![]() The sixty songs are divided into three cd’s, The House I Live In, Patriotic Diggers and We Shall Be Free. Bank crashes, miscarriages of justices, the rise of fascism, threat of atomic bombs, strikes, destitute farmers and hungry workers are all here against a backdrop of blues, country, hillbilly yodelling, banjo picking and hootenannies. ![]() Whereas the latter concentrated on union and labour songs, The New York scene broadened the catalogue of protest songs to reflect the changing times and politics. People who were amongst folk singers and left wing intellectuals and who recognised the subversive power of the song and were themselves personally inspired by the IWW’s Little Red Book. Compiler Russell Beecher acknowledges the path beaten by Joe Hill but instead turns his focus to both the blues men of Chicago and the New York folk scene of the 1940’s and those who gravitated there, most notably, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly. There’s no Internationale, no Red Flag and no Solidarity Forever. In the folk tradition, the box set borrows the subtitle – To Fan the Flames of Discontent but this is where the similarity ends and the legacy is picked up. The book was a source of inspiration to many of the artists in this box set. ![]() Paying tribute to the Industrial Workers Of The World (or the Wobblie’s as they affectionately became known) publication, The Little Red Song Book. The best songs here – Leadbelly’s The Bourgeois Blues, Josh White’s Jim Crow Train, Brownie McGhee’s Black, Brown and White – are superb, but even the ones with less artistic value are historically significant. The 60 tracks are mostly circa the Second World War – more than 60 years old, but all worth preserving and hearing. The usual suspects – Woody, Pete, Leadbelly, Josh White – are all present and politically correct (or not, depending on your ideological viewpoint!). Featuring classic performances by Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Josh White, Leadbelly, The Almanac Singers, The Weavers and many many more. A three CD box-set full of the finest protest folk music from the USA of the early 20th century. Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first American protest song book, ‘The Little Red Song Book’ this collection traces the roots of protest song in the US from the first half of the last century up to the Fifties illustrating how the stage was set for the folk protest giants of the Sixties such as Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs. ![]() ![]() The Little Red Box Of Protest Songs is a truly outstanding release. ![]()
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