LHF Online Labor Music Festival
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LHF Online Labor Music Festival |
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Better Than Nada - Baldemar Velasquez & the Aguila Negra Band“Better than nada’ means you have to take your small victories but stay determined to win this struggle and fight as long as it takes.” Baldemar Velasquez, President of FLOC, has reworked the lyrics to emphasize how difficult it can be for farm workers to win justice. |
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The Bourgeois
Blues - Leadbelly In the 1950s when apartheid and segregation were official realities, Leadbelly took a stand against discrimination and bigotry through his music. From Folkways: The Original Vision, Smithsonian Folkways SF 40001, provided courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.© 1989 . Used by Permission. |
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The Bravest - Joe Uehlein Joe Uehlein performed this song by Tom Paxton at the 2001 AFL-CIO convention in Las Vegas as part of a tribute to the NYC firefighters who died saving lives on September 11, 2002. It is also the first song of Joe Uehlein’s new CD Two Roads – Twenty-Eight Years – Joe Uehlein, which will be available shortly. |
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The Corporate
Stomp - Bones Of Contention Rock 'n' Roll for the union movement with the Bones of Contenion. From the Never Surrender Records album, Power. |
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Deportees - Baldemar
Velasquez & the Aguila Negra Band Baldemar Velasquez is the President of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee. His version of Woody Guthrie’s song Deportees, includes original Spanish lyrics by Luis Valdez |
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Do Re Me –
Ani DiFranco Ani DiFranco says about her and others’ versions of Woody Guthrie songs on the Righteous Babe tribute album Til We Outnumber ‘Em: “Woody would be totally down with people adapting his work and making it relevant to themselves and their own time and place. I think Woody is too important to mummify; he set a lot of really important ideas in motion. He was such an insanely spontaneous, unpredictable, vibrant guy. I think in order to do his work, his life, and his spirit justice, people have to approach him with a vibrant, unpredictable, spontaneous kind of attitude.” |
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For Gene Debs -
Anne Feeney This Anne Feeney original pays tribute to the 19th century labor leader Eugene V Debs, founder of the American Railway Union and 5 time presidential candidate. From Anne Feeney’s latest record, Have You Been To Jail For Justice? The CD was recorded in Nashville at Silvertone Recording Service under an American Federation of Musicians Contract. All the musicians are proud members of Local 1000 and/or Local 257 of the AFM. All songs composed by Anne Feeney © (BMI). |
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Frail Light - Phil Cohen & Patricia Ford The long-time UNITE! organizer Phil Cohen and the artist and labor cartoonist Patricia Ford pay tribute to working moms with this folk ode. From the Hard Miles Music album, Caution To The Wind. |
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The Good Old Fashioned Way -
George Mann & Julius Margolin The two long time New York City union activists say that union power cannot be increased by computer keyboards but has to rely on the "good old fashioned way" of building solidarity. |
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Hidee Ho -
Solidarity Rocks Solidarity Rocks, a musical project of the United Steelworkers of America, celebrates women workers. |
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Hospital Workers
- Rebel Voices Paul McKenna wrote new words to this song by J.P. Sousa for a hospital strike in the late 1980s. This a cappella version was arranged the Rebel Voices from Seattle is on their album Warning – Women At Work. |
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I Cannot Sleep -
Jon Fromer & Francisco Herrera Jon Fromer and Francisco Herrera interweave English and Spanish verses which results in a beautiful bilingual version of the Malvina Reynolds ballad about hungry children. From Jon Fromer’s album We Do The Work. |
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Joe Hill - Paul
Robeson Two remarkable characters found each other when the labor, social, and civil rights activist, singer, actor and scholar Paul Robeson raises his impressive voice to sing about Joe Hill, the labor leader and singer songwriter of Swedish origin who was member of the IWW in the early 1900s and executed for robbery and manslaughter under unclear circumstances in 1914. Paul Robeson sang this song to a large audiences in both countries at the Peace Arch on the US-Canadian border. This was during an 8 year period during which Robeson was denied to travel abroad because he was supposedly engaging in “un-American activities.” From the Folk Era live recording, The Peace Arch Concerts. |
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Look For The
Union Label - Joe Glazer A musical call to support unions and contribute to the struggle for workers rights: Today as well as yesterday and tomorrow! From the Collector Records album, Joe Glazer Sings Labor Songs. |
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Marchin' In The
Streets - The Whiteville Choir Motown movement music from the Whiteville Choir. From the Hard Miles Music album, Union Power. |
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Rockin'
Solidarity - Bones Of Contention A fresh take on a classic by the Bones Of Contenion. From the Never Surrender Records album, Power. |
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La Ronde De
Canuts – Pierre Fournier Folk-rock version of a classic French labor song about a big silk worker strike in Lyons in the early 1800s. |
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Service Economy –
Kirk Kelly The New York Irish folk punk singer and union organizer Kirk Kelly sings about the transition from a manufacturing to a service economy. |
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Sixteen Tons -
Harold Palmer This inspirational version of the Merle Travis classic is taken from the Palmerhouse album Stand Up Together which was “recorded with every working man and woman in mind, to keep them encouraged and inspired”. |
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Solidarity
Forever - The Whiteville Choir The classic performed by the Whiteville Choir. From the Hard Miles Music album, Union Power. |
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Step
By Step – Bones of Contention Great rock and roll version of this classic labor song. The lyrics are said to be from the preamble to the constitution of an early miners union. |
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Talking Union -
John McCutcheon & Corey Harris A hip-hop version of the 1941 original by Pete Seeger, Millard Lampell and Lee Hays – nevertheless still calling everyone to “Talk it over – speak your mind.” From the Appleseed, The Songs Of Pete Seeger (vol 2) - If I Had A Song. |
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This Is The Time
- Solidarity Rocks This is the time to build our union, to organize, to fight injustice, to mobilize. Written by Frank Romano of the United Steelworkers of America and performed by the Solidarity Rocks Band |
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We Were There -
Pat Humphries This song, written by Bev Grant, is featured on Pat Humphries’ second album Hands published by Appleseed. The song honors the important, but often overlooked, role women have played throughout the history of the labor movement. |
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We Work The Black
Seam - Kim & Reggie Harris In the age of nuclear power the coal miners want to make clear that they “matter more than pounds and pence.” The new Appleseed album Simplicity contains Kim & Reggie Harris” version of this 1985 Sting original. |
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When July Slips
Into June - Pam Parker & Co. The Washingtonian’s album Working Class features a variety of styles, among them this ballad which was written - but never recorded - by Steve Magnuson of the Bones of Contention. |
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Which Side Are You On? - Joe Glazer A traditional folk version of this song written by Florence Reece to the tune of an old Baptist hymn in the 1930s when mining struggles raged in Harlan County, KY. From the Collector Records album, Joe Glazer Sings Labor Songs. |
| To browse our full
catalog of labor music, books and video go to LHF Catalogue |
To find out more
about Labor Heritage Foundation go to LHF Homepage |
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