Tzena, Tzena, Tzena - The Weavers, Grossman, Julius
Kisses Sweeter Than Wine - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Wimoweh - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
On Top of Old Smokey - The Weavers, Traditional
So Long (It's Been Good to Know Yuh) - The Weavers, Guthrie, Woody
Wreck of the John B - The Weavers, Hays, Lee
The Midnight Special - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Darling Corey - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Pay Me My Money Down - The Weavers, Parrish, Lydia
Follow the Drinking Gourd - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Rock Island Line - The Weavers, Leadbelly
Around the World - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Venga Jaleo - The Weavers, Brooks
I've Got a Home in That Rock - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Shalom Chaverim - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Lonesome Traveler - The Weavers, Hays, Lee
I Know Where I'm Going - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Go Where I Send Thee (One for the Little Bitty Baby) - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Sixteen Tons - The Weavers, Travis, Merle
Twelve Gates to the City - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
Track Listings (21) - Disc #2
I Never Will Marry - The Weavers, Hellerman, Fred
Sinner Man - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
House of the Rising Sun - The Weavers, Lomax, Alan
The Keeper - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
You Made Me a Pallet on the Floor - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
Kumbaya - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
Si Me Quieres Escribir - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
State of Arkansas - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Eddystone Light - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
This Land Is Your Land - The Weavers, Guthrie, Woody
Aunt Rhodie - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Aweigh, Santy Ano - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Wild Goose Grasses - The Weavers, Allison, John [2]
Erie Canal - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Greenland Whale Fisheries - The Weavers, Hellerman, Fred
Tina - The Weavers, Roberts, Marion
Old Riley (In Dem Long Hot Summer Days) - The Weavers, Leadbelly
Almost Done (On a Monday) - The Weavers, Hellerman, Fred
You Old Fool - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Po' Howard (Howards' Dead and Gone) - The Weavers, Leadbelly
When the Stars Begin to Fall - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
Track Listings (23) - Disc #3
We're All Dodgin' - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? - The Weavers, Gorney, Jay
Jackhammer John - The Weavers, Guthrie, Woody
A Walkin' and a Talkin' - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Rally 'Round the Flag - The Weavers, Root, George F.
Que Bonita Bandera - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
Fight On - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
Wasn't That a Time - The Weavers, Hays, Lee
Get Along Little Dogies - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
True Religion - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
Which Side Are You On? - The Weavers, Reece, Florence
Bye, Baby, Bye - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
On My Journey - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
Born in East Virginia - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
Run, Come See Jerusalem - The Weavers, Blind Blake [1]
Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream - The Weavers, McCurdy, Ed
Marching to Pretoria - The Weavers, Marais
Stewball - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
Recordando Que Maņana (Remembering Tomorrow) - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
Below the Gallows Tree - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
Good Old Bowling Green - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
Buttermilk Hill - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
New Jerusalem - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
Track Listings (22) - Disc #4
When the Saints Go Marching In - The Weavers, Traditional
The Banks of Marble - The Weavers, Rice, Les
Woke up This Morning - The Weavers, Zellner, Bob
Ramblin' Boy - The Weavers, Paxton, Tom
Poor Liza - The Weavers, Seven, Tom
Train Time - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
Wimoweh - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
San Francisco Bay Blues - The Weavers, Fuller, Jesse
Guantanamera - The Weavers, Fernandez, Joseito
If I Had a Hammer - The Weavers, Hays, Lee
Come Away Melinda - The Weavers, Hellerman, Fred
Study War No More - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Sinner Man - The Weavers, Darling, Erik
I'm Standing Outside of Your Shelter - The Weavers, Silverstein, Shel
Yerakine - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Get Up, Get Out - The Weavers, McGinn, Matt
La Volette - The Weavers, Kevess, Arthur
Miner's Life - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Roll on, Columbia - The Weavers, Guthrie, Woody
Rock Island Line - The Weavers, Leadbelly
Around the World - The Weavers, Gilbert, Ronnie
Goodnight Irene - The Weavers, Leadbelly
