In honor of the FolkWorks theme for July, Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land,” I want to illuminate the ways that Guthrie’s work and life intersected with Jean Ritchie’s presence in the folk revival of the 1960s.

In looking at their careers side by side, there are so many parallels and paths coinciding, and their lasting legacies and influences are still being felt in music today, whether through traditional music paths or via the work of contemporary folk artists carrying on the sounds and messages of folk life and activism. 

The New York Folk Scene

Ritchie’s arrival in New York coincided with the height of the folk revival of the mid-20th century where she met Guthrie and others. The leading figures in the revival movement recognized Jean as a living link to the traditional music they were seeking to preserve and promote.

The Folk Revival

Jean Ritchie was surprised to be swept up in the folk revival movement’s first years in the late 1950s, as she did not intend to pursue a musical career.  She had come to New York to study social work, and was indeed a teacher at the Henry Street Settlement teaching children with her vast trove of traditional songs from her native Kentucky.  Word of her songs and beautiful singing was shared with the community and she was encouraged to take it further.  Her meeting with the prominent folklorist Alan Lomax thrust her into the middle of something that was growing up vigorously around her.  Her presence and contribution became quickly significant in a way she had never anticipated.  Jean also did not intend to become a composer, having collected over 300 traditional songs with her Eastern Kentucky family as a child.  It was the influence of Guthrie, Seeger and other artists that brought Jean into the work of composing, as well as recording and performing along side many of those artists.

Ritchie’s and Guthrie’s shared stage and radio appearances solidified their connection.  With her Appalachian dulcimer and traditional songs, Jean brought the sounds of her Kentucky mountain heritage to a wider audience.  Guthrie, with his Dust Bowl ballads and social commentary, captured the struggles and activist spirit of that era.  Their performances inspired other prominent folk artists like Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, and Lead Belly among others, and were a complementary contribution to the folk music environment.

New Songs Influenced By

As stated above, Jean was never intending to become a songwriter, but for the Woody Guthrie memorial, Pete Seeger asked her to write a song. This request led her to write the major work “Black Waters” in Guthrie’s style, identifying the poisoning and flooding of the coal country’s farms and landscapes by the coal companies of Eastern Kentucky.    Further, she composed gentle protests, songs containing subtle political views, such as “The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore” and “Blue Diamond Mines.”  These songs outlined the coal industry’s move from deep mining to strip mining, which upended the culture and lives of millions of families and workers in the coal country of Kentucky and neighboring states.

Legacy

It is no doubt that these two artists’ music and activism inspired countless others down through the decades since the 1960s, including Joni Mitchell, who has cited Guthrie as an influence, and Guthrie’s influence on Bob Dylan’s work and career are well-documented and well-known, as well as in the work of Guthrie’s son, Arlo Guthrie and many others.  Both Ritchie and Guthrie left behind a rich legacy of music and activism, and the collaboration of these two artists was a complementary working relationship that has produced great and lasting works of art.

As always, thanks for reading!

Love and Blessings,
Susie

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Award-winning recording artist, Broadway singer, journalist, educator and critically-acclaimed powerhouse vocalist, Susie Glaze has been called “one of the most beautiful voices in bluegrass and folk music today” by Roz Larman of KPFK’s Folk Scene.  LA Weekly voted her ensemble Best New Folk in their Best of LA Weekly for 2019, calling Susie “an incomparable vocalist.”  “A flat out superb vocalist… Glaze delivers warm, amber-toned vocals that explore the psychic depth of a lyric with deft acuity and technical perfection.”  As an educator, Susie has lectured at USC Thornton School of Music and Cal State Northridge on “Balladry to Bluegrass,” illuminating the historical path of ancient folk forms in the United Kingdom to the United States via immigration into the mountains of Appalachia.  Susie has taught workshops since 2018 at California music camps RiverTunes and Vocáli Voice Camp.  She is a current specialist in performance and historian on the work of American folk music icon, Jean Ritchie.  Susie now offers private voice coaching online via the Zoom platform.   www.susieglaze.com