ABSTRACT
As the folk revival became a major force in the entertainment world, Josh returned to the public eye, and his career once again becomes relatively easy to trace. He was recording regularly, and his live appearances were covered by a press eager to involve itself in the latest craze. After resigning with Elektra in 1958 he recorded Chain Gang Songs. The album revamped the old Carolinians’ arrangements, this time putting more emphasis on recapturing the feel of a work gang and less on the original album’s sweet harmonies. It became his best seller after Josh at Midnight, and the label followed up with three more albums: Spirituals and Blues in 1960, The House I Live In in 1961, and finally Empty Bed Blues in 1962. All but the last had liner notes by the jazz critic Nat Hentoff, who sought to place Josh in the context of the revival: “Long before the singing of folk songs became an urban avocation and a growing segment of show business in all its forms, Josh White was telling his burningly candid and insistently hopeful stories to strikingly diversified audiences. As the field itself had widened, Josh has remained a major figure here and abroad because he retains the ardor and strength of someone who has lived the songs he performs.”
