"These songs are a gift of the people of Washington who shared their stories with me during Washington's Centennial year celebration, 1989. During that year I traveled the state under the sponsorship of the Washington Centennial Commission as the state's Resident Songwriter. I gathered songs and stories (published in Washington Songs And Lore). My family and I visited loggers, a cowboy poet-rancher, members of the Lummi tribe, Hutterites, Wobblies and farmworker families. By the end of the Centennial year, I had written nineteen new songs. Chris Lunn, that magician and guru of northwest musicians, suggested that Victory Music and I collaborate on a recording of these songs. I had the great good fortune to find Cary Black and David Lange to be my coworkers on the project and here we are. I can only say that I never knew how good some of these songs could be until I heard them performed by Victory musicians. The artists have truly claimed them as their own, and the collaboration has produced a collection of distinctly Northwest songs from the heart of Washington. May they keep alive the stories of our people." Linda Allen "In the best folk music tradition, Allen has unearthed the stories not found in history books - stories of ordinary people, minorities, the disadvantaged and the victims of progress... vividly helping to define the region, these songs themselves are apt to become part of Washington's history." - Sing Out! Magazine "As much a scholar as a musical wonder... stories, strange and moving tales of labor battles and Indian troubles and legislative injustices... history transformed into a series of beautiful ballads so lovingly rendered by her and her colleagues at Victory Music that they defy description." - Jim Kelton - Everett Herald