"Folksongs are dangerous" - Lee Hays I grew up in New York City, discovered folksongs in my teens through The Weavers and Pete Seeger concerts and inhabited Greenwich Village in the early 60s. As a student in southern Ohio I was drawn to authentic Old Time sources, started a folk song club, ran weekly “hoots,” formed a trio and played my first gigs. Summers saw me back at Village magnets like Folk City and The Bitter End, meeting and playing with rising singers and writers at gigs and festivals. Mioving to England, I resisted the Vietnam War, joined Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger’s Critics Group, sang, wrote, acted, and toured. In 1973 I formed Combine Theatre with other Group members, writing and performing topical songs and plays. Burning the candle at both ends, it was urban planning and historic conservation by day, clubs and concerts by night- until family duties brought new priorities. Nearly everything on this 1979 album is real performance, not layered tracks and engineering. After my first child was born I gradually stopped touring but didn’t forget the songs. Some of my songs got taken up and recorded by others, notably “If They Come in the Morning,” aka “No Time for Love” by Christy Moore. Now my family’s grown and I’m back, performing, writing and working on the next album. Was that the Golden Age of folk? I like to think there’s more depth to it now, less commercial nonsense. Me? I’m still looking to present unflinching, passionate, uplifting, thrilling, sometimes angry songs about real people fighting injustice, real stories, songs with staying power. Technology may capture every sound ever made, but nothing beats real sessions with friends and soul mates. I’ve been lucky enough to meet and learn from some of the great legends in folkdom, some now gone. I owe them. Song notes East Virginia Blues (trad.)Jack- vocal, banjo The Weavers, whose singing and struggle against the McCarthy Blacklist were my earliest inspiration, sang a softer version of this in the 50s, similar to the Carter Family’s. Mine comes from the singing and elegant picking of Clarence Ashley who I had the pleasure of meeting in 1966. Black Jack Davy (Trad.) Jack-vocal, autoharp; Sandra, guitar, Robin, fiddle A trans-Atlantic version of "The Gypsy Laddie," from Scotland, but probably much older. Learned from the singing of Frank Proffitt. Ballad of John Henry (Trad.) Jack-vocal, banjo The American epic ballad, telling of the digging of the Big Bend Tunnel of the C&O Railroad in 1879, one of the great engineering feats of its day. It brings to life the clash of the newly invented steam drill against muscle and bone. The text is assembled from several versions to make the complete story, with a Bluegrass influence, echoing the rhythm and imagery. “A man ain’t nothin’ but a man.” says it all. The Little Carpenter (Trad.)Jack - vocal, guitar A Texas song, learned from Mike Seeger, in the early days of the New Lost City Ramblers, 1960s Jesus and Jesse (Brian Moore) Jack, vocal, banjo; Robin, fiddle; Sandra, guitar A zany 1960s commentary on the Troubles of the North of Ireland, Learned from Belfast group, People of No Property. Joe Hill's Last Will (Hill) Jack, unacc. Joe penned the words in his cell the night before he was executed by a Utah firing squad in 1915. His last words were "Don't mourn for me- organise - Ready, Aim, Fire!" Casey Jones the Scab (Hill) Jack- vocal, banjo; Robin, fiddle; Bob, bass One of the many parodies with the "common touch " for which Joe Hill is best known, it enlists St Peter and the Angels on the Union side! Bo Lamkins (Trad.) Jack-vocal, unacc. A very bloody ballad about a stonemason whose client refuses to pay for the castle Lamkins has built. Lamkins then seeks a terrible revenge. I compiled the text from several sources. Vanzetti's Letter (Guthrie) Jack- vocal, guitar; Sandra, guitar Seldom performed, I count this among Woody's best crafted songs, up there with "This Land is Your Land,” and "Plane Crash at Los Gatos." In 1951 Moe Asch, founder of Folkways Records commissioned Woody to tell the story of Italian anarchists Nicolo Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in song. Vanzetti's beautiful English prose, written from his death cell, lent itself superbly to adaptation as lyrics. If They Come in the Morning (Warshaw) Jack, vocal, guitar; Sandra, concertina, chorus; Bob, bass The title is from the book by black radical Angela Davis, expressing solidarity with political prisoners and those who fight injustice. Retitled “No Time for Love,” it’s become an Irish and international anthem. Old Boney (Trad.) Jack, vocal, guitar Enemies of England, especially Bonaparte were often given hero or martyr status by the oppressed Irish, who took the song to America. “Louisey” in the song is Princess Marie Louise of Austria. Boney’s second wife bore a son, Francois Charles Joseph, who was made King of Rome. Learned from Frank Warner. Long Time Gone (Warshaw) Jack, vocal, lead guitar; Sandra, guitar; Bob, bass The title song is about my homecoming after 12 years of political exile for Vietnam war resistance and support for numerous liberation movements. In the song, I find my oldest friend and song mate, scars and old differences are bared but after all, survival, friendship, and freedom are celebrated. We Will Fight (Warshaw) Jack, vocal, lead guitar; Sandra, vocal and guitar; Manuela ,2d guitar, drum; All, chorus The Chilean coup in 1973 soon got me singing benefits for Chilean exiles in Britain, supporting some of the warmest people and most talented musicians I ever met. Manuela Jara, daughter of Victor, provides the strong Latin rhythm for the song, written in solidarity and support for their liberation. See it Come Down (The Developers) (John Pole) Jack, vocal, guitar; Sandra ,guitar; Bob, bass John’s song about London “slum clearance” and exploitation by big developers appeals to me as a building conservationist. I’ve married it with an urban blues treatment. Red Lion Square (Warshaw) Jack, vocal, guitar The death of a young Anti-Fascist demonstrator at the place where William Morris and other radicals held meetings nearly a century earlier inspired this reflection on the events of the 1936 Battle of Cable Street, when Oswald Mosley’s blackshirts, with police help failed to stop an anti-Nazi march. Hold the Line Again (The Grunwick Strike) (Warshaw) Jack, vocal, lead guitar; Sandra, guitar, Bob, bass, all chorus Written for a post-strike celebration for “strikers in saris with dots on their heads” whose struggle became a landmark, echoing older union songs. The 2 year strike was sold out by the Trades Union Congress led by Len Murray. Jayaben Desai who led the strikers died in December 2010. Pentonville and Saltley were previous picketing successes. The story, like everything else is on the internet now. The Grape Pickers (Warshaw) Jack, vocal, 2nd voice lead guitar; Sandra, guitar A modern Grapes of Wrath tale, written in 1966 about Mexican migrants, exploited by California growers. Cesar Chavaz was organising pickers and meeting the resistance from business and politicians that Woody Guthrie had experienced 35 years earlier, I wanted the song to help the pickers’ campaign.