Description of Burl Ives' Music:

Traditional folk music

Comparisons:

Burl Ives can squarely be considered alongside his contemporaries - folks like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Josh White, Leadbelly, and the Almanac Singers (with whom he was known to sing on occasion).

Recommended CDs by Burl Ives:

Little Bitty Tear: The Best of Burl Ives (Collectables, 2006)

Christmas Eve With Burl Ives (MCA, 1998)

Burl Ives Sings (Columbia, 1995)

Purchase/Download Burl Ives MP3s:

"Big Rock Candy Mountain"
"A Little Bitty Tear"
"Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)"

Burl Ives Biography:

Burl Ives was born in Illinois in 1909. His father was a farmer and contractor, and he had six siblings. He grew up singing and performing, and later attended the Eastern Illinois State Teachers College. Though he played on the football team, he lost interest in collegiate pursuits during his junior year and set out on the road as a folksinger. He earned barely enough money to get from town to town by singing and playing his banjo.

He soon scored a gig singing on the radio in Indiana. Eventually, in 1940, Ives was granted his own radio show. It was there where he spent the next few years popularizing folk songs, before getting drafted into the Army in 1942. He'd eventually be discharged a year later for medical reasons, but not before joining the cast of Irving Berlin's This Is the Army. He moved to California, and then New York, before being cast as a singing cowboy in the film Smoky in 1945.

He continued to act in film, and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1949 for his performance of "Lavender Blue" in the movie So Dear to My Heart.

In 1950, Ives was blacklisted (as were many folksingers, actors, and other members of the entertainment industry) for associating with Communists by the House Un-American Activities Committee. He cooperated with the HUAC so that his blacklisting could end, though he did give them Pete Seeger's name.

Over the next decade, he appeared in numerous films, before focusing yet again on his music career in the 1960s. Then, he entered country music and enjoyed hits with songs like "A Little Bitty Tear," and "Call Me Mister In-Between." He's also well-known as singing in the TV special for "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", and has had considerable success with his recordings of Christmas songs. For the remainder of his career, he continued in both film, theater, and music, earning a sort of legendary status in both. He died from mouth cancer in 1995.