The Almanacs were also joined by a who's who list of folksingers who would all go on to become legends in the genre. Most notable among them were Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Lee Hays. Guthrie, until that point, had been a radio host in southern California, and had become an editorialist, as well as an in-demand traveling singer/songwriter. Nonetheless, his participation in the Almanacs was toward the beginning of his career, well before he started exhibiting clear signs of the degenerative disease that eventually killed him.
Seeger, of course, went on to become a mentor and inspiration for the next generation of folksingers. After being blacklisted for refusing to testify about his Communist affiliations, Seeger continued to pen protest song after protest song, helped resurrect countless traditional tunes, was instrumental during the Civil Rights Movement.
Guthrie and Seeger, along with fellow Alamancs Lee Hays, Millard Lampell, Josh White, Leadbelly, Sis Cunningham, and others, would become looked upon as the generation of influences that would spawn a protest song revival in the 1960s.
