Description
In 1957, America was tuning in and turning up — Elvis hit #1, Sputnik shocked the skies, and the civil rights movement gathered momentum with school desegregation battles in Little Rock. Beneath all that noise, Sing Out! remained a steady, radical pulse for the folk revival. It wasn’t flashy or commercial — it was deeply rooted, fiercely independent, and intellectually defiant. By Volume 7, the magazine had matured into a critical platform for traditional ballads, emerging songwriters, and social commentary, just as the Greenwich Village scene was beginning to rumble. These issues document a pre-Dylan moment — when the songs were still passed hand to hand, heart to heart, and “authenticity” wasn’t a marketing pitch but a lifeline. Sing Out! was the folk underground’s bulletin board before the folk boom arrived.
This lot of thee issues from Volume 7 feature three towering figures in folk history. The Summer 1957 issue (Vol. 7, No. 2) showcases Woody Guthrie in a haunting photo — a man already in decline from Huntington’s disease but still looming large in influence. Guthrie’s Dust Bowl ballads and labor anthems laid the bedrock for the revival. The Fall 1957 issue (Vol. 7, No. 3) highlights Jean Ritchie, “the mother of folk,” whose dulcimer and Appalachian ballads introduced an entire generation to the roots of mountain music. The Winter 1958 issue (Vol. 7, No. 4) features British folklorist A. L. Lloyd, a key figure in the UK’s folk resurgence and an influential voice on both sides of the Atlantic.
Together, these issues capture the transatlantic dialogue and generational torch-passing that defined folk’s golden age.
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