Back in the Day - '60s Folk Music in Utah

Two Utah State University employees encourage anyone interested in the folk music of the 1960s to attend a concert co-produced by the Folklore Society of Utah. The two, Randy Williams, curator of the Fife Folklore Archives, and Lisa Gabbert, assistant professor of English, serve on the board for the Folklore Society of Utah.

The concert celebrates Utah’s urban folk music revival and features local musicians and singers who performed the music in Utah venues during the 1960s. The concert is Wednesday, Jan. 24, at Highland High School auditorium (2100 South 1700 East, Salt Lake City) and begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15. For concert and ticket information, visit the Web site.

 

Bluegrass, old-time music, protest songs, other topical songs of the era, English ballads and folk songs of Utah and Idaho will be performed.

 

Headliners for the event are Rosalie Sorrels and Utah Phillips. They will be joined by other performers who got their inspiration from Sorrels and Phillips — “Urban Pioneers.” Performers include Hal Cannon’s trio Uncle Lumpy, Mac Magleby’s Rosewood Trio, Brent Bradford’s Stormy Mountain Boys, Polly and the Valley Boys, Bruce W. Cummings and Heather Steward Dorrell.

 

The concert was inspired by an article in the Summer 2006 issue of the “Utah Historical Quarterly.” It is sponsored jointly by the Intermountain Acoustic Music Association, the Folklore Society of Utah, Intermountain Guitar and Banjo, the Salt Lake City Arts Council, the Utah Arts Council, the Utah State Historical Society and KRCL-FM. The Urban Pioneers concert marks the first gathering in four decades of these performers from the 1960s.