In addition to halls of fame for virtually every sport, there is a toy hall of fame, inventors hall of fame, and a pinball hall of fame just to name a few.  Of course, in the world of music, there iare halls of fame for: rock and roll, country, Gospel and song writers.  But there is no folk music hall of fame.  Since folk was my prefered genre through high school and college, I decided I'd create one, if only in my imagination.  I decided to limit it to American folk singers, because every culture has their folk music, and they are so different. How do you compare Ladysmith Black Mambazo or Hijos del Sol with, say, Johnny Cash or Cisco Houston.  Of course, by limiting it to American folk artists, it saved me the stress of deciding if I should include Bob Marley, Joni Mitchell, Donovan or Bert Jansch in my hall.  So, with that simple criteria, here are my first three rounds of inductees in my hall that doesn't exist.

First round inductees: Only the legends make it into a hall of fame on the first ballot.  First round members for baseball, for example, included Walter Johnsn, Cy Young, Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb.  So this round of inductees is for folk music royalty only:

1. Woody Guthrie:  No contest here. He is to American folk music what Elvis is to Rock and Roll.  He has influenced everyone from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen to the Pixies.  Only Woody could possibly be considered the first hall of fame inductee.

2.  Leadbelly:  He was the real thing.  He sang American Gospel, blues and Appalachian standards, as well as writing "On a-Monday", "On Easter Morn He Rose", and, of course, "Good Night, Irene." And he could play everything from the banjo to the accordian. 

3.  The Almanac Singers / Weavers:  Two names for basically the same folk group tht gave us th elikes of Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Woody Guthrie and Burl Ives to name a few.  The Almanacs were to folk singers what "Freaks and Geeks" was to spawning 90's movie stars.  

4. Pete Seeger: He was the master of the five string banjo, and he led the effort to clean up the Hudson River. While Woody and Leadbelly were arguably bigger influences, Pete is certainly the best known of the early folk pioneers. His repertoire included traditional ballads, union songs, hymns, and his original compositions, including "Where Have All The Flowers Gone", "If I Had a Hammer" and "One Man's Hands".

5.  Odetta:  Folk royalty.  Time Magazine reported that Odetta was Rosa Parks favorite singer, and Martin Luther King Jr. called her the queen of American folk music.  I remember listening to a whole concert of hers on NPR while stuck in a traffic jam from Baltimore to Washington DC.

6.  Stephen Foster:  The great grandfather of American folk music, Foster's songs are still sung 170 years after his death. His compositions include: "Swanee River", "Camptown Races", "Hard Times Come Again No More", "I Dream of Jeannie", "Oh Susanna" and scores more.

 

There's my list of first ballot inductees.  Certainly there are others deserving of the hall, but not in round one.  Second round inductees would include:

1.  Joan Baez:  The most important of the next wave of folk songers, Baez played traditional ballads, Gospel songs, covered contemporary folk songs, and wrote some of her own songs as well.  A fixture at the various Newport Festivals over the years, Joan sang at the March on Washington, Woodstock, and Live Aid.

2.  Cisco Houston: He fought alongside Woody Guthrie in WWII, and they sang together on and off for the rest of Woody's life.  He specialized in western ballads and topical songs.

3.  Peter, Paul and Mary:  They made American folk music a top 40 genre.  Staying true to the folk genre, they recorded "500 Hundred Miles", "Lemon Tree", "Day is Done", and of course, "Puff the Magic Dragon".

4.  Mississippi John Hurt:  Arguably, Mississippi John could have been put through in the first round.  This sharecropper from Avalon, he was discovered during the Cambridge folk music revival in 1963, at the age of seventy, and only three years before his death.  Hurt is famous for his finger picking style that has been imitated by the likes of Taj Mahal, Jerry Garcia nad Bruce Cockburn among others.

5.  Ramblin' Jack Elliott: Woody's close friend, and part of Bob Dylan's historic Rolling Thunder Revue, Ramblin' Jack is still touring and recording now at the age of 89. He received his first grammy in 1996 for "South Coast" in the category of best traditional folk album.  

 

Third ballot inductees would  include the following:

1.  Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee: Among the early pioneer of folk music. Although they never attained the legendary status of the first two ballots, they deserve to be in the hall. 

2.  Johnny Cash: Some would argue that he deserves to be in the first round on inductions.  After all, the man in black is joined by only Elvis Presley as the only members of the rock and roll, country and Gospel halls of fame.  He was a great songwriter, but also included recordins of many traditional, roots songs.  However, I would vote him in on the third ballot because most of his career fit better into the country category rather than folk. Am I splitting hairs?  Maybe, but I'd certainly vote him in, just not on the first two ballots.  

3. Bob Dylan: Like Cash, there are many who would argue Dylan should have been a first ballot shoo-in.  However, once he plugged in, cranked it up, and played "Like a Rolling Stone" at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, he moved from folk singer to rocker.  He was great at both, but folk music was only a small portion of his repertoire.  He belongs in the folk hall, but not until the third vote.

4  Phil Ochs: One of my favorites, I was very disappointed that Rolling Stone did not include him on their list of the 100 greatest songwriters.  He was witty, biting, and oh so topical. His influence can't be ignored, and his songs have been sung by everyone from Gordon Lightfoot to Kind of Like Spitting, Anita Bryant to Pearl Jam.  Who else can make that claim?  

5. Joe Hill:  A Swedish immigrant and union organizer, his song "The Preacher and the Slave" gave us the phrase 'pie in the sky'. He was arrested for murder - many claim he was framed - and executed in the state of Utah in 1915.  Two folk songs about Hill have been written; the one sung by Joan Baez at Woodstock, and a lesser known, but better song  written by Phil Ochs.

While the above lists are considered shoo-ins into my American Folk Hall of Fame, this is not, of course, where the AFMHOF would end.  Future candidates on the ballots would not be guaranteed a place in the hall, but would be worthy of consideration, and would include, but not be limited to the following:

The Kingston Trio

Burl Ives

Arlo Guthrie

Lee Hays

Ella Jenkins

Will Geer (yup, Grandpa Walton! Look him up.)

Judy Collins

Send any other suggestions my way, not that my hall of fame really exists.