Tag: pacific northwest folklore society

PNWFS in the Numbers

SIXTY-FIVE  –  The Pacific Northwest Folklore Society was founded sixty-five years ago in 1953 by Walt Robertson and friends in the University District of Seattle.

ELEVEN  –  The Society was revived eleven years ago by Stewart Hendrickson, Bob Nelson and Don Firth with a Reunion Concert featuring Bob Nelson & Don Firth on October 14, 2007, at Central Lutheran Church in Capital Hill.

TEN  –  The first edition of the NW HOOT was published ten years ago in October, 2008.  The first Coffeehouse Concert was April 11, 2008, with Jim Portillo, Isla Ross and Alan Kausal, at the coffeehouse Kaffe Shachor in West Green Lake. We then moved briefly to the Library Cafe on Crown Hill and then to the Wayward Coffeehouse in Greenwood from October, 2008, through April, 2010.  You can listen to a CD – Seattle Coffeehouse Live! – of recorded concerts at the Wayward from 2008-2010.

EIGHT  –  Eight years of Coffeehouse Concerts at Couth Buzzard Books began in May, 2010. With your support we look forward to many more years of wonderful live music.

Spirit of the Times, by Don Firth

“A bunch of us, including Walt Robertson, got together in late 1952 or early 1953 and formed the Pacific Northwest Folklore Society. The fate of the organization is described below,”
Personal Reminiscences, Don Firth (1931-2015).1954 – Pete Seeger in Seattle and the Fate
of the Pacific Northwest Folklore Society

In fall of 1954 a major folk music event took place in Seattle. For the Pacific Northwest Folklore Society it proved to be more than a major event. Pete Seeger came to Seattle to give a concert. Under the aegis of the Folklore Society, Walt Robertson made the necessary arrangements and obtained the use of the basement auditorium of Wesley House, where several earlier Folklore Society events had been held. Continue reading “Spirit of the Times, by Don Firth”