VA - Songs for Political Action: Folk Music, Topical Songs and the American Left (CD 1 & 2)

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. 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.


Tracklist:

CD 1:
1. The Boll Weevil - CARL SANDBURG
2. Patriotic Diggers - JOHN ALLISON
3. London's Bridge Is Falling Down - CHARLES SEEGER
4. Risselty Rosselty - CHARLES & RUTH CRAWFORD SEEGER
5. Old Grey Mare - RUTH CRAWFORD SEEGER
6. Hands - CHARLES SEEGER
7. Ragged Hungry Blues (part 1) - AUNT MOLLY JACKSON
8. Ragged Hungry Blues (part 2) - AUNT MOLLY JACKSON
9. I'm Going To Organize, Baby Mine - SARA OGAN GUNNING
10. I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister - TILLMAN CADLE
11. Raggedy, Raggedy - JOHN HANDCOX
12. No More Mourning - JOHN HANDCOX
13. Join The Union Tonight - JOHN HANDCOX
14. We're Going To Roll The Union On - JOHN HANDCOX
15. There Is Mean Things Happening In This Land - JOHN HANDCOX
16. Farmer's Letter To The President - BOB FERGUSON (BOB MILLER)
17. Farm Relief Blues - BOB MILLER
18. 11 Cent Cotton, 40 Cent Meat - BOB'S BOYS (BOB MILLER)
19. The Hootenanny Song - MILLER'S BULLFROG ENTERTAINERS
20. Bank Failures - BOB FERGUSON & THE SCALAWAGGERS (BOB MILLER)
21. The Rich Man And The Poor Man - BOB MILLER
22. The Poor Forgotten Man - BILL PALMER (BOB MILLER)
23. The Soup Song - THE NEW SINGERS
24. The Internationale - THE NEW SINGERS
25. Rise Up (Comintern) - THE NEW SINGERS
26. United Front - THE NEW SINGERS
27. Forward, We've Not Forgotten - THE NEW SINGERS
28. In Praise Of Learning - THE NEW SINGERS
29. On The Picket Line - THE MANHATTAN CHORUS
30. Hold The Fort - THE MANHATTAN CHORUS
31. Casey Jones - THE MANHATTAN CHORUS
32. Sit Down - THE MANHATTAN CHORUS
33. Write Me Out My Union Card - THE MANHATTAN CHORUS
34. We Shall Not Be Moved - THE MANHATTAN CHORUS
35. Join The Union - THE MANHATTAN CHORUS
36. Solidarity Forever - THE MANHATTAN CHORUS

CD 2:
1. The Strange Funeral At Braddock - MORDECAI BAUMANN & ELIE SIEGMEISTER
2. Abraham Lincoln (parts 1 & 2) - EARL ROBINSON
3. Joe Hill - EARL ROBINSON
4. Spring Song - PAUL ROBESON
5. The Old Chisholm Trail - TONY KRABER
6. Old Paint (The Horse With The Union Label) - SAUL AARONS
7. Capitalistic Boss (parts 1 & 2) - SAUL AARONS
8. Little Theater On The Right - HARRISON DOWD
9. Little Theater On The Left - HARRISON DOWD
10. Nine Foot Shovel - JOSH WHITE
11. Chain Gang Boun' - JOSH WHITE
12. Trouble - JOSH WHITE
13. Goin' Home Boys - JOSH WHITE
14. Cryin' Who? Cryin' You! (parts 1 & 2) - JOSH WHITE
15. Told My Captain - JOSH WHITE
16. Jerry - JOSH WHITE
17. Southern Exposure - JOSH WHITE
18. Uncle Sam Says - JOSH WHITE
19. Jim Crow Train - JOSH WHITE
20. Bad Housing Blues - JOSH WHITE
21. Hard Times Blues - JOSH WHITE
22. Defense Factory Blues - JOSH WHITE

VA - Songs for Political Action: Folk Music, Topical Songs and the American Left (CD 1)

VA - Songs for Political Action: Folk Music, Topical Songs and the American Left (CD 2)

(320 kbps, cover included)