Alliance, North Carolina, High School Class of 1927

Topic: Early Versions - Performers
Julian Boyd sent copies of his collection of folk songs from Pamlico County, North Carolina, to John Winslow Gordon and Frank Brown in early 1927. [1] Editors of Brown’s collection included material from sixteen people, including Minnie Lee who knew "O Lord. Won’t You Come by Here?"

I could find information on ten, who were born in 1908 or 1909. This made them seventeen-years-old in 1927, and seniors in the all-white high school. Two of the ten were girls, while five of the unidentified were female. When women marry and change their names, they become difficult to track online.

The history of Pamlico County contributed to problems identifying Boyd’s students. As mentioned in the post for 6 February 2019, the county was created in 1872 from parts of Craven and Beaufort counties. This created a break in the chronology of the Pamlico area. Unless individuals were prominent in one of the parent counties, they were not included in modern research by local historians.

Earliest Date: surname found in Craven or Beaufort county before 1872 or Pamlico county after 1872
1790 Census: number of households with last name in Craven and Beaufort counties
1790 Slaves: greatest number owed by one household
1850 Census: name appears in Craven County census
Cemeteries: number of Pamlico County cemeteries with last name
Items: number of items reprinted by Brown from individual

Clear genealogies existed for three students. Carlos Holton’s first known ancestor, Jesse Holton, was reported in Beaufort County in 1755. [2] Clifton McCotter’s immigrant ancestor, Hezekiah McCotter, was born in Maryland in 1742, and died in Craven County in 1792. Family tradition said he "came to this country from Scotland as a British Soldier in the Revolutionary War." [3]

James Tingle’s immigrant ancestor settled in Somerset County, Maryland, sometime between 1654 and 1683. [4] His son [5] and grandson, [6] moved to Craven County before 1764. The next in line, Shadrick Tingle, married Sally McCotter in 1794, [7] while Hezekiah McCotter’s son, Archibald, married Sidney Tingle in 1795. [8]

Traces exist for four other families in the area before the American Revolution, although they may not be the direct ancestors of the students. Choswell Dixon was born in 1735 in Beaufort County, [9] John Bennett was born in Craven County in 1743, [10] and Peter Bank’s father owned a farm near Goose Creek when Peter enlisted in the militia in the Revolution. [11]

Jonathan West was part of an Anabaptist community on the eastern side of the county in 1840. [12] Rosebud West’s ancestors on her father’s side could not be traced beyond her parents. [13] However, her mother’s maternal grandfather’s father, John Miller, was known to be in Craven County in 1786. [14]

Some new surnames appeared in the census for 1790 for Craven County. Then, in-migration seems to have stopped. New lands were available west of the Appalachians. Joe Mobley thought men from Pamlico County may have joined those moving to Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama after the Panic of 1819. [15]

The next influx of people came after the Civil War. First, there were Northerners who bought land for saw mills and railroads. Those industries attracted workers until the usable trees were gone. A 1913 hurricane destroyed what remained of the mills and wharves in the county. [16]

Men left for World War I, and didn’t return. The population of Pamlico County dropped from 9,966 to 9,060 between 1910 and 1920. [17] The students taught by Boyd were children of men who never left, or returned after they served in the military.

Pamlico County had no community or white church cemeteries; they all were on family land. When one examines names on the markers, it’s obvious most of the students’ families had intermarried like the McCotters and Tingles. [18] The surnames of 11 of the 16 were on grave stones in more than one family burial ground.

The Department of Agriculture said that few of the land holdings in the county were contiguous in 1930. [19] That would have followed from land being subdivided by deaths and re-aggregated by marriages. Overlapping kinship networks were spread wide.

