New York City, Greenwich Village, and Folk Music

NYC and the American Folk Revival of the 1950s and 60s

Sep 9, 2009

New York City is the unofficial home of American Folk Music, as folkies through the 20th century have gone there to find like hearts and share their music.

The importance of New York City to American Folk Music history can not be underestimated. NYC was home to both of the major Folk revivals, and continues to be a center of Folk music today.

While recording studios and popular songwriters of the day mostly lived uptown, the heart of Folk Music was Greenwich Village, and the heart of the heart was Washington Square Park.

Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Lead the First New York Folk Revival in the Late 1930s and 1940s.

New York City had become a major hub for the radio industry by the mid 1930s (oldradio.com), and drew many musicians to the area. This includes the rural musicians that musicologists John and Alan Lomax had “discovered” on their forays across the country.

One of these musicians discovered by the Lomaxes was an ex-convict by the name of Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly. Lead Belly first came to New York in 1935. According to The NPR Complete Listener’s Guide to American Folk, by Kip Lornell, “the story and music of Lead Belly caught the attention of local community folk and folk-based singers.”

The appearance of an “authentic” rural singer in New York City galvanized the small folk musician community. Lead Belly joined soon-to-be legendary figures such as:

New York City became the center of this, and became tied in history to the union movement, of which New York was also one of the hubs. Led by groups such as the Almanac Singers, folk musicians played union halls and political rallies through the 1940s, supporting causes such as the coal miner strikes in Appalachia.

The Resurgence of Folk Music, Young Folk Musicians Move To New York City

Due to its leftist leanings (real and perceived), Folk Music became mostly taboo during the 1950s, with popular bands such as the Weavers being boycotted (Lornell). However, by the late 1950s and especially the 1960s there was new found interest in American Roots and Traditional music. Again, ground zero for it was New York City.

In 1955, The Weavers performed at Carnegie Hall. While this alone did not spark the American Folk Revival, it was an important event, planting the seed that would bloom a few years later.

In his book Folk Music USA, Ronald Lankford cites the Kingston Trio hit “Tom Dooley” as the spark that reignited American Folk Music. From there the movement grew among college students.

As NYC was already the home of many music publishers (Brill Building, Tin Pan Alley, etc) and recording studios, as well as the previous congregation site of folkies, it quickly received a migration of young folk musicians looking to share there songs and become famous.

Greenwich Village, New York, Becomes Center of Folk Revival

Since 1946, when musicians first began their weekly Sunday get togethers at Greenwich Village’s Washington Square Park (Lankford), the Village has a special place in history among folkies, just as it did among beatniks. This would only increase as a new generation of college students and young adults discovered Folk Music in the 1960s.

“In 1957, Izzy Young decided that a folk revival was right around the corner and the village needed a Folklore Center (Lankford),” and that is exactly what Young built. Greenwich Village’s Folklore Center, situated on Macdougal Street, became the center of the village’s folk music scene during the 1960s. According to Lankford, the Folklore Center, in addition to holding concerts and instruments, often doubled as a “charity ward for down and out folk singers,” lending instruments and supplies, a cot to nap on, or a dollar for a sandwich.

Many of the aspiring folk musicians who found their way to the Village eventually found their way to success. Bob Dylan famously moved to Greenwich Village in 1961 after dropping out of the University of Minnesota. Joan Baez lived there or a time, and the members of Peter, Paul, and Mary first got together there.

Decline of Folk Revival and Dispersion From New York City

As history went on beyond the early 1960s, other cities developed their own folk scenes. Folk mingled with Rock music and became Folk-Rock, a separate genre from traditional Folk. These developments changed the scene -- folkies gave way to (or became) hippies and many headed out West, specifically to San Francisco

New York City would later become important in the history of other musical movements, most notably Punk, with bands like the Ramones and the New York Dolls beginning there. Fittingly, these musical children of the city-- Folk and Punk-- would later combine into a genre called Anti-Folk, which launched the careers of a new generation of folkies, notably Beck, Michelle Shocked, and Ani Difranco.

The copyright of the article New York City, Greenwich Village, and Folk Music in Folk Music is owned by Craig Sanders. Permission to republish New York City, Greenwich Village, and Folk Music in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.