It's richly ironic that Pete Seeger threatened to ax the wires when Bob Dylan went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Dylan, after all, was doing the same thing Seeger had done 15 years earlier with the Weavers: l... more »ending contemporary pop arrangements to folk music. Back in 1950, going pop didn't mean plugging in electric guitars but adding big-band charts by Frank Sinatra's future arranger Gordon Jenkins. And it worked. The quartet took songs by a black Louisiana convict, a Dust Bowl socialist, and an anonymous Zulu troubador and turned them into pop hits between 1950 and 1952. The Weavers' four-CD box set, Wasn't That a Time, begins with eight of those early 78s for Decca Records and then offers 79 more songs from their later recordings for Vanguard. Weavers' songs like "Wimoweh," "If I Had a Hammer," "Guantanamera," and "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" have been recorded by everyone from R.E.M. to Aretha Franklin. If only for their historical impact, the songs on this box set are important. --Geoffrey Himes« less
It's richly ironic that Pete Seeger threatened to ax the wires when Bob Dylan went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Dylan, after all, was doing the same thing Seeger had done 15 years earlier with the Weavers: lending contemporary pop arrangements to folk music. Back in 1950, going pop didn't mean plugging in electric guitars but adding big-band charts by Frank Sinatra's future arranger Gordon Jenkins. And it worked. The quartet took songs by a black Louisiana convict, a Dust Bowl socialist, and an anonymous Zulu troubador and turned them into pop hits between 1950 and 1952. The Weavers' four-CD box set, Wasn't That a Time, begins with eight of those early 78s for Decca Records and then offers 79 more songs from their later recordings for Vanguard. Weavers' songs like "Wimoweh," "If I Had a Hammer," "Guantanamera," and "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" have been recorded by everyone from R.E.M. to Aretha Franklin. If only for their historical impact, the songs on this box set are important. --Geoffrey Himes
"This 4 CD set covers the gamut of the Weavers career, and contains versions of just about all the hit songs that are associated with them. While disk 3 that features Erik Darling in place of Pete Seeger is a bit weaker, if you want a smattering of all phases of their career, this is the definitely the set to get. The booklet that comes with this set contains recent interviews with the (surviving) Weavers, and is also worthwhile.If you already know that you like (or love) the Weavers, than I would say Go for It!"
Another solid collection of the best of the Weavers
Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 08/03/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Little did I know when I was growing up listening to the Smothers Brothers do their versions of "Tzena Tzena," "Michael Row the Boat Ashore," and "Marching to Pretoria" that the boys were doing songs they had learned from the Weavers. Now I know that even if you ignored the folk music revival you have probably heard songs the Weavers were doing in the 1950s, albeit by different names. You might not recognize "Wimoweh," but you have heard a version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," while "Wreck of the John B." is probably more familiar as "Sloop John B." But it is folk artists such as Peter, Paul & Mary that have kept alive a lot of the songs the Weavers made popular (e.g., "If I Had a Hammer").
The Weavers were Pete Seeger, tenor and banjo; Ronnie Gilbert, alto; Lee Hays, baritone and bass; and Fred Hellerman, baritone and guitar. "Wasn't That a Time: The Best of the Weavers" is one of several solid collections of the songs this seminal folk group made popular. This 22-track collection should not be confused with the larger box set also entitled "Wasn't That a Time." Still, this has the core songs that are on anybody's short list of Weavers songs, which would be the ones mentioned above plus "On the Top of Old Smokey," "Goodnight Irene," "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine," "The Midnight Special," "Rock Island Line," "Lonesome Traveler," and "When the Saints Go Marching In." Really, the only song that I can say is missing that would be on my list is "Follow the Drinking Gourd," but that is not enough to quibble and if that song is high up on your list keep looking because it is out there to be found.
The other part of the equation is that this collection offers some other songs by the Weavers that do not pop up as often, such as "Around The Corner (Beneath The Berry Tree)," "Old Paint (Ride Around Little Dogies)," and "Along the Colorado Trail," all of which serve to remind you how subversive this group was and why they were denounced as Communist sympathizers (I find it interesting that the Weavers were also denounced by the left for being sellouts at the same time they were being viewed with suspicion by the right because of their politics). Unfortunately, if you are hoping to hear what all the fuss was about in terms of the political controversy, forget about it. For that you probably have to check out the solo recordings of Seeger, who would continue to be political thorn in the side of the system for some time to come."