Ronnie Gilbert

Ronnie Gilbert died this past week. Her passing was not noted (or at least I didn't see it) by the Canadian main street media nor by anyone on my Facebook pages. And that is a shame. Perhaps the under thirty-five year olds, to which so much of our social media is directed towards, don't have a clue who she was. And that is incredibly sad.

But if you are an old folkie like me, long before there were trios or duos such as Peter, Paul and Mary, Ian and Sylvia or the Travellers- there were the Weavers. Three guys - Lee Hayes, Pete Seeger and Fred Hillerman and one woman - Ronnie Hayes. The Weavers in the late 1940s and early 1950s sang folk songs in the purest sense of the word. They sang songs from all over the world written by and sung by people who lived ordinary lives. Songs that told stories about their lives - their joys and their heartaches. Songs that talked about the struggles of the common people. Those songs are still sung around campfires. It is the music that is at the back of our heads as we travel long distances across this country.

The music was basic, the lyrics were simple but there was a joy and a vibrancy that rang through every song they ever sang. They were popular at universities and made it at least twice to Carnegie Hall. It has been argued that the folk music boom that blossomed at the end of the 1950s and into the 1960s may not have happened in quite the way that it did if the Weavers had not taught the world the songs of such unknowns as Lead Belly or Woodie Guthrie.

The members of the Weavers were, to say the least, on the left side of the political spectrum. Their comments as to the state of the capitalistic western world and the suggestion that we should be all working for world peace were enough for them to be banned from performing during the McCarthy era. They broke up, went their separate ways, rejoined back together and finally by the mid 1960s broke up. They did however occasionally preform with their last concert together being in 1980.

After the Weavers broke up for the first time Ronnie Gilbert earned an MA in clinical psychology and worked as a therapist. Later in life she did a one person musical show based on the life of the activist Mary Harris, sang in reunion concerts with Peter Seeger and Arlo Guthrie. She went on tour with Holly Near. Her voice, while very powerful, may not have been the most perfect voice ever to reform at Carnegie Hall. But she brought to the Weavers a balance to their music. She was an equal presence on the stage and in their music. She was clearly not just a backup singer or someone who was just along for the ride. Her humour and her love of song was present in every note she sang. And the weavers were so much better for her presence.