42 Brattle St. Cambridge, MA USA
Is folk music political? That's certainly the impression left by the '60s, when folk music and progressive politics seemed to be the twin engines of social change. But is there a longer history of politics in folk music? Follow the trail from 16th-century populist ballads to the coded language of slave spirituals, from the "singing strikes" of the labor movement to the songwriters of today, in a quest to discover what binds politics to folk music. Find out how social movements used folk songs; how Ben Franklin became the Woody Guthrie of Colonial Boston; the lessons Woody Guthrie learned from traditional music; and how women used ballads to protest their social condition. Scott mixes live and archival music with colorful stories, and reflections from our greatest political singers.
