The Best of Hootenanny (2007) Shout! Factory 3DVD box set NEW
For the first-time on home video, a deluxe 3-DVD set of the hit ABC show that started the '60s!
In the pre-Beatlemania days of April 1963, a weekly folk music concert called Hootenanny
found its way onto the American television airwaves. Originating from
various college campuses, the show featured artists that were thriving
on the coffee house and college circuit, like Judy Collins, Trini Lopez,
Jimmie Rodgers, the Chad Mitchell Trio, the Brothers Four and Bob
Gibson.
Hosted by Jack Linkletter (the son of TV legend Art Linkletter), Hootenanny was also a showcase for young comedians, including Bill Cosby and Woody Allen. And Hootenanny,
not limiting itself to folk artists, also featured gospel, jazz and
country performers, including Clara Ward, the Carter Family, Marion
Williams, Herbie Mann, Hoyt Axton, Eddy Arnold, Flatt & Scruggs and
Johnny Cash--all usually performing in the folk idiom, or something
close to it.
A few young future rock performers also made early appearances on Hootenanny.
Look for John Phillips, who would later go on to form The Mamas and the
Papas, as a member of the Journeymen. Carly Simon performs as one half
of the Simon Sisters and Barry McGuire, who would soon have a number one
hit with Eve Of Destruction, can be seen with the New Christy
Minstrels.
By 1964 the Beatles had arrived in America, essentially ending the folk music craze that had started only a few years before. Hootenanny would soon be replaced by Shindig! All of the videotapes of Hootenanny
are lost--most likely erased and recycled during a time when no one
imagined folk music would matter again. But fortunately the shows were
preserved on kinescopes, films made from a television monitor. These
kinescopes of Hootenanny form a musical time capsule of the
short-lived era in American popular music--in between Elvis Presley and
The Beatles--when folk music was all the rage.
More than 80
songs including: Froggie Went A-Courtin', He Was A Friend Of Mine,
Midnight Special, C.C. Rider, Cottonfields, Turn Turn Turn, If I Had A
Hammer, Wayfarin' Stranger, Wimoweh and Ole Blue
With performances by:
Eddy Arnold, Hoyt Axton, Leon Bibb, Theodore Bikel, The Brothers Four,
Bud & Travis, The Carter Family, Johnny Cash, The Chad Mitchell
Trio, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, The Clara Ward Gospel
Singers, Judy Collins, The Coventry Singers, Dian & The Greenbriar
Boys, The Dillards, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, Bob Gibson, Ian
& Sylvia, Joe & Eddie, The Journeymen, The Limeliters, Trini
Lopez, Miriam Makeba, Herbie Mann, The New Christy Minstrels, Richard
& Jim, Jimmie Rodgers, The Rooftop Singers, The Serendipity Singers,
Mike Settle, The Simon Sisters, The Tarriers, The Travelers Three, Doc
Watson, Josh White, Jr., Beverly White, Marion Williams
And comedy by:
Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Vaughn Meader, Louis Nye, Jackie Vernon
Although there are other styles represented among the more than 90 tracks in this three-disc set, The Best of Hootenanny is mostly about folk music. And while folkie superstars like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and the Kingston Trio are absent, there are lots of famous names on hand (Judy Collins, Carly Simon, the New Christy Minstrels, Hoyt Axton, the Limelighters), not to mention a host of genre-defining songs ("Green, Green," "If I Had a Hammer," "Five Hundred Miles," "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" even "Kumbayah," the summer camp moment that's become a new millennium cliché). Problem is, time has not been very kind to folk. No matter how good the performances may be, and some are excellent, this is music that is very much of its time (the early 1960s); nuance-free, with its pure and earnest tales of lusty men and their ramblin' ways, it virtually parodies itself these days--especially in the wake of A Mighty Wind, Christopher Guest's spot-on film satire. Little wonder that the TV show itself was off the air by September, '64, plowed under by the Beatles and other rockers who made folk sound quaint and unfashionable (an exception here would be Ian & Sylvia Tyson's powerful and rocking "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well"). It's the offerings from other genres that still sound great. A duo called Joe & Eddie bring a febrile, foot-stomping gospel vibe to "Jerry," as do the amazing Marion Williams & Stars of Faith to "Packin' Up." The Dillards, Flatt & Scruggs (with banjo virtuoso Earl Scruggs), and Richard & Jim, another obscure duo, play some scorching bluegrass; Johnny Cash (whose two tunes include "Busted," most closely associated with Ray Charles) and the Carter Family represent traditional country music, and jazz flutist Herbie Mann's Latin-inflected "Harlem Nocturne" is a highlight. All the clips, including comedy bits by Woody Allen, Louis Nye, Bill Cosby, and John F. Kennedy impersonator Vaughn Meader, were preserved on kinescope (recordings made by filming the picture from a TV monitor), so neither video nor audio is great. The set contains no bonus features. --Sam Graham