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Burl Ives
1909-1995
Recording
Artist, Film, Theatre, Television
With a name like Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives
it may seem surprising to many that his name would be celebrated
in an Irish music archives .
Like many genealogists know, names often only reflect the paternal
side of a person. Burl Ives always gave credit to his grandmother
for giving him his start as a singer. Both of his grandmothers
were Irish with his maternal grandmother being an O'Flynn before
marriage and his paternal grandmother a White. Burl states that
"I am fortunate both carried with them, and gave me as
a little boy, many of the beautiful songs which I know now are
of Irish derivation."
Burl was born in Hunt, Illinois on June
14, 1909. He was the son of tenant farmers in the "Bible
Belt" of Illinois and was singing publicly by the age
of four. His grandmother Kate White was one of his greatest
influences during these early days. Burl would stroll over
to his grandmother's house after his grandfather, Cyrus White
would go into the fields to work. Cyrus was a God-fearing
man that didn't drink or smoke and felt that any singing should
only be done in praise of the Lord. But when Cyrus left the
house Kate would light up her pipe and occasionally chew tobacco
while she taught Burl all the old folk songs she knew and
loved.
Burl was a quick study when it came to music
and soon he was singing at church functions and community
functions. He went to school at Eastern Illinois State Teachers
College from 1927-29 before leaving. He travelled throughout
the United States for the next two years and learned many
more folk songs. He then went to Juilliard in New York where
he began singing professionally. He then spent many years
in Broadway productions and was also a performer on the radio
as a soloist and as part of the popular folk group "The
Weavers." His folk singing persona during his radio and
concert performances was known as "The Wayfaring Stranger."
During the 1950's and 1960's Burl appeared
regularly on TV and radio and toured America promoting American
folk music. He was very successful in film and played the
role of Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams "Cat On a Hot
Tin Roof." He won an Oscar for his performance in the
film, "The Big Country."
Burl is also remembered every Christmas as the narrator for
the classic animation film of "Rudolph,
The Red-Nosed Reindeer."
He toured Ireland in 1952 and 1953. Upon
returning from these tours he put together an album of Irish
Songs. During production of this album Burl wanted to research
more Irish songs and found that there was very few Irish folk
songs published in the states so he published his own book
of Irish songs in 1955.
In his Irish album "Songs of Ireland" he states:
Many of the songs I learned in my boyhood were almost unchanged
from the originals,
but it was not until I visited Ireland that I felt them as
part of the Irish countryside and
Irish life of the past and present. Indeed, an Irish song
in its homeland is a thing of
even greater beauty. …Whatever it is that makes the quality
of a land and the temperament
of a people was so akin to me that I recognized immediately
a home for my spirit.
In 1948 Burl recorded "Blue Tail Fly"
with the Andrews Sisters and it become one of his signature
songs. In 1962 he had four more songs in the top forty, two
of them "A Little Bitty Tear," and "Funny Way
of Laughing" entered the top ten. He recorded into the
1970's and in 1979 he retired to his home in Washington State
where he died in 1995.
Burl Ives was on the front line of folk
music his entire life. He was a gentle giant. His performances
were spirited and through his diverse talents he became one
of America's best-loved entertainers. His presence on the
musical scene not only served to sustain an awareness of neglected
American folk songs, but would contribute to the resurgence
of interest in folk music that occurred in the early 1960's.
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