West was the most ambitious of Boyd’s students. Her father was a farmer, but two of her sisters were stenographers in 1920. [20] Rosebud began training as a teacher at the Methodist’s Louisburg College, but returned to marry Alfred Earl Ireland in 1928. She worked as a substitute teacher in the county, and sang in the church choir. [21]

James Tingle also started college, but left after one year. He would have been in his sophomore year when the economy crashed in October 1929. He served in the army in World War II, [22] but returned to Pamlico County where he was interred in Alliance in 1966. [23]

Holton’s father was a farm laborer in 1900, [24] while his grandfather finished tables and one uncle worked in a saw mill. Other uncles and an aunt worked in knitting mills. [25] Carlos managed the electric cooperative’s office in Grantsboro. [26] He stayed active in the Disciples of Christ church, where he help develop Camp Caroline. [27] He died and was buried in 1973 in New Bern. [28]

Few of the other students, who could be identified, left Pamlico County. Graham Holton Wayne was living in New Bern in 1940 where he "was a presser in a garment factory." When he died in 1978, he had a farm in Craven County. [29] McCotter also was living in New Bern in 1940. [30]

Elsie Rawls was buried in Alliance in 1997. [31] Bryan Banks [32] and Frederick Livermore [33] lived in Grantsboro. Only Luther Belangia went far afield: he was a grocery store operator and was buried in Wake Forest. [34] His family was also the last to settle in the county.

If Pamlico County was not a folk community, in the traditional sense, Boyd’s students represented a small, rural enclave that had existed for generations in an isolated area.

End Notes
1. Julian Parks Boyd was discussed in the post for 6 February 2019.
2. Leo Toler. "Jesse Holton." Lee Toler’s Family Tree. Geneanet website.

3. Linda Dail. "Descendants of Hezekiah McCotter." NC Gen website. The Ancestry website has him born in Ireland in 1742. [35] McCotter was an Irish, not a Scots name. [36] None of the origin tales conflict with the possibility he moved to the area after the Revolution.

4. Marvin Permenter. "Hugh Tingle, Sr." Permenter and Spradlin History website. Last updated 13 July 2016.

5. Marvin Permenter. "Hugh Jr. Tingle." Permenter and Spradlin History website. Last updated 13 July 2016.

6. Marvin Permenter. "Joseph T. Tingle." Permenter and Spradlin History website. Last updated 13 July 2016.

7. "Shadrick Tingle (1769 - bef. 1799)." Wiki Tree website.
8. Dail.
9. Genevieve Annie Moniga. "Choswell Dixon." Geni website. 5 December 2014.
10. Tim Dowling. "John Bennett." The Dowling Family Tree. Geneanet website.

11. Joe A. Mobley. Pamlico County. Raleigh: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1991. 15.

12. Mobley. 11.
13. J.D. Larimore. "Joseph Allen West." Find a Grave website. 9 May 2014.

14. Leo Toler. "Person Page 17." Toler Family of Eastern North Carolina. Toler Genealogy website.

15. Mobley. 19. Craven County’s population increased by 5.6% between 1810 and 1820, but by only 2.5% between 1820 and 1830. [37]

16. Mobley. 80. The post-Civil War economy of Pamlico County will be discussed in the posts for 24 May 2020, 31 May 2020, and 7 June 2020. Hurricane Four struck the area on 3 September 2013, with the worst damage round New Bern. [38]

17. United States Census. Reproduced by Wikipedia. "Pamlico County, North Carolina."
18. Clifton McCotter’s mother was Flora Ethel Tingle. [39]

19. John T. Miller and Arthur E. Taylor. United States Department of Agriculture. Bureau of Chemistry and Soils. Soil Survey of Pamlico County, North Carolina. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1937. 6.

20. United States Census. 1910. Extracted by J.D. Larimore. "Joseph Allen West." Find a Grave website. 9 May 2014.

21. Rosebud West Ireland. Obituary. [New Bern] Sun Journal. 16 June 2000. 4.
22. J.D. Larimore. "James Arthur Tingle." Find a Grave website. 9 May 2014.
23. "James A Tingle, Jr." Lupton Family Genealogy website. Last updated 6 August 2014.

24. United States Census. 1900. Extracted by J.D. Larimore. "Ada M. Holton Roberts." Find a Grave site. 31 August 2015.

25. United States Census. 1900. Extracted by J.D. Larimore. "William Henry Holton." Find a Grave website. 15 January 2015.

26. Larry and Jerry Prescott. "Remembering An Electric Co-op Pioneer." North Carolina Electric Cooperatives. Carolina Country. September 2016.

27. Charles Crossfield Ware. Pamlico Profile. New Bern: Owen G. Dunn, 1961.
28. sandi gunter hawkins. "Carlos McIver Holton." Find a Grave website. 9 December 2014.
29. J.D. Larimore. "Graham Holton Wayne." Find a Grave website. 12 August 2014.
30. "Julia McCotter in the 1940 Census." Ancestry website.
31. Elsie Rawls Story. Obituary. [New Bern] Sun Journal. 7 February 1997. 4.

