The New World Singers
Gil Turner, Bob Cohen, Delores Dixon, and Happy Traum
In 1962, The New World Singers, before Happy Traum had joined, traveled to Edwards, Mississippi, where they led freedom song workshops. They brought back new freedom songs to New York and published them in Broadside magazine as a way to disseminate them to other musicians.
Gil Turner (1933-1974), who was on the editorial board for Broadside, worked at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village. It was through this job that he met many new songwriters in New York, and brought them to the attention of the magazine. (Turner also appears solo on track 24 on The Best of Broadside.)
After the group disbanded in 1964, Bob Cohen (b.1939) worked as a music teacher. In recent years, he has been exploring his spirituality and has been acting as the music director for his local synagogue in Kingston, New York.
Happy Traum (b. 1938) was a frequent visitor to the Broadside office, and he recorded Bob Dylan's "Let Me Die in My Footsteps" (track 11 on The Best of Broadside), with Dylan himself on backing vocals and guitar. He has taught at summer camps, served as editor of Sing Out! (1967-1970), and performed solo and with his brother Artie since 1968. Along with his wife Jane, he currently runs Homespun Tapes, a company specializing in instructional music videotapes.
The Best of Broadside: 2. "Blowin' in the Wind"
The first recording of Bob Dylan's Blowin' In the Wind was made by The New World Singers in 1962. Frequently, Dylan was not the first to record his own songs. (The New World Singers were also the first to record Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright"). The story goes that Dylan approached Gil Turner backstage at a New World Singers' performance with the words to "Blowin' in the Wind," and asked if he could sing it for him. Turner was so impressed that he asked Dylan if he could take the song upstairs to the stage and perform it with the group, and he did (Cohen, Traum, personal communication, 2000). Dylan took the melody of the song "No More Auction Block" after hearing it sung by Delores Dixon and the New World Singers and adapted it for this song.
The Best of Broadside: 66. "Bizzness Ain't Dead"
Woody Guthrie wrote at least a thousand songs during his relatively brief career. His recording career lasted from approximately 1940 to 1949, but he continued to write until the Huntington's Chorea that would eventually kill him made it impossible for him to do so. Gil Turner found this song among a set of tapes in Guthrie's publisher's office. The publisher, the Richmond Organization, had given Woody a tape recorder to take home to document many songs that he had not recorded otherwise. Guthrie recorded this song in 1951 but never released it commercially. The New World Singers sang it as part of the session for the first Broadside record in 1962. It was transcribed onto lyric sheets (now held by the Woody Guthrie Archives) in 1955. Woody adapted the old folk song "Mother Ain't Dead (She's Only A-Sleeping)" into this commentary about the resiliency of business.
Text extracted from the notes by Jeff Place accompanying The Best of Broadside.
Smithsonian Folkways recordings featuring The New World Singers:
Broadside Ballads, Volume 1 (FW05301)