Classic Labor Songs from Smithsonian Folkways

by CLASSIC LABOR SONGS FROM SMITHS

Overview

In the era of the sound bite, when songs are used to hawk everything from shampoo, soap, and cars to wine coolers, dating services, and Viagra, it is easy to lose sight of the more noble utilitarian use songs can have, and this haunting collection of 20th century labor songs calling for fairness, dignity, and a just wage is a compelling document of the power of songs to unite and enable. Drawn from Smithsonian Folkways' vast collection and from Joe Glazer's Collector Records, which in 2006 became a part of the Smithsonian Folkways catalog, Classic Labor Songs from Smithsonian Folkways is by turns spirited, uplifting, wry, and ironic, and if some of these songs seem quaint in the light of today's complicated global economic landscape, the issues they raise for the fair and just treatment of labor continue to be extremely vital ones. Among the highlights here are Paul Robeson's stately "Joe Hill," which opens the sequence, John Handcox's unaccompanied field recording of his own "Roll the Union On" (based on the gospel song "Roll the Chariot On") from 1937, Woody Guthrie's heart-breaking "1913 Massacre" (based on a true incident during a miner's strike in Calumet, MI where 73 children lost their lives), and a shaky yet riveting version of Florence Reece singing her "Which Side Are You On" from a 1971 archival tape (she actually wrote the song during a miners' strike in Harlan County, KY in 1931) that dovetails seamlessly into the Almanac Singers' 1955 version of the same song. But not everything here deals with miners and mill workers. Some of the songs have a distinct contemporary feel, like Tom Juravich's "VDT," which pleads the case of cubicle workers who spend all day entering data on a video display terminal, and John O'Connor's unaccompanied "Carpal Tunnel," which explores the health issues that stem from workplace tasks that require continual repetitive movement. In an era when label-created hipsters rap on about getting personal respect all day over the airwaves, these songs seem unadorned and out of touch by comparison. But there is a quiet strength to them, and a deep understanding of what respect really means, and long after today's flavor of the week drops from sight (utility isn't always measured by chart position), these songs will still be sung. ~ Steve Leggett

Product Details

Release Date:	05/23/2006
Label:	Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
UPC:	0093074016626
Rank:	60934

Tracks

1. Joe Hill  - Paul Robeson  - Earl Robinson
2. Bread and Roses  -  McGee
3. Casey Jones (Union Scab)  -  Almanac Singers  - Pete Seeger
4. We Shall Not Be Moved/Roll the Union On  - Joe Glazer  - John Handcox
5. Roll the Union On  - John Handcox
6. Cotton Mill Colic  - David McCarn  - Mike Seeger
7. The Mill Was Made of Marble  - Joe Glazer
8. Aragon Mill  - Peggy Seeger
9. Talking Union  -  Almanac Singers  - Millard Lampell
10. 1913 Massacre  - Woody Guthrie
11. The Preacher and the Slave  - Utah Phillips
12. Which Side Are You On?/Which Side Are You On?  -  Almanac Singers  - Florence Reece
13. Hold the Fort  - Joe Uehlein
14. Union Maid  - Woody Guthrie  -  New Harmony Sisterhood Band
15. Too Old to Work  - Joe Glazer
16. Black Lung  - Hazel Dickens
17. Been Rolling So Long  - Larry Penn
18. VDT  - Tom Juravich
19. Automation  - Joe Glazer
20. I'm Union and I'm Proud  - Eddie Starr
21. I'm a Union Card  -  Winfree
22. Carpal Tunnel  - John O'Connor
23. We Just Come to Work Here, We Don't Come to Die  - Anne Feeney
24. One Day More  - Elaine Purkey
25. We Do the Work  - Jon Fromer
26. De Colores  -  Negra  -  Velasquez
27. Solidarity Forever  - Ralph Chaplin  - Joe Glazer

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Tom Juravich   Primary Artist
Hazel Dickens   Primary Artist
New Harmony Sisterhood Band   Primary Artist
Kenny Winfree   Primary Artist
Eddie Starr   Primary Artist
Jon Fromer   Primary Artist
Mike Seeger   Primary Artist
Peggy Seeger   Primary Artist
Elaine Purkey   Primary Artist
Anne Feeney   Primary Artist
Joe Glazer   Primary Artist
John Handcox   Primary Artist
Baldemar Velasquez   Primary Artist
Bobbie McGee   Primary Artist
Woody Guthrie   Primary Artist
Larry Penn   Primary Artist
Aguila Negra   Primary Artist
Paul Robeson   Primary Artist
Florence Reece   Primary Artist
Almanac Singers   Primary Artist
John O'Connor   Primary Artist
Pete Seeger   Primary Artist
Utah Phillips   Primary Artist
Joe Uehlein   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Millard Lampell   Composer
Ralph Chaplin   Composer
Kenny Winfree   Composer
Jon Fromer   Composer
Elaine Purkey   Composer
Joe Glazer   Composer
David McCarn   Composer
John O'Connor   Composer
Florence Reece   Composer
Earl Robinson   Composer
Larry Penn   Composer
Eddie Starr   Composer
John Handcox   Composer
Hazel Dickens   Composer
Tom Juravich   Composer
Woody Guthrie   Composer