32. Victor T. Jones, Jr. "Sunday’s Obituary: Mittie Banks." Genealogy Jones and the Lost Crusade website.

33. Bernd Doss. "Benjamin Frederick Liverman." Find a Grave website. 4 September 2010.

34. Daniel Nathan Maltz. "Luther Dees Belangia." Geni website. 1 April 2018.
35. "Hezekiah Mccotter." Ancestry website.
36. "Last name: McCotter." Name Origin Research’s Surname DB website.
37. United States census. Reproduced by Wikipedia. "Craven County, North Carolina."
38. Wikipedia. "1913 Atlantic Hurricane Season."
39. "John Lawrence McCotter." Ancestry website.

The Greenhill Singers - Kumbaya

Topic: Commercial Folk Revival
After the cancellation of the Hootenanny television program in September 1964, critics attributed the decline of the commercial folk-music revival to the popularity of The Beatles, who had appeared on Ed Sullivan’s program in February 1964. [1]

This was true only if one used Billboard as a guideline. Its popular music charts were simple statistics of sales by genre, with no concern for the audience. In 1964, the audience for the Beatles was teenyboppers, while that for the commercial folk-music revival always had been college-age listeners. The math was simple: there were more young girls buying single records than older students. [2]

Folk-revival music did change during the time Hootenanny was on the air. The new performers were more likely to be soloists, like Judy Collins, [3] than male trios and quartets. Innovative small-group vocal music became the domain of Motown artists like the Four Tops and the Temptations.

The original commercial folk-music style survived as a genre, like polka music, that was produced by unknown artists for budget labels sold in bargain bins both by record stores and non-conventional retailers like truck stops and gift shops.

United Artists Records was established in 1957 to market film soundtracks. [4] In early 1963, it released five albums for audiences that had come of age when songs were more important that performers. Each album contained fifty songs. [5]

The performers were experienced instrumentalists who could prepare material quickly and efficiently. Two had popularized theme songs: Al Caiola played guitar on the Bonanza theme in 1961, [6] while Ferrante and Teicher had released the themes from two UA films in 1960, The Apartment [7] and Exodus. [8] The other albums were by Ralph Marterie, who had played trumpet with own band after World War II, [9] and Tito Rodríguez, who had been a poplar Puerto Rican singer in the 1950s. [10]

The record devoted to songs of the folk-music revival was produced by Sonny Lester. He probably used a group of session musicians who were dubbed The Greenhill Singers. When he worked for MGM’s budget line, "he would head to France, book Eddie Barclay’s studio for the better part of two months, and record a years’ worth of easy listening, anonymous rock and roll covers, and other material for the MGM and Lion labels." [11]

While four of the albums used medleys to present fifty songs in forty minutes, the folk songs were given individual treatments. Most were recorded with simple harmonies, often with guitar accompaniments influenced by country music. However, "Midnight Special" used syncopation and "Hard Traveling" relied upon southern, white, gospel quartet techniques. "Kumbaya" incorporated vocal homophony with two women singing the melody and two men countering with an arcing bum-bum-bum-bum-bum rhythm part.

The Greenhill Singers’ lyrics were borrowed from The Weavers, with "sleeping" changed to "sleepy." It was sandwiched between other songs popularized by The Weavers: "The Wreck of the John B." [12] and "Wimoweh." [13] "John B." followed a series of sea chanties.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: women and men
Instrumental Accompaniment: harpsichord-style
Rhythm Accompaniment: drum
Producer: Sonny Lester

Credits
None given

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: kum ba ya
Verses: sleepy

Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: none
Special Terms: "na na" for "Lord"

Basic Form: one-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none
Unique Features: none
Influences: The Weavers

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: moderate

Basic Structure: homophony, with women singing melody and men singing "bum-bum-bum-bum-bum" rhythm

Singing Style: one syllable to one note

Notes on Performers
Sonny Lester, like Caiola and Marterie, was a journeyman musician in the Big Band era. He wasn’t a good enough trumpeter to be placed in a military band, and so spent World War II in the infantry. [14]

After the war, Lester married and settled in New York. Rather than tour with a band, he became an arranger, finally finding steady work with the Edwin Morris Music publishing company. From there, he became a producer for Coral and Dot Records. By the time he produced 50 Fabulous Folk Favorites, he was doing free-lance work. He later became involved with United Artists’ jazz division. [15]

Availability
Album: The Greenhill Singers. "Kumbaya." 50 Fabulous Folk Favorites. United Artists UAL 3347. 1964.

