WordWealth: hootenanny

hoot·en·an·ny , n., pl. -nies.

1. a social gathering or informal concert featuring folk singing and, sometimes, dancing. 2. an informal session at which folk singers and instrumentalists perform for their own enjoyment. 3. Older Use. a thingumbob.

[1910–15; orig. uncert.] (Random House Webster's Unabridged). Look at Thesaurus

Some thirty years after Dylan's defection, "folk" no longer means traditional ballads and workers' songs. If it is still understood to mean anything, it means a sensitive young guy or girl with a guitar performing his or her own introspective songs. Folk music has become a pop subgenre, a style appropriated by unlikely advertisers. Dow Chemical, once a target of protests for manufacturing napalm and now a sponsor of This Week With Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts, airs spots featuring a man or woman singing about "what good thinking can do" as though leading a hootenanny; you half expect Sam and Cokie, William Kristol, and the two Georges to come back from the break singing along. —— Francis Davis in Napoleon in Rags; The Atlantic, May 1999

Hershey Felder ended last Thursday's preview at Ford's Theatre of his one-man show, "George Gershwin Alone," with a thundering rendition of "Rhapsody in Blue." After the ovation, he motioned people to sit down. "It's cold outside, what's the rush?" he asked. So, as he does every night, he led a Gershwin hootenanny -- but on this occasion "Summertime" really hit the right note. —— Jane Horwitz in Building Character the Evil Way; Special to The Washington Post; Jan 28, 2003

Thom Yorke is taking a rare break from the world of Radiohead to perform solo at Neil Young's Bridge School Concerts, the venerable Canadian's annual fundraising hootenanny for a special needs school in his home town of Seattle. Yorke and co have just been in Los Angeles to work on their sixth studio album with OK Computer and Travis producer Nigel Godrich. Also appearing with Yorke at the Mountainview Shoreline Arena on October 26 and 27 will be Foo Fighters, Ryan Adams and Young himself. —— Old Spice, The Guardian, Sep 25, 2002

- We have a show once a year called a Hootenanny?

- That rings a bell.

- You said the word `hey we're going to have a hootenanny tonight'. —— Later - At The Piano With Odetta, BBC

More article: Reid Bramblett in A Hapsburg Hootenanny, MSNBC

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