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Political Events/Social Causes

John O’Connor

8 December 2021 by John O'Connor

 

John O’Connor 

In 1983, while living in Seattle, John O’Connor sent a batch of his songs off to Flying Fish Records cold and–almost unheard of in the music business at that time–landed a contract to make an album of his powerful original songs. Songs For Our Times came out in 1984 and was named one of the best albums of the year by the Washington Post and several folk publications and radio stations.

Geoffrey Himes, in his Washington Post review said of John’s songs, “Mister, Slow It Down,” … is the best hitchhiking song since Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGree.” O’Connor’s “Missy and Me” is the best song about old age since John Prine’s “Hello in There.” “A Cold November,” an a cappella ballad about a poor man harassed by a Chicago cop, echoes Woody Guthrie’s hobo songs.

Almost 40 years later, having traveled the country, touring and working as a union organizer, John has gathered a treasure-trove of songs, stories and poems about the working class, war and peace, love and loss. Craig Harris has said, “…O’Connor has shaped his own acute observations of the working class into songs that beg to be sung along to…” Si Kahn calls his songs “wonderful: direct, simple, singable, powerful.” “Songwriting… right out of the same well that slaked Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger,” commented the St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch.

John’s music has always been inseparable from his involvement in working class politics. He began his involvement in the labor movement right out of high school when he went to work in the factories of Waterloo, Iowa. His passion for American folk music led to a career as a folk singer and a cultural educator, performing in concerts, festivals, coffeehouses, schools and colleges, union education programs and political action events.

John recorded three albums with Flying Fish, one of them with the political quartet, ‘Shays Rebellion’, and a CD on the Chroma label. He also recorded a CD produced in conjunction with Collector Records called “We Ain’t Gonna Give It Back”, which is regarded by many as one of the best collections of original songs on the American labor movement. The late Joe Glazer said of John, “He writes the best songs about labor you are likely to hear.” Britain’s Southern Rag has said that “John O’Connor deserves to be numbered with the all-time greats of contemporary folk music.”

In 2017 John released his first CD in more than 20 years. Upon release, Rare Songs was ranked for several weeks in the top 50 albums on the US folk charts. John McCutcheon wrote, “John O’Connor’s wonderful new album, Rare Songs… is a welcome return of one of our best and most humane songwriters.”

Some 50 years after walking through the gates of his first factory job, John is still stalwart in his focus of fighting for the working class and inspiring them with his music and their music. John’s songs have been recorded by numerous singers from around the world. In 2009, the French topical singer, Renaud, adapted and recorded O’Connor’s song of deindustrialization, North by North, which went to number one on the French charts.

Also an accomplished poet, John has seen his poems published in dozens of literary magazines. He has won the Associated Writer’s Program’s Prague Prize and has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize. His book of poems, Half the Truth, won the Violet Reed Haas Poetry Award in 2015.

Tom Rawson

8 December 2021 by Tom Rawson

Folksinger/Storyteller/Songleader

Deidre McCalla

8 December 2021 by Deidre McCalla

Deidre McCalla doesn’t merely take the stage – she owns it.
Deidre – a Black woman, mother, lesbian, feminist – has long been in the forefront of Black musicians rewiring perception of how Black folk do folk. Deidre McCalla’s 2022 release, ENDLESS GRACE, her fifth independent album, is the bold statement of an artist confidently claiming her place in the world and relentlessly affirming the power and diversity of the human spirit.

John McCutcheon

8 December 2021 by John McCutcheon

For fifty years John McCutcheon has been a stalwart of the American folk music scene, a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, storyteller, author, activist, union man.  He was introduced to folk music as an 11-year-old watching the March on Washington on television.  The wedding of art and activism captured him then and he’s spent the many years since exploring that union. 

 

Besides being considered one of the world masters of the hammer dulcimer, John also plays guitar, banjo, fiddle, autoharp, piano, Jew’s harp, mountain dulcimer, and a host of other instruments he’s wise enough not to play in public.  His songwriting has been internationally praised, his classic “Christmas in the Trenches” was mentioned as one of the One Hundred Essential Folksongs by Folk Alley.

 

He has toured internationally for decades with a unique blend of storytelling and music.  “Folk music’s rustic renaissance man” is how the Washington Post described him.  “Calling John McCutcheon a folksinger is like saying Deion Sanders is just a football player,” heralded the Dallas Morning News.  But perhaps the most insightful description comes from John’s mentor and friend, Pete Seeger, “John McCutcheon is not only one of the best musicians in the USA, but also a great singer, songwriter, and song leader. And not just incidentally, he is committed to helping hard-working people everywhere to organize and push this world in a better direction.”

 

A lifelong unionist, he is one of the co-founders of Local 1000 and served as president 1997-2012.  He currently serves as the chair of the Fair Trade Music committee and also is on the executive board of the Atlanta Musicians Union (AFM 148-462).