End Notes
1. Wikipedia. "Hootenanny (American TV Series)" and "The Beatles."

2. The term "teenybopper" was coined in 1965 to describe the audience for "The Beatles." [16]

3. Judy Collins appeared on Hootenanny one time in the first season and twice in the second. [17] She didn’t have a single record in Billboard’s top ten until "Both Sides Now" in 1968. [18]

4. Wikipedia. "United Artists Records."
5. "‘Winter Magic’ UA Message." Billboard. 11 January 1964. 3.

6. Wikipedia. "Al Caiola."

The album was Al Caiola And His Orchestra. 50 Fabulous Guitar Favorites. United Artist Records UAL 3330. 1964.

The single was "Bonanza." United Artists UA 302. 1961. [19]

7. Steve Huey. "Ferrante & Teicher." All Music website.

The album was Ferrante and Teicher. 50 Fabulous Piano Favorites. United Artist Records UAL 3343. 1964.

The film was The Apartment. Directed by Billy Wilder. United Artist. 1960. [20]

The single was "Theme From The Apartment." United Artists UA 231. 1960. [21]

8. The film was Exodus. Directed by Otto Preminger. United Artists. 1960. [22]

The single was "Exodus." United Artists UA 274. 1960. [23]

9. "Ralph Marterie Biography." Oldies website.

The album was The Famous Ralph Marterie Orchestra. 50 Fabulous Dance Favorites. United Artist Records UAL 3349. 1964.

10. Wikipedia. "Tito Rodríguez."

The album was Tito Rodriguez And His Orchestra. 50 Fabulous Latin Favorites. United Artists Records UAL 3345. 1964.

11. "Sonny Lester." Space Age Pop website.
12. The Weavers. "John B." Decca 27332. December 1950. [24]
13. The Weavers. "Wimoweh." Decca 27928. 1951. [25]
14. Space Age Pop.
15. Space Age Pop.
16. Dave Wilton. "1966 Words." Word Origins website. 15 April 2012.
17. "Hootenanny." Episode Calendar website.
18. Wikipedia. "Judy Collins."
19. "Al Caiola And His Orchestra – Bonanza. United Artists Records." Discogs website.
20. Wikipedia. "The Apartment."

21. "Ferrante And Teicher With Their Orch. & Chorus – Theme From The Apartment." Discogs website.

22. Wikipedia. "Exodus (1960 Film)."
23. "Ferrante And Teicher – Exodus / Twilight." Discogs website.
24. "The Weavers – The Roving Kind / (The Wreck Of The) John B." Discogs website.

25. "The Weavers And Gordon Jenkins And His Chorus And Orchestra – Old Paint (Ride Around Little Dogies) / Wimoweh." Discogs website.

The Revelers - Kumbaya

Topic: Commercial Folk Music Revival
The Hootenanny television show lasted until the fall of 1964 on the ABC network. By then, it had increased to an hour, but no longer was presenting new material. There was a finite number of folk-revival performers, and that number did not magically double. [1] The first season the Limeliters appeared 7 times. The second year the Brothers Four performed 8 times, while the Chad Mitchell Trio and Bob Gibson sang on 6 programs. [2]

The producers expanded the roster to include gospel, jazz, and country music artists. [3] Such inclusiveness was a return to the original spirit of the word. Terry Pettus, who introduced the term "hootenanny" in Seattle, said back in Indiana it "was used to designate a party which just seemed to happen as against being planned." [4]

Peter Tamony found in Oklahoma it was "a ‘kitchen sweat,’ the most informal of parties," while in Ohio it referred to entertainment associated with group activities like apple-butter making and slaughtering. [5] If the music happened to all be one style, that was an consequence of who happened to attend, not the gathering itself.

