Guy Carawan, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Guy Carawan

American musician and musicologist

Date of Birth: 27-Jul-1927

Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California, United States

Date of Death: 02-May-2015

Profession: musician, guitarist

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Leo

Guy Hughes Carawan, Jr.
(July 28, 1927 – May 2, 2015) was an American folk musician and musicologist.
He served as music director and song leader for the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee. Carawan is famous for introducing the protest song "We Shall Overcome" to the American Civil Rights Movement, by teaching it to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960.
A union organizing song based on a black spiritual, it had been a favorite of Zilphia Horton (d.
1956) wife of the founder of the Highlander Folk School.
Carawan reintroduced it at the school when he became its new music director in 1959.
The song is copyrighted in the name of Horton, Frank Hamilton, Carawan and Pete Seeger.Carawan sang and played banjo, guitar, and hammered dulcimer.
He frequently performed and recorded with his wife, singer Candie Carawan.
Occasionally he was accompanied by their son Evan Carawan, who plays mandolin and hammered dulcimer.
Carawan and his wife lived in New Market, near the Highlander Center.The Guy and Candie Carawan Collection (1955-2010) is located in the Southern Folklife Collection of the Wilson Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Guy and his wife Candie Carawan have two children Evan Carawan, and Heather Carawan.