I shared this on Facebook this morning adding lots of links to Pages for some of the people mentioned , and leaving questions about how long the program "Let's Sing Out!" was broadcast back in the day...
I love it when serendipity brings this particular episode of Oscar Brand 's singalong folk music program from 1966 Canada to the top of my YouTube feed. It includes Maria D'Amato and Geoff Muldaur in great Jim Kweskin Jug Band numbers... the "folk revival" romance that changed her name to Maria Muldaur before her solo career started.
It's also fascinating to hear host Oscar Brand and his Canadian studio audience sing an abolitionist American Civil War song that probably has never been sung with those verses on American television... and there's more beautiful singing by Len Chandler and Bonnie Dobson, shown in the still frame that Facebook should be placing with this text has a link to the video.
I'm pretty sure that by my freshman or sophomore year in college I had records by all of these performers, but never got to see *any* of them in person or on American TV. :-(
(I caught up with a few of them at folk festivals or concerts eventually -- worth the wait, even 10 to 40 years later.)
For a bonus, hold on to the end of the recording to hear Len Chandler's tribute to topical songwriting, "If telling where it's at is out, I don't want to be in," written (with a beat) when commercial folk rock was distracting the audience from the Vietnam War and Civil Rights protests. Reminds me of what Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, Tom Paxton and more are doing to bring back topical songwriting today. Maybe they could even update Len's song?!
Footnote: Jeannie Brand-Derienzo, Oscar's daughter, wrote back to say the series was broadcast from 1963-67. I noticed that Wikipedia has a Let's Sing Out! page, which says the show began on the CTV Television Network from 1963 to 1966, then moved to CBC Television until 1968, but there was no full list of performers. But that led me to a Canadian TV history website for more details: The weekly Friday night show was begun by producer Syd Banks on the commercial CTV network, moved to other nights in later seasons, and in an unusual move, the national "public broadcasting" network CBC picked it up in 1967 and also offered reruns in summer 1968.
Unfortunately the broadcasting-history.ca site also has no comprehensive list of performers. However, searching the site for Oscar Brand lists eight series that he had some part in, including a cutely named Sunday evening "Brand New Scene," produced by the same Syd Banks for CTV when his Let's Sing Out! moved to CBC. Banks also produced a Tuesday night "A-Singin'", but both of those shows which only lasted a season. Skimming the YouTube posts, I've seen at least fragments of "Let's Sing Out!" with performances by Joni Mitchell, Jimmy Driftwood, Dave Van Ronk, Simon & Garfunkel, the Simon Sisters, the Chapin Brothers, and more. Several of Joni (Anderson) Mitchell's appearances have been clipped and uploaded to YouTube, sometimes with only glimpses of other performers, like Patrick Sky and the Chapins. Here's are a couple of examples...
If there are full-length recordings of those dozens of Canadian broadcasts, they should have their own cable channel or a box of DVDs for sale today! But even having a few clips out there where folks can see it now is a joy! Come to think of it, if the ABC Hootenanny format of college campus concerts by folk-revival performers inspired "Let's Sing Out!", I count that as a positive contribution the often-maligned ABC Hootenanny show made to the universe, along with bringing the Chad Mitchell Trio, Josh White and Judy Collins, and a positive image of college campus life, to my home TV screen when I was still in high school. ❤️
I do wish Hootenanny had welcomed Pete Seeger and more of the traditional singers he had on his less widely heard "Rainbow Quest" TV show. Today, I'm happy to see Rainbow Quest has made it to YouTube too -- almost 37 hours worth, with Pete joined by old-time, bluegrass, blues, Irish and topical singers!
