Joe Hickerson to perform and lecture at Rice

CONTACT: B.J. Almond
PHONE: (713) 348-6770
E-MAIL: balmond@rice.edu

CO-WRITER OF ‘WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE?’
WILL PERFORM AND LECTURE AT RICE MARCH 28-29
Joe Hickerson’s performances are free and open to public

”Where have all the flowers gone?” asked one of the earliest protest songs of the ’60s.

One of the folk singers who co-wrote that anthem – Joe Hickerson — will perform that song and other tunes at 8 p.m. March 28 during a free concert at Willy’s Pub in the basement of Rice Memorial Center at Rice University.  

Hickerson, a folk guitarist and Library of Congress music archivist, will also give two talks related to folk music March 29 in the Kyle Morrow Room on the third floor of Rice’s Fondren Library. At 11 a.m. he will discuss intellectual property, copyright and sound archives; at 2 p.m. he will present a lecture titled ”O Brother, Where Have All the Song Catchers Gone?”

All events are free and open to the public.

While working as a camp counselor in the early ’60s, Hickerson wrote the fourth and fifth verses of ”Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” when folk songwriter/singer Pete Seeger shared the song with him.   In addition to Seeger, artists who have recorded the song include Peter, Paul and Mary, Marlene Dietrich, Olivia Newton-John, Joan Baez and the Kingston Trio, whose version had the highest chart success – No. 21 – in 1962.

Hickerson now performs in coffeehouses and folk clubs as well as on college campuses and radio programs, including a Prairie Home Companion.   He is a former head of the Archives of Folk Songs at the Library of Congress and a founding member of the Folklore Society of Greater Washington. The repertoire of this music scholar ranges from labor songs and children’s songs to parodies, Irish-American songs and sea songs.

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