HYPE-STICKER on front. Brand new vinyl, factory sealed with HYPE-STICKER, and in excellent condition. Not a reissue. Impressions and slight discoloration on back. Minor shelf wear to corners.
Together Again is a special, one-time effort that puts a bow on a career that had its ups and downs, but produced some wonderful music. The Weavers formed in 1948 and broke up in 1953 for political reasons; they reunited in 1955 and stayed together, with shifting personnel, until 1964. Lee Hays, ill and using a wheelchair, wistfully approached the original Weavers for one last get-together. This informal get-together prompted a professional reunion, and a triumphant return to Carnegie Hall. In 1980, the original quartet, Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman, and Ronnie Gilbert, reunited one last time to commemorate the 25th anniversary of their first reunion in the place they had held that reunion, Carnegie Hall in New York. The two concerts, on November 28 and 29, 1980, were recorded, and Together Again is made up of those recordings. It features some of the group’s old favorites, such as Goodnight Irene, Kisses Sweeter than Wine, and Wimoweh. The inclusion of the Seeger song (introduced on his 1964 solo album Broadsides: Songs and Ballads) signals the group’s desire to feature new material as well. Hellerman, for example, contributes a lovely song describing a father’s wonder about a newborn child, Tomorrow Lies in the Cradle, while Gilbert, a supporter of topical folksinger Holly Near, brings in two Near compositions on political themes, Hay Una Mujer, about Chilean oppression, and Something About the Women, a song for the women’s liberation movement. Hays, the oldest member (66 at the time) and clearly ailing (he appeared onstage in a wheelchair), is the most humorous. He doesn’t have the singing voice he once did, but the others leave the stage remarks to him. A documentary film, The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time!, was released after Hays's death in 1982, and chronicled the history of the group, and the events leading up to the reunion. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. n February 2006 The Weavers received the Lifetime Achievement Award given out annually at the Grammy awards show.