[HANASHIR:14600] Re: 60s Folk Music (and 50's too)

[AnnaRuach <AnnaRuach...>]

Dear Adrian, Jeff, and my fellow AK Baby Boomers --

Thanks, Jeff, for the link to that article by Richard Corliss in Time 
Magazine.  I felt the waves of nostalgia as I read it.  Remember that TV show 
"Hootenanny" hosted by Jack Linkletter somewhere in that misty JFK era?  I 
couldn't 
wait to see that show each and every week.  It was my introduction to everyone, 
and I do mean everyone, in that folk pantheon.

But I have to say that it was the rousing harmonies of Peter, Paul & Mary 
that made me truly fall in love with the folk genre, and I truly believe that 
many others here feel likewise.  I'm sorry Mr. Corliss didn't mention them at 
all, because I think they were the ones who cracked the folk nut open for the 
whole world to appreciate.  They made the music sound attractive and 
accessible.  
You didn't have to be bent over with pain and frustration to "get it."  It 
was my non-stop playing of their LP's that, without a word from me, sent my 
father out to surprise me with my first guitar.  At the age of 12 I figured out 
the chords to "Autumn to May" and that was my very first song on the guitar.  
Recorder descants and 3 part vocal arrangements followed.  Plus there was a 
timeless quality to their oeuvre that enabled me to sing many of their songs 
for 
years and years afterwards, in my college coffeehouse career and in my career 
as a public school music teacher. And many of them continue to be sung at the 
Reform camps, so yet another generation is being influenced by them. I just 
know that many of us here feel the same, and they were a significant influence 
on 
Debbie, Jeff, and the legions that have followed them.  Right, chaverim??

And OF COURSE there should be representation of the Jewish folk/pop catalogue 
on any recorded collection of American Jewish music.  Thanks, Adrian, for 
sharing your correspondence with the folks at the Milken Archive.  Rest assured 
I 
will add my voice to yours.

Anna Ott