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]
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."
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