Folkways Collection – The Labor Movement
Adam has written before, here, here , here and here, about this marvellous series from the Folkways Collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington dd. C., originally done in conjunction with CKUA Radio in Canada, being broadcast on National Radio just after the 11 pm news on Friday Nights. Podcast available here.
WARNING: If you open the link to National Radio using Firefox, you may find your browser closes unexpectedly. The site seems to work better with IE7.
Episode 13: Music and the Winds of Change: The Labor Movement
This episode is the first of three programs which look at how Folkways artists have used music as an instrument for social activism. This particular program focuses on musicians whose songs inspired those struggling for improved working conditions and wages. The works of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Cisco Houston, have all played a vital role in the labor movement, and we celebrate that history in this episode. This week’s programme focuses on folk artists whose music was often instrumental in inspiring those struggling for improved working conditions and wages.
About the Folkways Collection
Started in 1948, by Moses Asch, this collection is now considered one of the principal canons of American roots music and oral history.
The collection is made up of more than 2,200 Folkways Records releases; featuring American folk, blues, jazz and country musicians, ethnic recordings from around the world, plus soundscapes, poetry readings and oral history.
This week in my post on this series I have added a couple of You Tube videos, the first is Union Maid, Pete Seeger .
The song is sung to the music of Red Wing. The Union Maid. 1955 Folkway Records. FH 5285. This recording is I think with The Almanac Singers
The second is a recording of Pete Seeger performing ‘Which Side are You On’ with a photo montage by Spadecaller.
Spadecaller attached this description. You may not agree with his sentiments, but it is a powerful song and deals with an approach to unions we would not find acceptable today.
In the mountains of Kentucky in 1931, the coal miners of Harlan County went on strike. Officers hired by the mining company roamed the countryside hunting for the union leaders. The independent coal miners fought back gallantly against the hired company deputies and blood was spilled on both sides. “Which Side Are You On,” was written by Florence Reece, the wife of Sam Reece, a union leader who had escaped into the Kentucky mountains for safety. Class warfare continues in the United States and in most nations throughout the world. Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, and Millard Lampell of the Almanac Singers made this song famous in 1941. – Spadecaller