"Folk" no longer was limited to New York City artists who used music to engage people for political ends. Instead, it became a generic reference for entertainers who used simple guitar accompaniments with rhythms borrowed from Pete Seeger’s banjo. The songs could be traditional ones, or ones written by contemporary composers. The New Christy Minstrels and Serendipity Singers appeared on a number of Hootenanny programs as an idealized versions of groups singing such songs. [6]

Artists in other genres added folk-revival songs to their repertoires. This was especially true of the utilitarian entertainers who appeared in amusement parks, county fairs, and small city concerts. They were expected to be versatile enough to provide the equivalent of an entire variety show by themselves.

The Revelers seem to have been one such group. They appeared in Ohio in 1968 under the auspices of the Portsmouth Concert Association. The local newspaper advised readers they had "genuine singing talent and high standards of musicianship," and that their performance would "mix their own fresh blend of taste and talent with such sparkling arrangements and superb showmanship that every performance vibrates with a contemporary beat." [7]

The quartet made an album in 1966 [8] that it probably sold at appearances. It included Bob Dylan’s "Blowin’ in the Wind" and the Kingston Trio’s "Turn Around," as well as the traditional "Greensleeves" and "Poor Wayfaring Stranger." Their version of "Kumbaya" was arranged by the group’s baritone, Ray Murcell.

The arrangement used the standard three verses, but in the order recorded by Seeger in 1957. [9] They also used his pronunciation of "koom by ah." The melody and harmony were borrowed from Joan Baez and The Seekers, [10] especially the minor progression in the second line. However, their vocal arrangement used more elements of formal part singing than other performers.

Newspapers from three cities where they performed between 1966 and 1968 have archived their reports of their concerts: Portsmouth, Ohio; [11] Poughkeepsie, New York; [12] and Altoona, Pennsylvania. [13] All three had prospered from the locations on major transportation routes: the Ohio and Hudson rivers, and the Pennsylvania Railroad.

However, by the 1960s, when the commercial folk-music revival was flourishing, they were entering their industrial decline. Portsmouth’s population dropped by 17.8% between 1960 and 1970, [14] while Poughkeepsie’s fell 16.4%. [15] Altoona’s only decreased by 9.1%, but it had been falling since 1940. [16]

It’s easy to dismiss their audiences’ preference for music that sounded both familiar and original as nostalgia for something that never may have been. It also can be seen as form of protest against the economic forces that controlled their lives, no less compelling than that of Southern union organizers in the 1930s. They didn’t face the same physical dangers, but their young were forced to leave to find jobs. Those who remained signaled their refusal to surrender to changes by maintaining their civil organizations and their taste in music in the face of repudiation by corporate managers who closed factories.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: male

Vocal Group: Tom Edwards, tenor; Carl Olsen, tenor; Ray Murcell, baritone; Doc Savage, bass

Vocal Director: Milt Okun
Instrumental Accompaniment: guitar and/or banjo
Rhythm Accompaniment: drums

Credits
Arr: Murcell

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: kum ba ah
Verses: kumbaya, crying, singing, praying

Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none

Basic Form: four-verse song, framed by kumbaya
Verse Repetition Pattern: A-A-x-x-A-x-A where A = kumbaya
Ending: none
Unique Features: none

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: moderate

Basic Structure: relationship of vocal parts varied by iteration. The "crying" verse used a solo part with a descant. The "singing" verse used the group with a high counter melody. The "praying" verse was a duet.

Singing Style: usually one syllable to one note, except for variations on "Lord" in the last line.

Vocal-Instrumental Dynamics: only a drum was used during much of the arrangement. Stringed instruments were heard in the brief breaks between iterations, but were treated as ornaments rather that structural parts.

Notes on Performance
Cover: heads of four men in white ties and black tuxedos

Audience Perceptions
The quartet performed in Poughkeepsie in 1968. The program ranging "from Welsh and Irish folk music, Beethoven and Schumann love songs, Negro spirituals, to a series from the contemporary Broadway stage hits."

The local newspaper accessed the qualities of the three men who remained from 1966. [17] It said "Tom Edwards, the quartet’s spokesman," had the best personality.

The Journal noted Ray Murcell "gave an emotionally impacting performance of ‘Steal Away’. He demonstrated throughout the concert a superior technical control with constant voice quality over his rather large vocal range."

