The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City originally consisting of Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, and Fred Hellerman.
During the Red Scare, members of the group were followed by the FBI and denied recording and performance opportunities, with Seeger and Hays called in to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
His tenor and banjo part was covered in succession by Erik Darling, Frank Hamilton and finally Bernie Krause until the group disbanded in 1964.
In June 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the APM changed its name to the American People's Mobilization and followed the Party line by altering its focus to supporting U.S. entry into the war.
After a period of being unable to find much paid work, they landed a steady and successful engagement at the Village Vanguard jazz club.
For example, on their hit, Lonesome Traveler which Lee Hays wrote, they were backed by Jenkins and his orchestra Because of the deepening Red Scare of the early 1950s, their manager Pete Cameron advised them not to sing their most explicitly political songs and to avoid performing at "progressive" venues and events.
[10] The successful concerts and hit recordings of the Weavers helped introduce to new audiences such folk revival standards as "On Top of Old Smoky"[5] (with guest vocalist Terry Gilkyson), Woody Guthrie's 1935 "So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh", the B side of Lonesome Traveler, (which reached #4 in 1951), "Follow the Drinking Gourd", "Kisses Sweeter than Wine", Tony Saletan's adaptation of "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore", "The Wreck of the John B" (a/k/a "Sloop John B"), "Rock Island Line", "The Midnight Special", "Pay Me My Money Down", "Darling Corey" and "Wimoweh".
During the 1950s Red Scare, Pete Seeger and Lee Hays were identified as Communist Party USA members by FBI informant Harvey Matusow (who later recanted).
[13] Because Seeger was among those listed in the entertainment industry blacklist publication Red Channels, all of the Weavers were placed under FBI surveillance and not allowed to perform on television or radio during the McCarthy era.
Yet it was not until the height of the 1960s that Seeger was able to end his blacklisting by appearing on the nationally broadcast CBS-TV variety show The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967.
[7] Darling remained with the group until June 1962, leaving to pursue a solo career and eventually forming the folk trio the Rooftop Singers.
[7] Folksinger Bernie Krause, later a pioneer in bringing the Moog synthesizer to popular music, was the last performer to occupy "the Seeger chair".
Hays' informal picnic prompted a professional reunion and a triumphant return to Carnegie Hall on November 28, 1980, which was to be the group's last full performance.
[17] In a 1968 interview, in response to claims that record companies found the Weavers difficult to classify, Seeger told the Pop Chronicles music documentary to "leave that up to the anthropologists, the folklorists. ...
Following the Weavers' dissolution, Ronnie Gilbert toured America as a soloist, and Fred Hellerman worked as a recording engineer and producer.
Represented by members Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman, they struck a chord with the crowd as their struggles with political witch hunts during the 1950s were recounted.
"If you can exist, and stay the course – not a course of blind obstinacy and faulty conception – but one of decency and good sense, you can outlast your enemies with your honor and integrity intact", Hellerman said.