The Almanac Singers

Almanac Singers
Company type	Musical ensemble
Industry	Music
Founded	1940
Founder	Millard Lampell, Lee Hays, Pete Seeger
Defunct	1943
Headquarters	New York City, United States
Products	Folk music recordings, live performances

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article The Almanac Singers, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 29 November 2025

The Almanac Singers were an American folk ensemble based in New York City, active between 1940 and 1943. Established by Millard Lampell, Lee Hays, and Pete Seeger, the group was later joined by Woody Guthrie. Their repertoire centered on topical songs advocating for an anti-war stance, opposition to racism, and support for labor unions. Connected with the Popular Front—a coalition of liberals and left-wing activists including members of the Communist Party USA—the ensemble sought to leverage music as a tool to promote workers' rights and social equality.

History

Cultural historian Michael Denning highlights that the Popular Front emerged from the labor movement, particularly during the surge of industrial unionism within the CIO in the early 1940s. This era, characterized by swift union expansion in sectors such as metalworking, provided the social backdrop for the Almanac Singers’ inception in early 1941.

Prior to America’s involvement in World War II, rearmament efforts concluded a decade marked by widespread unemployment, while labor militancy reached its height. The CIO addressed racial discrimination within its ranks, confronting tensions notably in United Auto Workers (UAW) plants where white workers occasionally resisted the progress of black workers. Progressive CIO unions—including the UAW, NMU, and Transport Workers—actively opposed hate strikes and promoted educational initiatives, setting themselves apart from the more conservative AFL.

The founding members Lampell, Hays, Seeger, and Guthrie began informal collaborations around 1940–41. Seeger and Guthrie connected at a benefit event for displaced migrant laborers in March 1940 and subsequently toured together later that year. Hays and Lampell shared an apartment in New York called Almanac House, which became a gathering place for leftist thinkers and visiting folk musicians such as Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

Their earliest paid gig was probably a January 1941 benefit supporting Loyalists from the Spanish Civil War. By February 1941, they performed at an American Youth Congress rally featuring songs that addressed topics like military base lending and racial segregation. The group took their name from Hays’s observation that farmers relied on two key books: the Bible and the Almanac—the latter symbolizing practical information about current affairs.

Additional artists who joined at different times included Sis Cunningham, Peter Hawes and Baldwin "Butch" Hawes, Bess Lomax Hawes, Cisco Houston, Arthur Stern, Josh White, Jackie Alper, Burl Ives, Jaime Lowden, and Sam Gary.

Their vibrant performance approach drew inspiration from American country string band traditions that crossed racial boundaries. They appeared in everyday street attire—an uncommon choice for performers at that time—and encouraged audience involvement. Their appearances ranged from private parties and rallies to union meetings, benefit concerts, and informal "hootenannies", a term that gained popularity during their tours in Portland and Washington.

On May Day 1941, they performed before an audience of 20,000 striking transit workers at Madison Square Garden, where they introduced "Talking Union" and took part in a theatrical sketch featuring actress Carol Channing.

Recordings and Reds

The Almanacs debuted with Songs for John Doe, a three-disc 78 rpm album opposing the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, which marked the first peacetime conscription in the United States. Recorded in early 1941 and released in May, the album contained four compositions by Millard Lampell and two by Seeger and Hays (including "Plow Under"), reflecting the Communist Party’s stance after the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, advocating non-intervention in World War II. Eric Bernay, founder of Keynote Records, produced the record, which was issued under "Almanac Records" with Pete Seeger, Millard Lampell, Josh White, and Sam Gary financing the production themselves. The album criticized major corporations such as J.P. Morgan and DuPont for backing German rearmament efforts while simultaneously pursuing defense contracts in the U.S., and condemned President Roosevelt’s peacetime draft as benefiting corporate interests.

Reflecting later, Seeger admitted he shared the Communist perspective that the conflict was "phony," portraying big business as manipulating Hitler to act against Soviet Russia. Bess Lomax Hawes recalled how the Almanacs had to continuously adjust their topical material amid swiftly evolving European developments and intensifying Nazi crimes, underscoring the difficulty in keeping their antiwar repertoire relevant day by day.

Following Hitler’s breach of the non-aggression pact with his invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Keynote Records withdrew all copies of Songs for John Doe. The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) shifted its position to support Roosevelt’s war effort and prohibited strikes during wartime; simultaneously, Executive Order 8802 outlawed racial discrimination in defense industries, helping alleviate tensions regarding African American participation in the draft.

The group's second album, Talking Union (July 1941), also produced by Bernay, presented six songs championing labor unions but faced criticism from Time magazine despite its lack of opposition to Roosevelt. This album was reissued by Folkways Records in 1955 and remains accessible today. In addition, during 1941 they released two apolitical folk collections: Deep Sea Chanteys and Whaling Ballads and Sod-Buster Ballads, both produced by Alan Lomax on General Records.

After America’s entry into WWII following Pearl Harbor, the Almanacs recorded Dear Mr. President (1942), overseen by Earl Robinson. The title track—performed solo by Pete Seeger—expressed dedication to defeating Hitler while envisioning a future America free from racial prejudice and labor inequality.

In 1942, Army intelligence along with the FBI labeled the Almanacs’ earlier anti-draft position as seditious, sparking hostile media coverage that revealed their Communist affiliations. Facing dwindling opportunities and adverse publicity—including headlines such as "Commie Singers try to Infiltrate Radio"—the ensemble dissolved by early 1943. Their inconsistent political stances undermined their public credibility.

Following the war, Millard Lampell established a successful screenwriting career despite being blacklisted; Woody Guthrie published his semi-autobiographical work "Bound for Glory" in 1943 prior to his military service; meanwhile, Pete Seeger and Lee Hays founded People's Songs to advance protest music aligned with union activism and progressive causes until it ceased operations in 1948. Subsequently, Seeger and Hays joined forces with Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman to form The Weavers, who achieved significant acclaim within folk music circles beginning in 1949.

Studio Albums

Songs for John Doe (Almanac Records, 1941)
Talking Union (Keynote, 1941)
Deep Sea Chanteys and Whaling Ballads (General, 1941)
Sod Buster Ballads (General, 1941)
Dear Mr. President (Keynote, 1942)
Songs of the Lincoln Battalion (Stinson/Asch, 1940) – performed by Pete Seeger, Bess Lomax, Butch Hawes, and Tom Glazer. Reissued by Folkways in 1961 as part of Songs of the Spanish Civil War, Volume 1.

Singles

Song For Bridges / Babe of Mine (Keynote, 1941)
Boomtown Bill / Keep That Oil A-Rollin (Keynote, 1942)

Compilation Albums

Talking Union & Other Union Songs (Smithsonian Folkways, 1973)
Their Complete General Recordings (MCA, 1996)
Songs of Protest (Prism, 2001)
Talking Union, Vol. 1 (Naxos, 2001)
The Sea, The Soil & The Struggle (Naxos, 2004)

External links