almanack singers

*Almanac – ie: No “k” on the end.

Not according to Almanac folklore but, fwiw: The “Almanac” was the entertainment employment column in the New Masses newspaper. Cost a dollar for players and producers to advertise.

One of the latter was The New Theatre League which, for a time, shared an address with Moe Asch and WEVD, New York. Talking Union was originally a League stage production*. The original Talking Union Keynote album (#106) was sold in theater lobbies as a take-home souvenir.

The concession stands were, mostly, owned and operated by Herbert Harris & Noel Meadow, the same Stinson Trading Co. record executives representing Moe Asch and the 1939 USSR New York Fair overstock. The same artists, Soviets and Almanacs, make for +90% of Bernay's Music Room International Series.

I've not managed to compare the 1940s Keynote and 1950s Folkways releases side-by-side. If they are both taken from the same masters, it at least suggests Asch may have had much more to do with the original Almanacs than we know.


*Theatre trivia: Better known for The Cradle Will Rock (Marc Blitzstein) with fellow almanac player and Guthrie chum Will Geer (as bad Mr. Mister.)