Irwin Silber, editor of folk music magazine, dies

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Irwin Silber, who as founding editor of the small but influential magazine Sing Out became a towering figure in the 1960s American folk music renaissance that brought Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie and numerous others to prominence, has died at age 84.

Silber died Wednesday at an extended care facility in Oakland, his stepdaughter Nina Menendez told The Associated Press on Friday.

She said the cause of death was complications related to Alzheimer's disease.

Silber founded Sing Out in 1950 with legendary folk singer Pete Seeger and musicologist Alan Lomax.

He built the magazine into a bible of American folk music, reporting on such seminal figures as Seeger, Guthrie, Leadbelly, and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

As a result, when a new generation of folk singers burst onto the music scene in the early 1960s, he was perfectly positioned to cover them. Sing Out carried some of the earliest reports on Dylan, Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, Judy Collins and others.

Before starting Sing Out, Silber was executive director of People's Songs, an organization created by Seeger and others to promote the music of the American labor movement.

Because of his ties to left-wing causes and his association with the Communist Party in the 1950s, he was called before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in 1958. Silber said in a 2005 interview that he was asked by a committee member if he had ever taught at a New York City school said to have Marxist ties.

When asked what he taught at the school, Silber said he replied "square dancing" and the questioning ended.