Lots of new stuff on socially significant music!

Posted by rflacks on: Mon 30th Jul, 2012

What with the Woody Guthrie centenary and the general course of human
events a load of material is out there for people interested in the connections
between music and social change.

Woody stuff:

First of all, I’d like you to know that you can access the three hours of my radio show, CULTURE OF
PROTEST, that we broadcast in July to commemorate Woody @ 100. Follow the below
links

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/91897409/01%20woody%20at%20100%20part%20I_%20American%20rad.m4a (part I)

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/91897409/woody%20%40%20100%207-19-12.mp3
Part II hour 1

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/91897409/woody%20%40100%207-19-12%20part%20II..mp3%20%28audio-mpeg%20Object%29.mp3
part II hour 2

If you want to be regularly
informed about archived recordings of Culture of Protest because you can’t tune
in at the regular streaming time (6 Pm PDT www.kcsb.org)
please respond to this email telling me of your interest!

Rob Rosenthal and I wrote a
book: PLAYING FOR CHANGE: MUSIC AND MUSICIANS IN THE SERVICE OF SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS. It’s about to be available in paperback and you might well enjoy it since it features
interview materials with politically conscious troubadours and a lot of insight
about how and if and when music makes a difference. Go here
to order it.

And Rob and son Sam are editors of a very exciting new book compiling a
treasury of Pete Seeger’s published and unpublished writings—articles, letters,
memos that span his entire life and his many sides. Its: Pete
Seeger: His Life in His Own Words. Also published by Paradigm Press. Pete
wilkl be on Steven Colbert show Monday August 6 and this book will be featured!

Paradigm is about to come out with a similar compilation of Woody
Guthrie stuff: Woody's
Road: Woody Guthrie's Letters Home, Drawings, Photos, and Other Unburied
Treasures—Woody’s sister Mary Jo had a hand in putting this together.

And that’s just one of many new and reissued Woody @ 100 things:

In addition to the two classic bios of Woody Guthrie (both invaluable)
by Joe Klein (Woody
Guthrie : A life:) and Ed Cray (Ramblin
Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie) newly reissued for the
centennial, here’s a spate of very good new books:

My
Name is New York: Ramblin' Around Woody Guthrie's Town. Woody’s daughter
Nora has just released an incredibly fascinating little book with pictures and material about
every address that Woody spent time at during his New York years. It’s revealing about his art, and about that
time in the City.

This
Land Is Your Land: Woody Guthrie and the Journey of an American Folk Song
by Robert Santelli is the detailed story of the making and the impact of that
song. Another illumination of the interrelation between Woody and America.

Woody
Guthrie, American Radical by Will Kaufman is a nice contrast with the
above, emphasizing the harder edges of
Woody’s radicalism, revealed in his writings, published and not.

Woody
Guthrie: Writing America's Songs, Ron Cohen’s new short bio with some
interesting documents—a work that emphasizes Woody’s role in the folk music
revival.

Tags: woody guthrie, pete seeger, music and politics

About

Dick Flacks here...sociology professor emeritus at UCSB. Budget cuts mean that I can't continue my annual course on political sociology. Maybe a blog will be a space for me to continue to ruminate and pontificate. And maybe (as a veteran teacher on these matters) I can offer some ways of thinking about what's happening nationally and locally that will be useful, as we struggle to make sense of the tortured complexities of these times. I've been a leftwing activist for more than 50 years. What we've been struggling for all these years is full democracy--to increase the opportunities for people to have real voice in the decisions that affect them. Step by step over these years we've made some gain...but it is a long march, and one that never ends. The big barrier to democracy in our society is the concentrated power of corporations. At the same time, democracy is undermined by the felt powerlessness of people in their daily lives--the persistent belief that our problems are only our own personal concern. It's a strong cultural theme--such individualism--constantlly reinforced by mass media and everyday circumstance. But the current big crisis of the economy maybe makes it more possible for more people to understand that we've got to have social reform and economic reform. So my writing here is aimed at helping us figure out what to think and act on that so that we can hope for new democratic possibilities. WE'll be talking about the local and the national. The blog name comes from an old labor union hymn: Step by step the longest march can be won. Many stones can form an arch...singly none. And by union what we will can be accomplished still. Drops of water turn a mill, singly none, singly none. For 27 years I've had a weekly radio show on KCSB (91.9 fm. www.kcsb.org) It's called the Culture of Protest. It's comes from my fascination with music and social movements. I collect 'political' and 'protest' music and that's what we play each week (Thursdays 6-7 pm). So sometimes here we'll share and talk about that. I'm worried about one thing about the blogosphere. And that's the way that some people use the blog comment space for anonymous nastiness. I'm sick of the kind of political blather that assaults the motives of others, and sees dark conspiracy behind every thing one doesn't like. This kind of stuff is helping to poison the political atmosphere. So I'm going to strive for a civil tone to whatever interaction may happen on this blogsite.