Bob Dylan

       Bob Dylan was born in 1941. He's been making music almost his entire life, and produced his first record in a department store booth when he was 15. He enrolled at the University of Minneapolis, but after first year dropped out and decided to create a more serious folk career. He created a niche for himself at first as a protest-song writer, but eventually grew out of that category to expand his musical career. Some of his more famous songs include Blowin in the wind, Like a Rolling Stone, and Mr. Tambourine Man. He says his inspirations include Woody Guthrie, Buddy Johnson, and Hank Johns. He was one of the first folk musicians to use an electric guitar in performance, creating a scandal at one music festival.
    He performed often with artist Joan Baez, and they were rumoured to have a romance together but never officially dated or married.
    After a motorcycle accident in 1966, he took a break from the musical crowd, but came back writing more original music. Some of his music after this time was widely criticized.
   Overall, many of his songs have been recorded by other folk artists and he was a huge part of the folk revival of the early 60's.

Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger was one of the more famous folk musicians of the sixties. He composed many songs that he performed and were later covered by many other folk artists and bands. His most famous singles include If I Had a Hammer, Where Have All The Flowers Gone?, and Turn! Turn! Turn!

He founded two groups, The Weavers, and The Almanac Singers. He played instruments like the guitar, banjo, and he introduced the steel pan drums to folk music.

During the folk revival period, he taught music at schools and at camps. He was also avidly involved with radical politics, which reflected in many his songs. He attended Harvard University on partial scholarship, but lost the scholarship due to poor grades.

He still is a major player in the folk field of music today, with many tribute albums. He was and still is an inspiration to many folk musicians.

Turn! Turn! Turn!

This is a song performed by the Byrds. The lyrics were taken from the book of Ecclesiastes and it is quite a famous song. The words were put to music by Pete Seeger (who wrote a ton of songs...more on him later). It's featured in Forest Gump! It reached number 1 on the billboard top charts.

Click here to listen to it on youtube!

Interesting Facts

Try and figure out these questions about folk! Answers will be written at the bottom.

1)These two girls were a sister act, until one became a pop singer and married James Taylor. Who were these sisters?

2)These two amazing artists performed together and toured together as well, and were rumoured to have dated. They never recorded together though.

3)This duo recorded an album called "At The Gate of Horn" which was said to be one of the most influential folk albums of the early sixties.

4)This was the original name of the folk duo Simon and Garfunkel, it was also the name of a cartoon duo.

5)This movie makes paradies of 50's and 60's folk, and was directed by Christopher Guest

6)The folk trio included John Denver

7)This song, written by Bob Dylan opened with a line "You got a lotta' nerve to say you are my friend,". Which other folk singer was this song rumoured to be about?

8) This string instrumented, called an autoharp, is often used by some folk musicians. How many strings does it have?

9)This songwriter wrote famous songs "What Did You Learn in School Today?", "Beau John" and "Buy a Gun for Your Son". He recieved a lifetime achievement award at the Grammy's in 2009.

10)What was the reason behind the "scandal" caused by Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965

1)Simon Sisters

2)Bob Dylan and Joan Baez

3)Gibson and Camp

4) Simon and Garfunkel

5) A Mighty Wind

6)The Mitchell Trio

7)Phil Ochs

8)At least 36, butup to 48.

9)Tom Paxton

10)He performed with an electric guitar.

Some Artists to Check Out

Here are some artists who excelled during the sixties folk revival.

Arlo Guthrie

Bob Dylan

Gordon Lightfoot

Janis Ian

Joan Baez

Odetta

Phil Ochs

Woody Guthrie

Joni Mitchell

Peter, Paul, and Mary

they all wrote some of their own music, and some did some great covers or traditional songs like Puff The Magic Dragon (click to view on youtube) as well. Enjoy!

Blowing in the Wind

Watch this video to see on of the most famous folk musicians perform his classic, Blowing in the Wind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zY_cM0_6vA

Revival Folk?

As some of you may know or have heard before, often the folk genre from the 50' s and 60's is referred to as revival folk. Why? Well, I'm here to tell you!

The return of popular folk music in the 1960's was called the revival folk music for one reason - cause it was being revived! Folk music has been around for basically ever - those guys who lived in the medieval times and walked around singing songs on those old stringed instruments? Those are basically folk songs.

The old traditional way to explain folk songs is that folk songs are anything that can be passed on through oral communication, and tell a story. They often talked about something that could be shared universally, not just with one specific group of people.

In the sixties, folk changed the definition slightly. Folk music began to be recorded by some of the greats, such as Bob Dylan. This kind of broke the originally way of passing on folk music. But now everybody had the ability to hear the type of messages folk singers wanted to pass on and it became huge. It also began to use some less traditional instruments, like drum kits. In the past folk had basically been guitar and voice, and now it was expanding to include all sorts of instruments. Folk singers claimed to right to write, perform, and record to their own standard, not anybody elses!