The critic was most taken by Carl Olsen, "who displayed skill and ease as he sang the upper note range for the quartet. He sang in full voice and in only one arrangement did he employ a falsetto tone." [18]

Another person who only used the name "Ref" told Mudcat Café "there used to be a male Quartet called The Revelers who recorded a spectacular, rolling, uplifting version of it that sounded like eight guys instead of just the four." [19]

Notes on Performers
Edwards organized The Revelers in 1955, after he purchased rights to the name from a survivor of a quartet [20] that had performed on Will Rogers’ radio program in the 1930s. [21] Hans-Joachim Krohberger found record albums they made in 1956 for Urania, [22] an East German company that just had been transferred to New Jersey. [23] Edwards and three others recorded collection of drinking songs [24] and sea chanties. [25]

By the 1960s, Edwards was associated with Milt Okun, who was producing records for the reconstituted Chad Mitchell Trio and Peter, Paul, and Mary. [26] Okun was the musical director for the record, and did some of the arrangements. Murcell did the others.

After the end of the commercial folk-revival, The Revelers found work singing the quartet parts in local productions of Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man. [27] In 1971, Edwards and Murcell revived some of the original Reveler’s songs in a Gay 90s program. [28]

Edwards and most of the other singers remain anonymous. Doc Savage may not even have been a nickname, but a pseudonym based on a pulp-fiction character created in 1933 by Street and Smith Publications. [29]

Olsen’s is the only one whose name appeared on the internet. He began as an operatic tenor with the New York City Opera, [30] and free-lanced with opera companies elsewhere in the country. In 1981 he was teaching voice, [31] and managing the revival of an opera company on Long Island. [32]

Availability
Album: The Revelers. "Kumbaya." The Revelers Sings. Records sold by The Revelers Incorporated of Westbury, New York.

End Notes
1. Wikipedia. "Hootenanny (American TV series)."

2. Totals calculated from data in "Hootenanny." Episode Calendar. The Spanish-language website lists the songs by artist by program, although sometimes some details are missing.

3. Wikipedia, Hootenanny.

4. Peter Tamony. "‘Hootenanny’: the Word, its Content and Continuum." John Edwards Memorial Foundation Quarterly 16:95–98:1980. Reprinted from Western Folklore 22:165–170:1963. 96. Pettus was mentioned in the post for 3 November 2019.

5. Tamony. 97.
6. Wikipedia, Hootenanny. Each appeared eight times in the second season.

7. Item. Portsmouth [Ohio] Times. 27 April 1968. 17. No doubt it was quoting the group’s promotional materials.

8. The record jacked was undated. The album included "With the Wind on My Mind." John Denver copyrighted it in 1966. [33]

9. Seeger’s version was described in the post for 6 October 2019.

10. The Seeker’s versions were described in the posts for 29 January 2018, 31 January 2018, and 2 February 2018.

11. Portsmouth Times.
12. Item. Poughkeepsie [New York] Journal. 26 February 1968. 8.
13. Item. Altoona [Pennsylvania] Mirror. 3 December 1966. 42.
14. United States Census data. Reported by Wikipedia. "Portsmouth, Ohio."
15. United States Census data. Reported by Wikipedia. "Poughkeepsie, New York."
16. United States Census data. Reported by Wikipedia. "Altoona, Pennsylvania.
17. Doc Savage had been replaced by Karl Thomas.
18. Poughkeepsie Journal.

19. Ref. Mudcat Café website. "Holding Hands and Singing ‘Kumbaya’." Thread begun 29 January 2007. Comment added 29 January 2007.

20. John S. Wilson. "Revelers Singing at the Gay 90’s." The New York Times. 11 November 1971.

21. William Ruhlmann. "The Revelers." All Music website.
22. Hans-Joachim Krohberger. "The Revelers (2) (New York)." Doo-Wop blog, Germany.
23. Wikipedia. "Urania Records."
24. Drinking Songs Around The World. Urania UR 9008.

25. Salty Sea Chanties. Urania UR 9007 / Urania UR 9020. The singers were Thomas Edwards, tenor; Feodore Tedick, tenor; Laurence Bogue, baritone; Edward Ansara, bass. The conductor was Jacques Belasco. [34]

26. Colin Stutz. "Milton Okun, Legendary Producer & Cherry Lane Founder, Dies at 92." Billboard website. 15 November 2016. When Mitchell left the Chad Mitchell Trio in 1965, John Denver replaced him in the Mitchell Trio. [35]

27. Meredith Wilson. The Music Man. 1957. It included a barbershop quartet that entered at strategic points to sing "Lida Rose."

