Hootenanny

In the pre-war years, and particularly during the Depression, the folk movement in the United States was strongly allied to the political left. The lyrical content of folk songs of that period (and beyond) routinely dealt with the plight of factory workers, itinerant farmers and the economically oppressed. Hootenannies were political fundraising events involving music, dancing and oratory and became important platforms for folk artists such as Woody Guthrie and, later, Pete Seeger. Hootenanny retrospectively celebrates this rare alliance; it also adds to a number of works of mine which draw on American folk and performance idioms.