Folk Scene
March-April 1981
Weavers Reunion by Jim Capaldi
As with most Pete Seeger concerts, it was a time to get together to enjoy some good music, both by listening and participating. It was an evening to join with old friends who share a love of this thing that we somewhat ambiguously label folk music. But this year’s version of Pete Seeger’s annual Carnegie Hall concert was also an event for remembering the greatest folk singing group of them all-the Weavers. The former members of the famous quartet were reunited at this concert for the first time in 17 years. Perhaps Pete Seeger best summed up the nostalgic theme of the evening in an improvised verse, "Here we are in Carnegie Hall / We can’t repeat the past, but the past we can recall."
For those readers who have never heard of the Weavers, despite the great influence that they have had on all American pop music, a brief history is in order. In 1949 Lee Hays approached Pete Seeger (both of whom had been members of the legendary Almanac Singers) and suggested forming a musical group. They joined with Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman to organize a polished folksinging quartet; somewhere along the way they adopted the idea of calling themselves the Weavers. Bandleader Gordon Jenkins heard them perform at a night club and persuaded Decca Records to sign them. Their first popular success came with Lead Belly’s "Goodnight Irene" in 1950; it sold several million copies and remained on the Hit Parade for more than six months. "Irene" was closely followed by many more hits. Soon songs like "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena," "So Long, It’s Been Good to Know You," "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine," and "On Top of Old Smoky" were popularized through the Weavers’ recordings.
All went well for a couple of years, the Weavers proving that one could be both commercial and good in the mass media. Then in 1952, at the height of the McCarthy era, they began to be blacklisted due to previous radical affiliations. Many bookings were cancelled; a television appearance was withdrawn. With avenues of performing closed to them, the Weavers soon broke up.
Three years later Harold Leventhal, former business manager of the Weavers, arranged a reunion concert at Carnegie Hall on Christmas Eve, 1955 featuring the Weavers in the same form as before. The event was recorded by Vanguard Records, and both the concert and resulting LP were met with critical acclaim. Following these events, the Weavers decided to work together as a group again. Pete Seeger dropped out in 1957 and was replaced by three successive banjo pickers: Erik Darling, Frank Hamilton and Bernie Krause. Despite that, the Weavers most people recall today consisted of Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman, and this is the group that reunited for two concerts on November 28th and 29th, 1980.
With virtually no advance advertising, the 25th Anniversary Concert (dating from the 1955 Carnegie Hall appearance) was a sellout. The event even drew attention from the press, Newsweek, the Village Voice and In These Times all featured stories about the reunion. On television, the medium which had so effectively blacklisted the Weavers, the "Today" show saw fit to feature them the morning of the first concert.
Pete Seeger opened the first half of the concert performing solo. He followed an introductory yodel with a brief rendition of "Cripple Creek" on the banjo; Pete may not be a fancy banjo picker with a lot of tricks, but what he knows he plays very well. Two songs for kids were next: "She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain" was sung with much audience participation, and the old "Go Tell Aunt Rhodie" was given new life in Seeger’s rendition. Of all of the folk performers, Pete is easily the best at making a song that seems tired and worn out appear new and interesting.
One of Seeger’s most requested songs is "Lonesome Valley" and at Carnegie Hall it rang out with a chorus of 3,000 good singers. Next were two songs related to the ecological sloop Clearwater. The upbeat "Sailing Up, Sailing Down" (composed by a member of the ship’s crew) was followed, for a nice contrast, by a beautifully done "The Water is Wide." Seeger’s version of the late Matt McGinn’s "Down-A Down" was hilarious — the song’s clever ending coming totally unexpected.
He closed the first half of the evening with a few remarks about the Weavers, speaking about what the other members of the group have been doing since their final split in 1963. Ronnie Gilbert has been an actress living in British Columbia. Fred Hellerman is a music arranger and composer. Lee Hays, who Pete called the best wordsmith he’s ever known, spends his time writing and tending his garden in a town on the Hudson Valley; for the past couple of years he has been confined to a wheel chair. Pete finished by singing one of Lee’s newest songs, "Legs" (reprinted in this issue). It describes the various phases of Lee’s life and ends on a bittersweet note.
The second half of the concert featured the eagerly awaited Weavers. Pete, Ronnie and Fred stood around a seated Lee Hays, and their voices rang out on the bright "Darling Corey." As each Weaver took a solo verse they were greeted with tremendous applause. Despite the fact that they hadn’t sung together professionally for so long, the old magic remained; the distinctive Weavers sound was still there.
The next song, "Wasn’t That a Time," was of historical as well as musical value; Hays wrote it in response to the red-baiters of the 1950s, and so enraged a Congressional committee that both he and Pete Seeger were called as witnesses. A newly composed verse brought back bitter memories of the past: "Informers took their Judas pay / To tell their sorry tale / Gangs in Congress had their way / And free souls went to jail." The lines were a sharp denunciation of those who had cooperated with the House Committee On Unamerican Activities and informed on their friends. Another never before heard verse is worth printing in light of current events: "How many times we’ve gone to kill / In freedom’s holy name / And children died to save the pride / Of rulers without shame."
Displaying his great sense of humor and timing, Lee Hays took over the spotlight with some amusing anecdotes. He talked about his plans earlier in the year to move to a retirement home in Washington, D.C., only to find that someone has just beaten him to it. On the results of the election, Lee commented, "When you’ve been around as long as we have, you’ll realize ‘this too shall pass.’"
Fred Hellerman delightedly mentioned the many people in the audience who weren’t even born when the Weavers were singing together; this led into a lovely ballad titled "Tomorrow Lies in the Cradle," a song about children and the future. He followed that with an uplifting tune, "I Can Count on You," with the other Weavers helping out on the chorus.
Ronnie Gilbert, whose voice remains one of the most beautiful in any musical genre, did one of her old songs, "I Know Where I’m Going," with Pete Seeger’s accompaniment on recorder. She sounded almost exactly the same as she did on the Decca recording made nearly 30 years before. Lee Hays was prompted to remark, in one of the most moving moments of a poignant evening, "That voice is one of the things that has kept me going all these years." Then Ronnie did two new songs by Holly Near, one of the most sensitive writers of our time. First was the chilling "A Woman Has Disappeared in Chile," sung in Spanish, followed by "Something About the Women," a moving tribute to women in all walks of life. She also led the Weavers in the rousing "Venga Jaleo" from the days of the Spanish Civil War.
Besides doing a brief Woody Guthrie piece about Albert Einstein, Pete Seeger led "Dark as a Dungeon" (including a seldom heard verse) ; Lee Hays led the group in his most famous song, "If I Had a Hammer." He asked that the other Weavers sing the song the way he had originally written it, containing the line "love between all of my brothers." But when it cane time for that line Lee sang it "love between all my brothers and sisters" while the others sang the original line. It was moments like this that made this concert more than just another musical event.
Lee soloed on the old spiritual, "All Night Long;" an expert at singing old time gospel songs like that one, he made it sound just right for the occasion. The group then performed a dazzling "When the Saints Go Marching In" and finished with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Back onstage for two standing ovations, the quartet performed "Chanukah," "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine," "Wimoweh" and, of course, "Goodnight Irene." Then they waved goodbye to a grateful and enthusiastic audience. With them was the man one could properly be called the ‘fifth Weaver,’ Harold Leventhal. The concert was over, but it left warn and wonderful memories. . .
"We are traveling in the footsteps of those
who’ve gone before,
And we’ll all be reunited on that new and sovereign
shore."