Those of you who acknowledge an understanding of how we got here in folk music need to be aware of the history of why there is a Mudcat. In the late 1930's, the IWW introduced parodies to popular songs by Joe Hill and others in the Little Red Songbook. Through the the 30's and 40's, the Popular Front became a reaction to the Oligarchy that we see today and was supported sometimes not willingly by the Roosevelt Administration. During this time, the Left-wing movement encouraged and popularized the folk song revival by an adherence to the ideology of the worker, common man (woman), and thus "people's" music. The leaders of this folk movement are responsible for what we refer to as folk music today and much of it was politically inspired and based on that. Folklorists emanated from that period and their work was encouraged through that time. This is fact, historically, because prior to this time, not many were really interested in folk music, an archaic scalp-collecting pursuit by academics. John Lomax pioneered an interest through influencing Kittredge at Harvard to consider the literary merits of cowboy songs but the real pioneering came later when his son Alan became a P.R. spokesperson for the ideological value of folk music combining his anthropology and ethnomusicology with leftist politics. The torch was taken up by Pete Seeger and the two introduced Woody Guthrie to the urban communities in leftist New York, Chicago and L.A. Thus, politics played an important role in the folk revival of the sixties, historically. Carl Sandburg may have been the one to introduce the term "folk music" or "folk singer" in regard to American music, the premiere performer of these songs in his lectures and poetry readings. Sandburg was a leftie and celebrated "The People Yes". I find it necessary to remind people of where the folk music revival came from.

The Tea Party's ideology is manufactured populism combined with religious fundamentalism and they have no songs of merit. It's not a real movement but only being sold on corporate media outlets. Their music is warmed over pseudo-patriotic "Battle Hymn of the Republic" type songs and Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" (Berlin would have probably thrown up at the use of it today). Toby Keith and Lee Greenwood have not been as prolific as the music of the Popular Front and from the labor movement.