Burl Ives

Genres:	Action & Adventure • Comedy • Drama • Folk • Holiday & Seasonal • Holiday & Seasonal • Kids & Family • Soundtracks • Television • Westerns
Descriptive "tags":	folk • oldies • christmas • male vocalists • golden oldies • burl ives
Decades Active:	1940s • 1950s • 1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Links online:	IMDb • Wikipedia

Biography

Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives, 14 June 1909, Hunt Township, Jasper County, Illinois, USA, d. 14 April 1995, Anacortes, Washington, USA. One of the world’s most celebrated singers of folk ballads, with a gentle, intimate style, Ives was also an actor on the stage and screen, and an anthologist and editor of folk music. The son of tenant farmers in the ‘Bible Belt’ of Illinois, he was singing in public for money with his brothers and sisters when he was four years old. Many of the songs they sang originated in the British Isles, and were taught to them by their tobacco-chewing grandmother. After graduating from high school in 1927 Ives went to college with the aim of becoming a professional football coach. Instead, he left college early, in 1930, and hitch-hiked throughout the USA, Canada and Mexico, supporting himself by doing odd jobs and singing to his own banjo accompaniment, picking up songs everywhere he went. After staying for a time in Terre Haute,...

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