Songs of the Great Depression
Wednesdays: January 22, 29, February 5, 9:30 a.m. – 12 noon
Bethany Congregational Church 556 N. Hope Avenue, Santa Barbara
VISTAS member price: $40; non-member price $60
Presented by Norm Cohen
People who lived through the Great Depression of 1929–41 mostly remember times of widespread economic hardship. Many Americans lost jobs and/or homes, not to mention lives. If anything good came out of that difficult era, it was the songs, some of which struggled to put on a cheerful front, while other pieces acknowledged the tribulations of too many Americans. In these sessions we’ll listen to a sampling of the songs that were composed during the Depression decade and tried, in various ways, to deal with reality. The selections will be drawn from mainstream popular music (e.g., “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?,” “We’re In the Money”) as well as from the genres of folk (“Cotton Mill Colic”), country (or “hillbilly”—“No Depression in Heaven”), blues (“Hard Times Blues”), and calypso (“Poor But Ambitious”) music.