Word: folke
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...still remember the day it happened. It was a sunny Friday afternoon in 1954. I was casually listening to the radio when Jo Stafford's rendition of Barbara Allen, a 17th century English ballad, came over the airwaves. It was the first folk song I had ever heard. At the time, I was a 14-year-old living in Denver with my parents and four younger siblings and preparing to perform Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto with a local orchestra...
Although I was smitten by the song and all it represented, the full switch to folk took about a year. I continued studying piano while immersing myself in folk music. I taught myself to play on a leased guitar, even practicing till my fingers bled, and listened to tunes and ballads on the radio and at record stores...
...classical music altogether. It was big, because I'd been playing piano for 11 years then, and I loved classical music. "Little Judy, you've got it," she said, heartbroken, as she tried to change my mind. "You could be something." But I knew my future was in folk music...
...singing professionally at a college hangout called Michael's Pub in Boulder, Colo., for $100 a week, along with all the beer and pizza I wanted. That first gig supported our young family while my husband was in school, and it began my professional career as a folk singer...
...University of Connecticut, my then mother-in-law said, "You don't have to go on with the singing." But her words fell on deaf ears, because I knew then that music was much more than a way to earn money; it was a calling. Through folk music, I connected with the upheavals in our nation and the students on college campuses and drew strength from singers like Harry Belafonte, the Kingston Trio and the Weavers, who were making names for themselves with political songs...