Origin
Hootenanny
is an Appalachian colloquialism that was used in early twentieth century
America to refer to things whose names were forgotten or unknown. In this usage it was synonymous with
thingamajig
or
whatchamacallit
, as in "hand me that
hootenanny
." Hootenanny was also an old country word for "party". Now, most commonly, it refers to a folk-music party.
According to
Pete Seeger, in various interviews, he first heard the word hootenanny in Seattle, Washington in the late 1930s. It was used by
Hugh Delacey’s
New Deal political club to describe their monthly music fund raisers. After some debate the club voted in the word hootenanny, which narrowly beat out the word wingding. Seeger,
Woody Guthrie and other members of the
Almanac Singers later used the word in New York City to describe their weekly
rent parties, which featured many notable folksingers of the time.
Joan Baez made the analogy that a hootenanny is to folk singing what a jam session is to jazz.
Events
During the early 1960s at the height of the
Folk Music era, the club
The Bitter End at 147
Bleecker Street in
Greenwich Village had hootenannies every Tuesday night, that featured an open mike and welcomed performers known and unknown, young and old.
The Hootenanny is an annual one-day rockabilly music festival held at the Oak Canyon Ranch in Irvine, S. California, which also incorporates a vintage car show.
Recordings
- Surfin' Hootenanny is a surf pop/rock song written by Lee Hazlewood (tune) and Al Casey, and performed by Al Casey with The K-C-Ettes (aka The Blossoms). It opens the Al Casey's 1963. album Surfin' Hootenanny
(issued as LP record by Sundazed Music Inc.). The song re-appeared in 1996. (in remastered version) as track 15 of Cowabunga! Set 2: Big Waves (1963.)
compilation. Cowabunga! Set 2: Big Waves (1963.)
is a second disc from Rhino Records' Cowabunga! The Surf Box
4 CD set compilation that contains most famous songs from the four-decade long history of surf music.
- Eels released an album titled Shootenanny!
.
- The rock and roll band The Replacements released their second album in 1983, entitled Hootenanny
on Twin/Tone Records (see Hootenanny (album)).
- The band Weezer had a Hootenanny tour in 2008 which allowed fans to play songs with the band.
- The New Zealand rock band HLAH released a single entitled Hootenanny
(which also appears on their 1996 album Double Your Strength, Improve Your Health, & Lengthen Your Life on the Wildside Records label) in 1997 [1].
Television
Several different television shows are named and styled after it, including:
- Hootenanny, an early 1960s musical variety show broadcast on ABC in the United States. In 2007 a set of 3 DVDs called "The Best of Hootenanny" was issued, culled from the 1963-64 ABC-TV series. It contained clips of performances by The Chad Mitchell Trio, The Limeliters and The New Christy Minstrels, and even Woody Allen as a stand-up comedian.
- Hootenanny, a show by Jools Holland broadcast every New Year's Eve on BBC Two in the United Kingdom, airing from 11 o'clock till 1 o'clock.
- In 1963 and 1964 there was a BBC 1 show called "The Hoot'nanny Show", recorded in Edinburgh. (Ref: ). Two albums with the same title were released, with contributions from Archie Fisher, Barney McKenna (before he joined The Dubliners), and The Corries.
References in Culture
- In the 1955 film The Seven Year Itch
starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell, Ewell's character tells the girl (Monroe) to phone his boss and tell him he's going on a Hootenanny.
- Hootenanny is mentioned in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
(TV series) - Dead Man's Party (Season 3), when Oz is discussing what kind of party should be held to celebrate Buffy's return to Sunnydale he says: "We should figure out what kinda deal this is. I mean, is it a gathering, a shindig or a hootenanny?"
- Hootenanny was mentioned in the TV series Lost
in 2009, when the character Phil comes into the security room and says they have started a hootenanny.
- Fermanagh Concert Band plays a Hootenanny which is a compilation of various tunes, it is arranged by Harold L Walters. It features a musically well-crafted chicken reel for clarinets.
- The Big Chill has adopted the name for a mixed-media Sunday review - encompassing comedy and folk music - at their London venue The Big Chill House.
See also
References
- Wildside Records HLAH pages