Leave it to Bear Family Records to release a ten-disc collection of Communist and leftist-activist songs that only a dyed-in-the-wool Republican can afford! However, there's a lot of stuff on these discs -- songs about lynchings, anti-union murders and riots, and other injustices, including wretched working conditions permitted by earlier governments, et cetera. There's folk material, of course, but also cowboy songs, country songs, blues and country-blues. These ten CDs also tear down the stereotype of the dry and doctrinaire political song.
Highlights include Disc One ("The Roots of the Folk Revival,") which is primarily given over to the oldest union songs and farm-related protest songs. Disc Three is given over to the Almanac Singers; this body of work was recorded when the official Communist Party line (to which they adhered) was non-aggression against Nazi Germany. Some of the music on Disc Four ("Fighting the Fascists") was surprisingly complex, given the spartan conditions under which a lot of it was done. Disc Seven ("Pete Seeger: 1946-48") is mostly made up of Seeger's masterpieces Roll the Union On and Songs for Political Action. Disc Nine ("Campaign Songs: 1944-1949") represents the last significant cohesive body of topical political songs to come from the American left. By the time of Disc Ten ("An Era Closes"), the Left couldn't do more than snipe at the reactionaries setting the agenda and the passive moderates who stood by. The sound quality on most of the material in this set is astonishingly good and the ten discs are accompanied by an over-200-page hardcover book featuring historical and musical essays, photographs, session information and lyrics -- one of the finest documents of the relationship between music and politics of the period that has ever been published. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
Songs for Political Action: Folk Music, Topical Songs and the American Lef
01/01/1996 | Bear Family
All Music Guide Review
Track Listing
Credits
- Bill Palmer
- Performer
- Jeff Place
- Disc Transfers
- Sonny Terry
- Harmonica
- Alan Stoker
- Disc Transfers
- Mark Wilder
- Disc Transfers
- Ray Funk
- Photo Illustration
- Charles Louis Seeger
- Performer
- Bees Lomax
- Performer
- Jerry Silverman
- Guitar
- Phil Wells
- Song Transcriptions
- Rebecca Everett
- Mastering
- Richard Weize
- Liner Notes, Tape Research
- Sylke Holtrop
- Artwork
- Dave Samuelson
- Liner Notes, Tape Research
- Birgit Schneider
- Artwork
- Joe Bussard
- Disc Transfers
- Hope Foye
- Vocals, Photo Illustration
- Irwin Silber
- Producer
- Ingo Steinbach
- Mastering
- Millard Lampell
- Vocals, Photo Illustration
- Dooley Wilson
- Performer
- Bob Claiborne
- Performer
- Waring Cuney
- Liner Notes
- Arthur Stern
- Vocals
- Union Boys
- Performer
- Sis Cunningham
- Performer
- Bill Friedland
- Performer
- Barbara Dane
- Photo Illustration
- Osborne Smith
- Vocals
- John Allison
- Performer
- Almanac Singers
- Performer
- Earl Robinson
- Guitar, Piano, Vocals, Director
- Elie Siegmeister
- Conductor
- Tom Glazer
- Guitar, Vocals
- Aunt Molly Jackson
- Performer
- Sarah Ogan Gunning
- Performer
- Lord Invader
- Performer
- Alan Lomax
- Vocals, Producer
- Howard Fast
- Narrator
- New Singers
- Performer
- Martha Schlamme
- Vocals
- Joe Glazer
- Performer
- Jewish Young Folk Singers
- Performer
- Sir Lancelot
- Performer
- Brownie McGhee
- Performer
- Steve Deutsch
- Photo Illustration
- Bob Ferguson
- Performer
- Milt Gabler
- Producer
- Sam Gary
- Vocals
- Ronnie Gilbert
- Vocals
- Lee Hays
- Vocals, Liner Notes
- Fred Hellerman
- Guitar, Vocals
- Bob Hill
- Performer
- Steve Lasker
- Disc Transfers
- Harold Leventhal
- Photo Illustration
- Hanns Eisler
- Piano, Liner Notes
- Woody Guthrie
- Guitar, Harmonica, Liner Notes, Vocals
- Burl Ives
- Guitar, Vocals
- Malvina Reynolds
- Performer
- Carl Sandburg
- Performer
- Pete Seeger
- Banjo, Vocals, Liner Notes, Recorder
- The Weavers
- Performer
- Josh White
- Guitar, Vocals
- Ruth Crawford Seeger
- Performer
- Paul Robeson
- Performer
- Marc Blitzstein
- Piano










