Sing It Pretty: A Memoir
A leader in the development of state and federal programs supporting traditional arts and folk cultures, Bess Lomax Hawes grew up with her father John Lomax and brother Alan in the first family of American folk music. Her compelling account of the folk music boom of the mid-twentieth century and the development of "public-sector" folklore includes family friends Ruth Crawford Seeger and Carl Sandburg, fellow Almanac Singers Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, and other musicians and artists. Her...
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The personal account of a giant in American folklore and folk music.Henry L. Carrigan Jr. - Library JournalBorn in East Texas to famed folk song collector John Lomax, Hawes spent her childhood traveling with her father and her brother, Alan Lomax, to help preserve the folk music culture of rural America. As a child, Hawes took to heart her mother's advice-"by doing, you learn to do"-and has applied it to all areas of her life. She learned the tools of folklore fieldwork by transcribing the songs of rural musicians and taught herself how to play these songs, eventually joining the Almanac Singers, which included Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, as part of a growing folk movement. When she married Butch Hawes and moved to California, she began teaching guitar and college-level folklore studies. Eventually, she was named director of the Folk and Traditional Arts Program at the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1993, Bill Clinton recognized her work by awarding her the National Medal of Arts. Although Hawes recounts her life dispassionately and in a rather pedantic manner, her accomplishments and her significant contributions to American music mark her place in music history. Libraries with comprehensive folk music collections will want to own her memoir.
Acknowledgments ixGetting Started 1Growing Up 11Our Singing Country 20Europe and Bryn Mawr 29The Almanacs and the War 39Boston, Babies, and Beginning to Teach 51California and More Teaching 61College Teaching 74Off-Campus Excursions 87The Smithsonian Festivals 103Moving to the National Endowment for the Arts 118Creating the Folk Arts Program 129Guidelines, Panels, and Policies 140Working with States and Artists 150The National Heritage Fellowships 161Memories 169Chronology of the Life of Bess Lomax Hawes 175Index 177
\ Library JournalBorn in East Texas to famed folk song collector John Lomax, Hawes spent her childhood traveling with her father and her brother, Alan Lomax, to help preserve the folk music culture of rural America. As a child, Hawes took to heart her mother's advice-"by doing, you learn to do"-and has applied it to all areas of her life. She learned the tools of folklore fieldwork by transcribing the songs of rural musicians and taught herself how to play these songs, eventually joining the Almanac Singers, which included Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, as part of a growing folk movement. When she married Butch Hawes and moved to California, she began teaching guitar and college-level folklore studies. Eventually, she was named director of the Folk and Traditional Arts Program at the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1993, Bill Clinton recognized her work by awarding her the National Medal of Arts. Although Hawes recounts her life dispassionately and in a rather pedantic manner, her accomplishments and her significant contributions to American music mark her place in music history. Libraries with comprehensive folk music collections will want to own her memoir.\ —Henry L. Carrigan Jr.\ \ \
