Title:
Bess Lomax Hawes Brought Folk Music to a Wider
Public
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Education Report.
See text below
Text:
Bess Lomax Hawes was an American folk musician,
singer and teacher who died in November at the age
of eighty-eight. She came from a family of music
historians. She helped her father and brother, John
and Alan Lomax, collect folk music. John Lomax
developed an Archive of American Folk Song at the
Library of Congress.
In the nineteen forties, after college, Bess Lomax
joined the Almanac Singers, a group that sang social
protest songs. Other members included Woody Guthrie,
Pete Seeger and "Butch" Hawes, who became her
husband.
The family later moved to California, where Bess
taught music, including guitar and banjo. She also
became an anthropology professor at what is now
California State University, Northridge.
In the nineteen seventies, she worked at the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Later, she
directed the folk arts program at the National
Endowment for the Arts. She received the National
Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton in
nineteen ninety-three.
Daniel Sheehy is acting head of the Center for
Folklife and Cultural Heritage at the Smithsonian.
He worked with Bess Lomax Hawes and remembers how
she worked to keep folk traditions from being lost.
He said she found ways to help those voices, songs,
stories and craft traditions make it into the lives
of a much broader public.
Bess Lomax Hawes may be best remembered for a song
from nineteen forty-nine. She and Jacqueline Steiner
took old music and wrote new words for a campaign
song. The song was to support Walter O'Brien, a
Progressive Party candidate for mayor of Boston,
Massachusetts. One of Mister OBriens promises was to
fight a fare increase on the transit system then
known as the M.T.A.
The song is about Charlie, a man who does not have
enough money
to leave the train, so he has to ride forever. Here
is part of this funny song:
Did he ever return,
No he never returned.
And his fate is still unlearn'd.
He may ride forever
'neath the streets of Boston.
He's the man who never returned.
The candidate lost. But the "M.T.A." song later
became a huge hit with a version by the Kingston
Trio.
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report.
You can find transcripts, podcasts and archives of
our programs -- and links to our social media -- at
voaspecialenglish.com.
Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
To post a comment:
• Click "Comment using..." in
the window below
• Click your favorite service: Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail
• Login to the service
• Click "Add a comment..."
• Post your comment in the window
Students: Please post a
comment stating what you found interesting about this video. You are
welcome to include links to your English study blogs and any
other materials you think might be useful for learning
English.
Teachers: Please post your
thoughts about this video. You are welcome to include links to
your sites, blogs, and any other materials you think might
be useful for learning English.
Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
