The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #9357   Message #60347
Posted By: Sandy Paton
26-Feb-99 - 03:33 AM
Thread Name: Politics and Social Justice Songs
Subject: RE: Politics and Social Justice Songs
"Bread and Roses" is in the DT. It's from the Lawrence textile workers strike before World War I (was it 1912?). Another recent song about the women in the textile mills is Bob Coltman's "Weaver's Reverie," based on some words written by Harriet Farley, a mill girl, in the Lowell Offering, a newspaper published by the mill workers. You can hear the song on For All the Good People, a CD from Folk-Legacy, with Ed Trickett singing the lead and others joining in on the chorus. Great song!

Then you might consider exploring songs by Sarah Ogan Gunning like "Dreadful Memories" and "Girl of Constant Sorrow," songs from the struggle to organize the miners in Kentucky and West Virginia. I assume you are particularly interested in songs by or about women. You'll be getting a lot of fine suggestions from the Mudcatters!

Sandy