This album is “a tribute to hardworking people everywhere.” Now that I have retired, does that include me, I wonder?
It is also a tribute long time civil rights campaigner and prolific songwriter Si Kahn who reached the grand age of 80 on April 23rd 2024,
This birthday gift comes in the form of a selection of 21 of Kahn’s songs about working people and US unions.
Si Kahn sings three of the songs and accompanies producer and comrade in arms George Mann on Solidarity Day The rest are rendered by guest artists including Peggy Seeger, Billy Bragg, Kathy Mattea, Michael Johnathan & Odetta, John McCutcheon, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, Joe Jencks, Laurie Lewis, Magpie and Tom Chapin & The Chapin Sisters.
Which side are you?’ is the question implicitly posed by each and every one of the tracks. For instance, Jail Can’t Hold My Body Down begins with Vivian Nesbitt & John Dillon singing of “Standing on the picket line hooting at the scabs.”
Now that most factories and mines are dead or dying, it’s tempting to dismiss these songs about working class lives as anachronistic. But part of their importance is to remember and give thanks to those who stood up for their rights during hard times. The Dylanesque Lawrence Jones, sung by Kathy Mattea is a reminder that ”those who bear the struggle have always paid the price.
At the same time, the ravages of history are also an inevitable part of the story. On Aragon Mill, Peggy Seeger sings that ”the mill has pulled out and it ain't coming back while Joe Jencks evokes the haunted image of “ghostly figures” at The Old Labor Hall.
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The world of employment may have changed radically since Si Kahn began writing his songs but the divide between the have and have nots hasn’t narrowed significantly enough to make the fundamental messages any less topical. If things seemed bad in the past, they are worse now. George Mann makes this point in They All Sang Bread & Roses when he sings Whoever thought the ‘60s would be called “the good old days?”
Calls for solidarity and standing together over injustice and oppression never really go out of style. There was power in the union then and now. ”Stand together ‘til we win” sings the perpetually impassioned Billy Bragg in We’re The Ones.
As I write, Trump has just won the popular vote for four more years in power so I think more than good luck is needed in the struggle for a better world. Still, it’s reassuring to hear that hope still springs eternal in some quarters.
Si Khan’s website
George Mann’s website
Bandcamp album link
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