Biography
Frank Warner figured prominently among the performers and collectors whose work helped ignite the American folk revival of the early 1960s. Traveling widely across Canada, New England, and the American South with his wife Anne, he gathered an extensive body of traditional material. Among the songs he recovered were such enduring pieces as “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” “Days of Forty-Nine,” and “Whiskey in the Jar (Gilgarrah Mountain).” His most lasting impact on the folk resurgence came through locating the outlaw ballad “Tom Dooley,” which he first encountered in the late 1930s when instrument builder and folksinger Frank Profitt performed it for him under the title “Tom Dula.” Warner’s own reading of the piece, featured on his 1952 album American Folk Songs and Ballads, supplied the template for the Kingston Trio’s million-selling version six years afterward. In a late-1990s essay, Alan Lomax—who had earlier printed the song in his book Folk Song USA—praised Warner for “a continuous act of unpaid, tender devotion and a lifelong love affair with the people who remembered the ballads.”
Born in Selma, Alabama, Warner spent his childhood in Jackson, Tennessee, and Durham, North Carolina, where he first sang at family gatherings. While attending Duke University he performed regularly with the school’s glee club and made an early appearance at the Raleigh State Farm; he also contributed songs during lectures on North Carolina folklore delivered by Duke professor Dr. Frank C. Brown. After receiving his degree from Duke in 1925, Warner enrolled at Columbia University’s School of Social Welfare in New York, later transferring to the YMCA training school. In 1928 he was posted to the YMCA in Greensboro, North Carolina, and remained with the organization until retiring ten years later as executive director of the Long Island YMCA.
He married Anne Locker in 1935, and the couple devoted their vacations to song collecting. They appeared together in concert halls, folk festivals, and on campuses throughout the United States. During the 1970s their sons Gerrett and Jeff frequently joined them, playing guitar, concertina, jew’s harp, and spoons. An informal performance given on June 16, 1973, at the Cider Press in Devon, England, was preserved on tape. Anne Warner later compiled the collection Traditional American Folksongs from material she and her husband had gathered. In the 1950s and early 1960s Warner issued several notable recordings besides American Folk Songs and Ballads, including Songs and Ballads of America’s Wars and Songs of the Civil War. A pair of albums drawn from the Warners’ field recordings—Music From the Anne & Frank Warner Collection, Vol. 1: Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still and Music From the Anne & Frank Warner Collection, Vol. 2: Nothing Seems Better to Me: The Music of Frank Profitt and North Carolina—were subsequently released.
Born in Selma, Alabama, Warner spent his childhood in Jackson, Tennessee, and Durham, North Carolina, where he first sang at family gatherings. While attending Duke University he performed regularly with the school’s glee club and made an early appearance at the Raleigh State Farm; he also contributed songs during lectures on North Carolina folklore delivered by Duke professor Dr. Frank C. Brown. After receiving his degree from Duke in 1925, Warner enrolled at Columbia University’s School of Social Welfare in New York, later transferring to the YMCA training school. In 1928 he was posted to the YMCA in Greensboro, North Carolina, and remained with the organization until retiring ten years later as executive director of the Long Island YMCA.
He married Anne Locker in 1935, and the couple devoted their vacations to song collecting. They appeared together in concert halls, folk festivals, and on campuses throughout the United States. During the 1970s their sons Gerrett and Jeff frequently joined them, playing guitar, concertina, jew’s harp, and spoons. An informal performance given on June 16, 1973, at the Cider Press in Devon, England, was preserved on tape. Anne Warner later compiled the collection Traditional American Folksongs from material she and her husband had gathered. In the 1950s and early 1960s Warner issued several notable recordings besides American Folk Songs and Ballads, including Songs and Ballads of America’s Wars and Songs of the Civil War. A pair of albums drawn from the Warners’ field recordings—Music From the Anne & Frank Warner Collection, Vol. 1: Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still and Music From the Anne & Frank Warner Collection, Vol. 2: Nothing Seems Better to Me: The Music of Frank Profitt and North Carolina—were subsequently released.