28. Wilson. The tenors were Darrel Lauer and Paul Forrest.
29. Wikipedia. "Doc Savage." Bantam Books began reprinting the original stories in 1964.

30. Barbara Delatiner. "Opera Opening on a Rousing Note." The New York Times. 20 September 1981.

31. "Carl Olsen Singers Institute." Its website.
32. Delatiner.

33. United States Copyright Office. Catalog of Copyright Entries. July-December 1966. 2125.

34. "Jacques Belasco, The Revelers – Salty Sea Chanties." Discogs website.
35. Wikipedia. "John Denver."

Irwin Silber - Kum Ba Ya

Topic: Commercial Folk Music Revival
The commercial folk-music revival moved from college campuses to the mass media on 6 April 1963 when ABC television broadcast the first program of a variety series called Hootenanny. [1] At the time, Peter, Paul and Mary had two albums in Billboard’s top ten, while the Kingston Trio’s sixteenth album was in eighth place. [2]

Hootenanny featured several acts performing at a college campus, with the performers and schools changing each week. The first week drew 26% of the reporting audience; the second drew 32%. [3] Look magazine declared it was the "final proof that folk music has gone big-time." [4]

Pete Seeger said he first heard the term "hootenanny" in 1940 [5] at a political event sponsored by the Washington Commonwealth Federation in Seattle. [6] He popularized the word when he applied it to rent parties held by the Almanac Singers in New York City. [7]

Long before the ABC program, other folk-music revival singers were using the word to describe their singing sessions. After April 1963, "hootenanny" became a marketing word applied to any item remotely connected to folk-revival music.

In 1963, Irwin Silber edited the Hootenanny Song Book for a commercial publisher. It was subtitled: "Reprints from Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine." Silber had been editing Sing Out! since 1951. [8] Before the ABC program, he had reprinted collections from the magazine through Oak Publications, which he owned with Moses Asch. [9]

The modifications necessary to make Sing Out! palatable to the general public were editorial, rather than musical. The Spring 1958 issue had included 16 songs, three of which appeared in an anthology in 1961. [10] The Hootenanny Song Book also included three songs from 1958.

Many of the omitted songs were copyrighted, like Malvina Reynolds’ "The Battle of Maxton Field." Others had known authors, who might have expected royalty payments, or were versions of public domain people performed by popular artists like Odetta.

In discussing problems with copyrights for another collection, Jerry Silverman said he only included songs written before 1922

"because after that they’re not in the public domain, and it becomes a hassle with copyright clearances, with payment royalties, with getting permissions. And it’s just not worth it. There were so many good songs that are in the public domain that it doesn’t pay to look for trouble trying to get the one extra song that will land you in a lawsuit for infringement." [11]

If he wasn’t already aware of the problems with the 1909 copyright law, the music editor for the Hootenanny Song Book would have been educated by the lawyers at Consolidated Music Publishers.

The anthology used the original plates from Sing Out! The only change was with "St. James Hospital." In the magazine, it had appeared with an advertisement. That was replaced with more verses. Silverman retranscribed the music for Hootenanny.

What changes were made between Sing Out! and its commercial sibling were done in the head notes. Silber still indicated the version of "Twelve Gates to the City" came from Marion Hicks, but dropped the references to recordings of the song made by Gary Davis and Sonny Terry. In the earlier collection he had kept the promotion for The Weavers’ version of "Done Laid Around."

Similarly, Silber no longer mentioned its version of "Sinner Man" came from a Folkways album by The Folksmiths. It still repeated information from Cecil Sharp that it was a Holiness hymn, but dropped the reference to him.

When Sing Out! published "Kum Ba Yah," it had reproduced an image of the version included in the Girl Guides’ Chansons de Notre Chalet, with a nod to the publisher, Cooperative Recreation Service. [12] The Hootenanny headnote no long acknowledged its source was CRS. Instead, Silber introduced the idea that the African-American "spiritual, ‘Come by Here’," was "first cousin to this Nigerian song."

