note that a couple of the songs, “Overalls & Snuff,” and “Where the Fraser River Flows,” are of special Canadian interest as they were written for the strike against the Canadian National Railroad in 1912.

An essential recording and an excellent companion to John's Woody Guthrie tribute, This Land: Woody Guthrie's America.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Jean Ritchie 1922-2015

I was saddened this morning to hear that Jean Ritchie, the great traditional singer, folklorist and songwriter passed away yesterday at age 92.

I'm glad, though, that Dear Jean - Artists Celebrate Jean Ritchie, a wonderful tribute album to Jean was released last year while she was still alive and could appreciate the love of the folk music community expressed in the singing and playing of her songs and the traditional songs she taught us.

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--Mike Regenstreif