$14.95 | 96 Pages
ISBN 9781629637020
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Edited by Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore
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Save 50% with coupon code AUGUST until 8/31
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Working-Class Heroes is an organic melding of history, music, and politics that demonstrates with remarkably colorful evidence that workers everywhere will struggle to improve their conditions of life. And among them will be workers who share an insight: in order to better our lot, we must act collectively to change the world. This profusely illustrated treasury of song sheets, lyrics, photographs, histories, and biographical sketches explores the notion that our best hope lies in the capacity of ordinary working people to awaken to the need to emancipate ourselves and all of humanity.
Featuring over a dozen songwriters, from Joe Hill to Aunt Molly Jackson, Working-Class Heroes delivers a lyrical death blow to the falsehood that so-called political songs of the twentieth century were all written by intellectuals in New York. Many, like Ella May Wiggins, were murdered by the bosses. Others, like Sarah Ogan Gunning, watched their children starve to death and their husbands die of black lung, only to rise up singing against the system that caused so much misery.
Most of the songs collected here are from the early twentieth century, yet their striking relevance to current affairs invites us to explore the historical conditions that inspired their creation: systemic crisis, advancing fascism, and the threat of world war. In the face of violent terror, these working-class songwriters bravely stood up to fight oppression. Such courage is immortal, and the songs of such heroes can still lift our spirits, if we sing them today.
Featured in this twenty-song collection are Sarah Ogan Gunning, Ralph Chaplin, Woody Guthrie, Ella May Wiggins, Joe Hill, Paul Robeson, John Handcox, Aunt Molly Jackson, Jim Garland, Alfred Hayes, Joseph Brandon, and several anonymous proletarian songwriters whose names have been long forgotten, though their words will never die.
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"This is one of the most captivating, intimate, no-holds-barred books of working-class history I have ever read. And it's a songbook, too!"
“The world needs more thinkers like Mat Callahan.”
—Jared Soper, SLUG magazine
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Mat Callahan is a musician and author originally from San Francisco. Recent projects include the republication of Songs of Freedom by Irish revolutionary James Connolly, the recording and publication of Working-Class Heroes, and the launch of the multimedia project Songs of Slavery and Emancipation. He is the author of five books including, in 2017, The Explosion of Deferred Dreams (PM Press) and A Critical Guide to Intellectual Property (Zed Books). Callahan can be reached at www.matcallahan.com.
Yvonne Moore is a singer and bandleader originally from Schaffhausen. In addition to recording numerous albums of her own music, Moore is cofounder and treasurer of the Art in History and Politics Association, whose purpose is to discover, publish, and popularize music, graphic art, and texts created by participants in conflicts such as the struggle to abolish slavery. Her exploration of the songs of Sarah Ogan Gunning led to the making of Working-Class Heroes. Moore can be reached at www.matandyvonne.com.
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Save 50% with coupon code AUGUST until 8/31
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Related titles also available for 50% off! Use coupon code AUGUST until 8/31
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Songs of Freedom: The James Connolly Songbook
By James Connolly
Edited by Mat Callahan with a Preface by Theo Dorgan and a Foreword by James Connolly Heron
Songs of Freedom is a celebration of the life and work of James Connolly, the Irish revolutionary socialist. It is at once a collection of stirring revolutionary songs and a vital history.
Regular price: $12.95
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Elizabeth Morgan
Seventy-seven songs, with words and sheet music, of solidarity, revolt, humor, and revolution. Compiled from several generations in America, and from around the world.
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Mat Callahan
The Explosion of Deferred Dreams offers a critical re-examination of the interwoven political and musical happenings in San Francisco in the Sixties.
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Songs of Freedom (CD)
The James Connolly Songs of Freedom Band
Far from the archival preservation of embalmed corpses, the inspired performance of a rocking band turns the timeless lyrics of James Connolly into timely manifestos for today’s young rebels.
Regular price: $14.95
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Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore
This is the story of Working-Class Heroes, a collection of American working-class, pre–World War II folk songs revived by Mat Callahan & Yvonne Moore. Here the duo presents 20 songs written by both by folk canon heavyweights and lesser-known but equally gifted songwriters .
Regular price: $14.95
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The Big Red Songbook: 250+ IWW Songs!
Editors: Archie Green, David Roediger, Franklin Rosemont, and Salvatore Salerno Foreword by Tom Morello
Afterword by Utah Phillips
Labor songs, rare artwork, personal recollections, discographies, and more into one big all-embracing book.
Regular price: $29.95
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Use coupon code AUGUST until 8/31 and save 50%
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