Ronnie Gilbert, Folk Singer for the Weavers, Dies at 88

[deurbano]

Source: New York Times

By BRUCE WEBER

Ronnie Gilbert, whose crystalline, bold contralto provided distaff ballast for the Weavers, the seminal quartet that helped propel folk music to wide popularity and establish its power as an agent of social change, died on Saturday in Mill Valley, Calif. She was 88….

…The Weavers, whose other members were Pete Seeger, Lee Hays and Fred Hellerman, started playing together in the late 1940s. Like-minded musicians with progressive political views, they performed work songs, union songs and gospel songs, and became known for American folk standards like “On Top of Old Smoky,” “Goodnight, Irene” (first recorded by the blues singer Lead Belly), Woody Guthrie’s “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know Yuh” and “The Hammer Song” (a.k.a. “If I Had a Hammer”) by Mr. Seeger and Mr. Hays, as well as songs from other cultures, including “Wimoweh” from Africa and “Tzena Tzena Tzena,” a Hebrew song popular in Israel (though it was written before Israel was established in 1948)…..

…“We sang songs of hope in that strange time after World War II, when already the world was preparing for Cold War,” Ms. Gilbert recalled in “The Weavers: Wasn’t That a Time,” a 1982 documentary about the group. “We still had the feeling that if we could sing loud enough and strong enough and hopefully enough, it would make a difference.”…

….Ms. Gilbert’s marriage ended in divorce. She is survived by her daughter, Lisa, and a granddaughter. Ms. Gilbert, who lived in Mill Valley, Calif., is also survived by her partner, Ms. Korones, who was her manager and business partner for many years. They were married in 2004 in San Francisco during a brief period when the mayor, Gavin Newsom, opened City Hall to same-sex weddings; theirs and some 4,000 other marriages were later declared invalid by the California Supreme Court.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/arts/music/ronnie-gilbert-folk-singer-for-the-weavers-dies-at-88.html

[shenmue]

1. Rest in peace

[elleng]

2. Weavers Reunion, Irene Goodnight, Tzena Tzena

[Warpy]

3. She was the first white woman who really knew how to belt out a song

unlike all the polite singers with bands in the 50s and early 60s. She opened her mouth and let fly and it was glorious.

My greatest sympathy to her wife.

[marym625]

8. The clip I posted below

Has Holly Near speaking about just what you said.

Your post is lovely

[marym625]

4. Terrible loss!

Absolutely love her

Holly Near and Ronnie Gilbert, Hay Una Mujer Desaparecida

[Hoyt]

5. Folk music from that period is inspiring. Anyone who contributed has my thanks. RIP.

[Paka]

6. Vibrant voice.

Wonderful group. They made fantastic music together. One of my early introductions to folk music. May she continue to please listeners wherever she goes.

[Hekate]

7. I still have my Weavers Songbook from 1964. They were wonderful. RIP Ronnie Gilbert...

...Thanks for all you brought in to this world -- there'll be a heckuva reunion in Heaven tonight.

[deurbano]

9. I met her at an event at the Main Library in San Francisco in 2002, I think.

She was on a panel with a woman who wrote a book about Woody Guthrie and a guy who wrote a book about Camp Wo-Chi-Ca, with the forward by Gilbert since she had attended the “red” camp as a child. She was incredibly gracious and kind when I spoke with her afterwards. What a life! RIP to a woman who never stopped trying to make the world a better place.

With my daughter:

[img][/img]

[elleng]

15. Lovely, and great to see the pic.

Lucky you!

[LeftishBrit]

10. Terribly sorry to hear this

[TeamPooka]

11. I met her at screening of WASN'T THAT A TIME back in 1982 at an art/rep movie theater I worked at

called the SONO Cinema in South Norwalk CT.
She was wonderful.
The event was a fundraiser for cleaning up the Hudson River, one of Pete's crusades.
Pete and Fred were there too. Lee had passed away the year before so it was close to a reunion they could have.
I had grown up on folk music cause my mom loved it.
She was a guitar playing folk music loving union organizing public school teacher.
It was great to be able to introduce mom to one of her heroes.
Ronnie was so funny. Sharp as a tack.
I loved her and the movie is wonderful if you get a chance to ever see it.

[DinahMoeHum]

19. I wish there was a DVD of that documentary.

I've seen it several times on PBS and I have the vinyl LP and CD of the music.

[Mopar151]

12. Thanks for the memories, Ronnie

And all the beautiful music.

[DinahMoeHum]

13. Songs will be dedicated to her 2 weekends from now. . .

at the upcoming Clearwater Festival in Croton-on-Hudson, NY. Bank on it.

http://www.clearwaterfestival.org

I'll be there, as before for nearly 30 straight years, as a volunteer.

[elleng]

17. What a great event!

[DinahMoeHum]

20. Do you go there?

Will you be there this year?

