I, somehow, recollect the origin of the term comes from the Northwest region of the U S. Woody Guthrie ( or so the story goes) was in the Northwest (State of Wash. I believe) and there was a woman called Annie who organized union supporting get togethers. She had quite the loud voice and there was much singing at these get togethers---and, so, Woody called here "Hootin' Annie. Then, of course, it evolved into Hootenanny.

Wishing I could recall the exact source of this now, it does seem plausible.

The whole thread is a "hoot".

Bill Hahn