 

He is the recipient of the Joe Hill Award from the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Utah Phillips Lifetime Service to Labor Award from Local 1000.

Tom Neilson

8 December 2021 by Tom Neilson

Donna Nestler

8 December 2021 by Donna Nestler

Susan Lewis

8 December 2021 by Susan Lewis

As a member of the women’s trio Belles of Hoboken in the early 80s (with Janet Stecher and Marcie Boyd), Susan performed throughout the New York City area and recorded numerous songs for the “Fast Folk” musician’s cooperative monthly musical “magazine.” When she moved to Seattle, Susan was a founding member of the quartet Shays’ Rebellion, along with fellow Local 1000 member John O’Connor (as well as Tim Hall and Janet Stecher). Their ‘songs of social movements past and present’ were shared with audiences across the United States and Canada.  Their album “Daniel Shays’ Highway” was released on Flying Fish Records (FF427) in 1987. 

Susan and Janet teamed up to form the duo Rebel Voices in 1989. They have released 3 albums together: “A Little Look Around”, “Warning: Women at Work”, and “A Piece of the Wall”. They have appeared in concert at coffeehouses, K-12 schoolrooms, colleges, festivals, living rooms, conventions, rallies, picket lines, and union halls across the U.S. and Canada, as well as in England and Portugal. The thousands of hours they’ve spent working together and the love of the material they sing are evident in their confident and inspiring performances. Their performances for organizations and events representing a broad spectrum of political and social causes have gained them enthusiastic fans wherever they go.

Most recently, Susan has begun to delve into musical theatre, as a cast member in the Vashon Repertory Theatre 2021 production of Woody Guthrie’s American Song.  

 

Ken Giles

8 December 2021 by Ken Giles

Ken Giles teaches violin/viola at D.C. Youth Orchestra Program and in private lessons.  He also sings with the D.C. Labor Chorus.  Longtime peace and civil rights activist, Ken was a member of the topical song group “Bright Morning Star” and played for peace demonstrations, environmental activists, and human rights groups.  Ken teaches his students all kinds of music, including classical, folk, blues, labor songs, and civil rights songs.

Kim Harris

8 December 2021 by Kim Harris

Valdy aka Paul-Valdemar Horsdal

8 December 2021 by Valdy Horsdal

Travelling folksinger, still digging it after more than fifty years on the road,

 still learning and curious.

David Borough

8 December 2021 by David Borough

David Borough appears with the band, Radio Rail.  Radio Rail has performed at The Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering, The Songs for the Transcontinental Railroad Concerts, The California State Railroad Museum, The Cold Springs Tavern, and The Old Town Sacramento Gold Rush Days Festival. As well as venues from Cisco’s Creekside in San Luis Obispo, to The Urban Village Farmers Markets in the San Francisco Bay Area…

A fiddle player with the Celtic Rock band, O’Craven, David has appeared at The Northern California Pirate Festival, The Pirates of the Pacific Festival in Brookings Oregon, and the Northern California Renaissance Faire…

David is Singer/Songwriter honored by the South Bay Songwriter’s Association, and the Napa Folk Festival.

David also hosts “The Rising of the Moon” Celtic themed radio program, which airs at 6:00 am Pacific time, on the fourth, and fifth Mondays.   

Recordings:

“I’ve Gone Home/Down on Santa Clara Street”,  45 rpm vinyl. (1981)

“Liberacion de Amor”  Cassette. (1982)

“Viva Nicaragua Libre/Rollin’ Solidarity Down”. 45 rpm vinyl  (1983)”

“BurnsBorough”. Cassette   (1988)

“Radio Rail”. Compact disc.   (1997)

“The O’Daveys Irish Band, Raw”.   Compact disc.   (2008)

Tom Chapin

8 December 2021 by Tom Chapin

“One of the great personalities in contemporary folk music.” – New York Times

In a career that spans five decades, 26 albums and three Grammy awards, Tom Chapin has covered an incredible amount of creative ground. In addition to his work as a recording artist, concert performer, storyteller and activist, he’s acted on Broadway and worked extensively in television, radio and film. 

Chapin maintains two long and productive parallel careers, both as a respected contemporary folk artist and as a pioneer in the field of children’s music. During the height of the Covid shutdowns, Tom and his daughters The Chapin Sisters streamed 200 live concerts under the moniker “Mornings with Papa Tom.” All are archived on YouTube.

Simon and Schuster has released three children’s books based upon his songs: This Pretty Planet, Library Song (The Library Book), and The Backwards Birthday Party. A new CD is almost complete, working title “Listen Close” to be released in Spring 2022.

In addition to his musical and media endeavors, Chapin has long been an advocate for environmental causes, issues of hunger and social justice, and a supporter of music and the arts in public schools.

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