This past weekend we had the pleasure of visiting with relatives of "Sis" Cunningham, who were staying at the Chaparral Retreat on Hwy 8A near Roman Nose State Park. It was especially interesting after having learned about "Sis" at the Woody Guthrie museum in Tulsa, OK.
An accomplished musician, Agnes 'Sis' Cunningham was one of five children. Always known as Sis, was born at Watonga, Oklahoma, in February 1909. Her mother was a schoolteacher, her father a farmer eventually driven from his homestead (on a former Indian reservation) by a series of natural disasters which persuaded the bank to foreclose.
Sis Cunningham was a member of the Almanac Singers with Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and a founding editor of "Broadside" Magazine, which published among many others the first song by Bob Dylan to appear in print. She passed away in New Paltz, N.Y. at age 95.
The Almanac Singers performed protest songs in the early 1940s at union halls and to audiences of farm and factory workers throughout America. Sis Cunningham played the accordion with Guthrie on guitar and Seeger on banjo. Guthrie called them "the only group that rehearsed on stage"; they were among the first to bring blues, hillbilly, mountain music and Southern Methodist hymns to urban audiences.Sis was accomplished on piano, guitar and accordion, but trained as a teacher before enrolling at Commonwealth College near Mena, Arkansas, for "theoretical training in radical politics". While there, she began writing songs, including "How Can You Keep On Movin' Unless You Migrate Too", which was recorded by Ry Cooder. After leaving school, she worked for the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union while performing with the Red Dust Players, who sought to mobilize the poor of Oklahoma with radical songs and skits. She married George Friesen in 1941, a time of extreme tension between the Oklahoma state government and the Communist Party - of which she and her husband were members. The Party leadership was arrested and, fearing that they might be next, she and Friesen accepted an invitation from Guthrie and Seeger, whom they had met in Oklahoma, to move to New York. Sis and Friesen moved in with them at Almanac House on West 10th Street. She played accordion on their album Dear Mr. President (1942), and wrote the song Belt Line Girls, urging women to help with wartime production.
Source: www.accordianusa.com
(No copyright infringement intended - some text and photos are used under the "fair use" copyright doctrine.)
No comments:
Post a Comment