Sing Out! Vol. 10 (1960–61) – Bikel, Carawan, & Alan Mills | Folk Songs Across Borders and Movements

Description

By 1960, folk music was poised to erupt into the mainstream, and Sing Out! was both chronicling and shaping that moment. The political undercurrent was sharper, the campus folk scene was exploding, and the magazine’s look had gone full modernist — bold headers, full-bleed portraits, and color-coded covers. This was the era when civil rights anthems were being passed from mouth to mouth, when freedom songs were migrating from Southern churches to Northern rallies. Sing Out! remained the movement’s print backbone — blending old ballads, radical new lyrics, and documentation of performers who mattered more to the culture than the charts. These issues are crisp, era-defining artifacts from folk’s golden threshold.

This lot includes three essential voices from Vol. 10. The April–May 1960 issue (Vol. 10, No. 1) features Theodore Bikel — actor, polyglot, and politically active folk singer whose advocacy for civil rights was matched only by his command of global folk traditions. The Summer 1960 issue (Vol. 10, No. 2) spotlights Guy Carawan, the man who helped popularize “We Shall Overcome” and played a key role in connecting folk music to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Finally, the Dec.–Jan. 1960–61 issue (Vol. 10, No. 4) features Alan Mills, the Canadian folklorist known for bringing French-Canadian songs into the folk revival and recording one of the first versions of “I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.”

This is a trio that bridges cultures, causes, and continents — all through the lens of folk.