Hard, Ain't It Hard: Weavers Greatest Songs

Liner Note Author: Duglas T. Stewart.Arrangers: Guthrie; Geraci; Huddie Ledbetter; Josef Marais.Hearing the Weavers' carefully orchestrated hits from the early '50s like "Goodnight Irene" and "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" in the harsh, postmodern light of the 21st century, it's difficult to imagine how on earth this sweet-sounding folk quartet could ever have been considered a political threat. Rising out of the ashes of the loosely focused and defiantly political Almanac Singers, the Weavers (Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman and Ronnie Gilbert) were organized, focused and commercial from the start, and while the group didn't exactly hide their left wing politics on or off the stage, their recorded songs were decidedly neutral in message and tone. That doesn't mean that Decca Records had any idea what to do with the Weavers at first, but when the group's orchestrated version of Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene" hit the top spot on the pop charts in 1950 and stayed there for weeks, the la