Hootenanny is an Appalachian colloquialism that was used in the early twentieth century U.S. as a placeholder name to refer to things whose names were forgotten or unknown. In this usage it was synonymous with thingamajig or whatchamacallit, as in: "Hand me that hootenanny." Hootenanny was also an old country word for "party". More recently, the word most commonly refers to a folk music party with an open mic, at which different performers are welcome to get up and play in front of an audience. Hootenanny was also used by the leadership of early firefighting battalions to describe a "meeting of the minds" of higher ups or various department heads. The term has trickled down to working companies and is now used, with some frequency, at working incidents and other circumstances that require a focused discussion between key individuals. Most recently it was adopted for use during the annual Fire Department Instructors Conference. Logistics professionals for the conference employ the word to call together the required personnel needed to accomplish the prodigious assignments placed on them.
Origin of modern folk music usage
According to Pete Seeger, in various interviews, he first heard the word hootenanny in Seattle, Washington in the late 1930s. It was used by Hugh DeLacy’sNew Deal political club to describe their monthly music fund raisers. After some debate the club voted in hootenanny, which narrowly beat out wingding. Seeger, Woody Guthrie and other members of the Almanac Singers later used the word in New York City to describe their weekly rent parties, which featured many notable folksingers of the time. In a 1962 interview in Time, Joan Baez made the analogy that a hootenanny is to folk singing what a jam session is to jazz.
Events
During the early 1960s at the height of the American folk music revival, the club Gerdes Folk City at 11 West 4th Street in Greenwich Village started the folk music hootenanny tradition every Monday night, that featured an open mic and welcomed performers known and unknown, young and old. The Bitter End at 147 Bleecker Street continued the folk music hootenanny tradition every Tuesday night. The Hootenanny is an annual one-day rockabilly music festival held at the Oak Canyon Ranch in Irvine, California, which also incorporates a vintage car show. For years there have been online hootenannies. The most long-standing example is Small Talk At The Wall, which originated in 1999.
Recordings
"Surfin' Hootenanny" is a surf pop/rock song written by Lee Hazlewood and Al Casey, and performed by Al Casey with The K-C-Ettes. It opens Casey's 1963 album Surfin' Hootenanny. The song re-appeared in 1996. as track 15 of compilation. Cowabunga! Set 2: Big Waves is a second disc from Rhino Records' Cowabunga! The Surf Box 4-CD set compilation that contains most famous songs from the four-decade long history of surf music.
The Glencoves had a hit single with their release "Hootenanny", which peaked at No. 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963.
In 1963 and 1964, a BBC 1 show The Hoot'nanny Show, recorded in Edinburgh, was broadcast. Two albums with the same title were released, with contributions from Archie Fisher, Barney McKenna, and The Corries.
In the United Kingdom, Jools' Annual Hootenanny, a special New Year's Eve edition of Later... with Jools Holland featuring a wide selection of musicians, has been broadcast every year since 1993.
