Biography
7 February 1920, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. This well-known folk satirist and former student of psychiatry started something of a revival in the 40s because of his WNYC folk music radio show The Folksong Festival, which was first broadcast on 10 December 1945. As a performer, Brand, who played guitar and banjo, was known for songs such as ‘Charlotte The Harlot’, ‘Blinded By Turds’, ‘Seven Old Ladies Locked In A Lavatory’ and ‘The Money Rolls In’. Despite its popularity, satire was not a new phenomenon, as his Election Songs Of The United States contained some numbers dating back to the 1800s. Eventually the radio show became simply Folksong Festival and featured a number of emerging talents in the folk field. Names such as Pete Seeger, Burl Ives, Judy Collins, Odetta, Phil Ochs, and countless others, have all passed through. Such has been the success of the show that it is still broadcast weekly, celebrating its 50th...
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