Burl Ives, who had one of the great voices of the twentieth century, was identified with old ballads and other forms of Americana. He was a folk singer, but not in the mode of the protest music that arose during the 1960s.
Above he sings A Little Bitty Tear alone and is joined by Johnny Cash for a medley on the latter’s show.
Ives real name was Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives. That’s amazing. The man also was an accomplished actor won a supporting actor Oscar for “The Big Country.” I remember him for his role on the television show called “The Bold Ones.”
Here is the beginning of Ives’ Wikipedia entry:
[Ives was] an American actor, writer and folk music singer. As an actor, Ives’s work included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theater, television, and motion pictures. Music critic John Rockwell said, “Ives’s voice … had he sheen and finesse of opera without its latter-day Puccinian vulgarities and without the pretensions of operatic ritual. It was genteel in expressive impact without being genteel in social conformity. And it moved people (Continue Reading…)
A short bio appears at the Internet Movie Database (iMDB), where his acting credits also can be found:
Burl Ives was one of six children born to a Scottish-Irish farming family. He first sang in public for a soldiers’ reunion when he was age 4. In high school, he learned the banjo and played fullback, intending to become a football coach when he enrolled at Eastern Illinois State Teacher’s College in 1927. He dropped out in 1930 and wandered, hitching rides, doing odd jobs, street singing. (Continue Reading…)
Above is what the poster says is the first cover of “Ghost Riders in the Sky.” Below is “Big Rock Candy Mountain.” What a great voice.