The original Sing Out! publication introduced the standard version of the "Kumbaya" to people who knew it only from the singing of Pete Seeger. The Hootenanny version was the one used in the Canadian junior high school music book discussed in the post on 14 August 2018. However, while Colin Walley included the "Nigerian Folk Song" attribution, his arrangement was more complex.

Credits
None given

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: koom-bah-yah
Verses: kumbaya, crying, singing, praying

Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none

Basic Form: four-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none
Unique Features: none

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 3/4
Tempo: not indicated
Key Signature: no sharps or flats
Guitar Chords: C F G⁷
Basic Structure: strophic repetition
Singing Style: one syllable to one note, except for final "Lord"

Notes on Performers
Sing Out! was the successor to the Peoples Songs’ Bulletin, discussed in the post for 18 August 2019. It released its last issue in February 1949. [13] Sing Out! Appeared in May 1950, under the editorship of Robert Wolfe. [14]

Silber was born in 1925, but the only thing he ever said about his life before he joined the Communist Party was that his parents were working class Jews [15] who lived on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. [16] Although he left the United States party in 1955, Silber remained a Marxist. He married Barbara Dane in 1964, [17] who had the distinction of having been rejected by the Party. [18]

It was the period when protests against the War in Vietnam had spawned radical groups like SDS. Silber left Sing Out! to work for The Guardian in 1967. After he became the editor in 1972, it began supporting the Maoist Revolution in China. [19] He remained politically active until his death in 2010.

Silverman’s parents migrated to the United States from London and Russia, and married in this country. His father supplied fabrics to Broadway shows, and perhaps, because of that, he was sent to Wo-Chi-Ca in 1945. When he returned to the Bronx, he began taking guitar lessons. He started doing transcriptions for Sing Out! in 1951 while he was earning a degree in music from City College of New York. He wrote his master’s thesis on blues guitar, and since has edited collections and written instruction manuals. [20]

Availability
Book: "Kum Ba Ya." Hootenanny Song Book. Edited by Irwin Silber and Jerry Silverman. New York: Consolidated Music Publishers, 1963. 139.

End Notes
1. Tim Brooks and Earle F. Marsh. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present. New York: Ballantine Books, 2007 edition. 633.

2. Dave McAleer. The All Music Book of Hit Albums. San Francisco: Miller Freeman, 1995. 39.

3. "‘Hootenanny’ Looms As Hour ’63-’64 Entry; Ratings Start To Swing" Variety. 24 April 1963. Cited by Wikipedia. "Hootenanny (American TV Series)."

4. "Folk Singers and Their Fans." Look. 27 August 1963. Cited by Wikipedia, Hootenanny.

5. Seeger’s trip was discussed in the post for 18 August 2019.
6. Wikipedia. "Terry Pettus."

7. Peter Tamony. "‘Hootenanny’: the Word, its Content and Continuum." John Edwards Memorial Foundation Quarterly 16:95–98:1980. Reprinted from Western Folklore 22:165–170:1963. 95. This is the best article on the word’s origins.

8. Ken Hunt. "Irwin Silber (1925-2010)." Folk Music Journal. 20 December 2011.

9. Richie Unterberger. "Irwin Silber Interview." June 2002. Furious website. Asch was discussed in the post for 14 October 2017.

10. Irwin Silber. Reprints from Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine. New York: Oak Publications, 1962. Volume 3.

11. Carl Wiser. "Jerry Silverman on Baseball Songs." Song Facts. 27 November 2008.

12. "Kum Ba Yah." Sing Out! Spring 1958. 18. The second edition of Chansons was published in 1959 by CRS. Marion A. Roberts was the editor.

13. Richard A. Reuss. American Folk Music and Left-Wing Politics, 1927 – 1957. With JoAnne C. Reuss. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2000. 288.

14. Hunt.
15. Wikipedia. "Irwin Silber."

16. Hunt. Silber’s family may have wished to remain anonymous to avoid harassment by the FBI and self-appointed vigilantes.

17. Wikipedia, Silber. Dane was discussed in the post for 23 August 2017.
18. Ben Fong-Torres. "A Life of the Blues." SF Gate website. 22 July 2007.
19. Max Elbaum. Revolution in the Air. London: Verso, 2002. 107–108.
20. Wikipedia. Jerry Silverman. Wo-Chi-Ca was mentioned in the post for 14 July 2019.