[elleng]

22. No, Dinah, I haven't gone,

and won't be able to go this year, but it sounds terrific.

[classof56]

14. Sad news, but what a life and legacy!

I attended a Weavers concert in Denver back in the early 60s. Was really into folk music then--also went to concerts by Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Joan and Bob together, the Kingston Trio, Peter Paul and Mary, to name a few, but the highlight of 'em all was watching the Weavers perform. Wow...still gives me goosebumps when I recall their amazing music. Wasn't that a time--yes, it was!

RIP Ronnie. Blessings to your family. And peace.

[ChazInAz]

16. Oh.....

Miss her already, the little lady with that big voice coming out of her thrown-back head! A brave, wonderful person.
Now they're all gone, aren't they?
I have the Weaver's complete recordings on tape. Guess it's time to listen again.

[DinahMoeHum]

21. Fred Hellerman is still around. . .and the only one left.

He was at NYC's Lincoln Center last year to honor and remember Pete Seeger.

http://www.examiner.com/article/original-weaver-s-member-fred-hellerman-remembers-pete-seeger

[Jack Rabbit]

18. RIP

Last edited Sun Jun 7, 2015, 12:12 PM - Edit history (1)

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[mahatmakanejeeves]

23. Linguistics

….Ms. Gilbert’s marriage ended in divorce. She is survived by her daughter, Lisa, and a granddaughter. Ms. Gilbert, who lived in Mill Valley, Calif., is also survived by her partner, Ms. Korones, who was her manager and business partner for many years. They were married in 2004 in San Francisco during a brief period when the mayor, Gavin Newsom, opened City Hall to same-sex weddings; theirs and some 4,000 other marriages were later declared invalid by the California Supreme Court.

So is she survived by her partner or her wife?

[deurbano]

24. "Partner" is probably the better choice for their situation.

In the excerpt (below) from an article in 2014, it seems they no longer considered themselves a couple in the married sense, and all those 2004 marriages had been invalidated, anyway, so no divorce was required. But they had been together 20 plus years before the split, including as business partners, and they were still close... so maybe "partner" best sums it up?

http://www.shewired.com/who-f/2014/01/30/who-f-%E2%80%A6-musician-ronnie-gilbert

"Who the F Is … Musician Ronnie Gilbert?"
This week we look at an iconic singer and activist who has performed with such fellow legends as Pete Seeger, who died just this week, and Holly Near.
BY: TRUDY RING
JANUARY 30 2014 11:30 AM

<<Touring with Near, Gilbert was impressed to see women doing jobs she had always seen done by men previously — “running the electrical, doing the lights,” she recalled to Weigand. The tour personnel were almost all lesbians, and a friend asked Gilbert if she was coming out. “I remember the stupid thing I said to her,” she told Weigand. “‘I didn’t come out as a heterosexual. Why should I come out as a lesbian?’ I hadn’t been out. I hadn’t been out and I wasn’t at that point yet. I hadn’t yet met my love. But it was shortly after. What can I say about that? I didn’t care what I was thought about. That’s fine. They think I’m a lesbian? Good. It was like being on the team, you know, in a way. It didn’t matter to me. It mattered, but in a very positive way. I was really glad to be associated with these women.”

That love was Donna Korones, whom Gilbert met on the H.A.R.P. tour in the mid-1980s. Korones was connected with Near’s record label, and when she went along for part of the tour, she and Gilbert ended up sitting next to each other on a plane. “We spent the whole trip looking into each other’s eyes, talking about being mothers,” Gilbert told Weigand. “Now, you see, she was 19 years younger than me, but we shared that experience of both being mothers. And that’s where we fell in love, on that trip.”

Gilbert and Korones ran a record label, Abbe Alice Music, together for several years; one of its releases was an album from Gilbert’s 70th-birthday concert tour with Near in 1996, titled This Train Still Runs. Korones and Gilbert wed in San Francisco in 2004, during the period when Mayor Gavin Newsom had declared same-sex marriage legal, in defiance of state law. They are no longer a couple but remain close friends…..

...Gilbert continued adding to her résumé into the late 20th and early 21st centuries, writing and performing one-woman shows, including Ronnie Gilbert: A Radical Life With Songs, and Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America, about the legendary labor activist. In addition to Near, she has toured with composer and keyboard artist Adrienne Torf. She has also lent her talents to documentaries, providing the voice of Elizabeth Cady Stanton in Ken Burns’s 1999 series about the women’s suffrage movement, Not for Ourselves Alone, and narrating the 1991 film Forever Activists, about the surviving members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War.

Today, Gilbert lives in a retirement community in Northern California, where Korones is a frequent visitor. She has largely stopped performing, but she remains an activist, joining in weekly rallies with Seniors for Peace in Mill Valley, Calif. She also serves on the board of Jewish Voices for Peace.>>