Scott Alarik

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 what do the old songs tell us? Is there a longer history of politics in folk music? With a lively mix of live and archival music, Alarik unlocks the secrets in the songs, follwing the trail from16th-century populist ballads to the coded language of slave spirituals, the “singing strikes” of the labor movement to the songwriters of today. What binds politics to folk music? Is it stitched within the most ancient fabric of folk tradition – or is it a product of the modern imagination?