Richard Dyer-bennet: The Last Minstrel

by Jenkins, Paul O.

• ISBN13: 9781604733600
• ISBN10: 1604733608
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-10-07
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Mississippi

Summary

In the 1940s and '50s, Richard Dyer-Bennet (1913-1991) was among the best known and most respected folk singers in America. Paul O. Jenkins tells, for the first time, the story of Dyer-Bennet, often referred to as the "Twentieth-Century Minstrel." Dyer-Bennet's approach to singing sounded almost foreign to many American listeners. The folk artist followed a musical tradition in danger of dying out. The Swede Sven Scholander was the last European proponent of minstrelsy and served as Dyer-Bennet's inspiration after the young singer traveled to Stockholm to meet him one year before Scholander's death.Dyer-Bennet's achievements were many. Nine years after his meeting with Scholander, he became the first solo performer of his kind to appear in Carnegie Hall. This book argues Dyer- Bennet helped pave the way for the folk boom of the mid-1950s and early 1960s, finding his influence in the work of Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and many others. It also posits strong evidence that Dyer-Bennet would certainly be much better known today had his career not been interrupted midstream by the anticommunist, Red-scare blacklist and its ban on his performances.

Author Biography

Paul O. Jenkins is the director of library services at College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has published articles in Old-Time Herald and College and Research Libraries News. He received the New York Times Academic Librarian Award in 2006. Bonnie Dyer-Bennet is the daughter of Richard Dyer-Bennet.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Foreword	p. xi
Introduction	p. xv
Master and Pupil	p. 3
New York	p. 23
Early Recordings	p. 40
Aspen Interlude and Life on the Road	p. 54
The Blacklist	p. 66
Dyer-Bennet Records	p. 78
The Lovely Milleress and Stony Brook	p. 104
The Odyssey of Richard Dyer-Bennet	p. 117
The Legacy of Richard Dyer-Bennet	p. 124
Afterword Richard Dyer-Bennet as Guitarist	p. 132
Discography	p. 137
Repertoire	p. 143
Notes	p. 157
References	p. 168
Index	p. 172
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