Class dates: Thusdays, September 17, 24, October 1, 8, 15  (5 weeks)

Class time: 10:00 am to 11:30 am

Location: Online (via Zoom)

The folk music revival was a mid‑20th‑century cultural movement—peaking in the late 1950s through the mid‑1960s—in which traditional American folk music, rural blues, ballads, work songs, and political songs were rediscovered, popularized, and transformed into a mass‑audience phenomenon. This course features the singing of great troubadours like Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan - and lesser known but influential figures such as Eric von Schmidt and Ramblin' Jack Elliott. We'll dig into the origin of some folk songs, both old and original, and the "folk process" of song transmission. We'll look at centers of folk revival - Greenwich Village, Cambridge, the Newport Folk Festival - and of the Freedom movement which flourished alongside. This is a sampler from a vast subject. "Troubadours of Folk Music" is designed not just for Folk fans but for anyone who appreciates good music.

Instructor: David Nevard grew up in suburban Boston and has always been fascinated by history – especially World War II and the postwar era. He attended UMass-Amherst and worked as an IT professional for over 30 years. Since retirement, David has been an instructor at WISE and other lifelong learning programs. His courses include The Worcester Tornado; Suburbia; New York World’s Fair; Displaced Persons after World War II; the Berlin Wall; Operation Paperclip, the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, the Roosevelt Family, Vietnam War Songs and Stories.