It’s like my daddy used to say to me, Enthusiasts: “TotD, you can’t fuck to folk,” and then he’d shit on a pool table because my daddy was a honky-tonking man.  He was right, though. You can’t fuck to folk music. It’s inappropriate to even become aroused during a hootenanny, let alone start plugging up stinky holes. Try it! I dare you! Try banjo-boning! You’ll fail.

You can, however, fuck to the great Jesse Jarnow’s new book Wasn’t That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America.

That’s the worst advertisement I’ve ever heard. 

Stick around! Anyway, like he said: this is an ad. I am blatantly trying to get you to buy the book, and I am biased. DaCapo Press sent me two free copies, and I like Jesse very much; quite frankly, even if the volume were 300 pages of Godzilla porn, I would tell you to by it. Luckily, there are very few sexually-explicit passages at all, let along ones starring giant lizards tail-fucking giant moths.

No, instead what you get is a delightful example of one of TotD’s favorite maxims: Singer, not the song. I have–and this will come as no surprise–never been to a hoot, nor a sing-a-long, nor an old-timey high-kickin’ n’ hollerin’ wing-ding/rent party. The only way I would listen to folk music is if all the other music disappeared and then they started charging for the silence. Not a fan.

Why? Because folk music is too:

A: Wholesome. 

The Weavers go on a British tour, and one of them–Lee Hays, the fat Southerner–orders a glass of milk from room service. I can’t relate to that shit, man.

B: White.

Folk music is some white people bullshit. I had to play Fela Kuti while I was reading, just to balance my head out.

But The Weavers had an interesting story, notwithstanding the music, and the great Jesse Jarnow tells it well. Did you know that the U.S. government was gonna throw one of The Weavers–Pete Seeger, the skinny Yankee–in jail just for being a Communist? And not even a scary commie. It was Pete Seeger, for fuck’s sake. Pete Seeger’s Communism was a family-friendly one. He was a Summer-Camp Communist. It should also be mentioned that all the man was doing was playing a banjo and singing the tenor parts. Regimes throughout history have persecuted the guy playing banjo and singing the tenor parts.

Blacklisted! The Weavers! Lee and Pete and the two others! Just for some songs about peace. Or maybe it was the banjo. Go read about it.

 

ALSO: It turns out that Burl Ives named names and now Frosty the Snowman is ruined for me. Thank you, Jesse. Information I did not need.