Daily Worker
May 15, 1941
FOLK SINGERS IN ORIGINAL REVUE TONIGHT
Who makes the Nation's laws may not be of any concern to some composers — but it is to the Almanac Singers. Specifically though, they are concerning themselves with writing the nation's songs.
In more than one mining camp or picket line today can be heard these songs which come from the heart of the American people.
Like roving reporters they are on the scene - wherever things are happening, to record in their own inimitable way the events that will go down in American history books.
If you have never seen or heard the Almanac Singers, tonight and Friday at the Finnish Hall, 15 W. 126th St., will provide an opportunity for them to be seen in their capacity as part of a group called "The Almanac Singers and Players" in a typical revue "Sign of the Times" for which they supplied most of the music and the inspiration for much of the material.
It is because the Almanac Singers felt the need to take their part in the history-making events they have witnessed, that these four boys abandoned their staid, comfortable lives. Two former Harvard, one West Virginia and one Montana undergraduates gave up their future careers as doctor, lawyer, engineer and writer to go directly to the people and offer whatever assistance they could give to their struggles.
Destined to get together to work more efficiently as a unit - these four men met at the Youth Congress in Washington (1941) to which they had been invited individually. On that occasion they decided to merge their talents and energy to form a group since become famous as the Almanac Singers. When asked where they got their music and material, the boys who have had no formal musical training, replied, "we got our stuff from the people themselves, that's where the best music and poetry can be found."
The Almanac Singers want to dispel the generally accepted notion that folk music is dead, "Well, it isn't," one of them heatedly said
— "this kind of music is being written every day in places like the Ford picket line -the Harvester strike - Harlan County and other similar historical scenes."
Wherever men and women gather to protest or voice their struggles - the Almanac Singers have given them a way of doing it that is both vital and effective.
"We don't use elaborate arrangements, because we want the folks who listen to be able to pick up the songs easily." That's the way the Almanac Singers described the wonderful way in which their listeners not only join in their choruses
— but constantly add new ones.