Carry It On, Songs of America's Working People

by Si Kahn, Jane Sapp, Pete Seeger

Overview

In 1941, on some of his first recordings, 22-year-old Pete Seeger joined with the other members of the Almanac Singers to perform union songs on the album Talking Union and Other Songs. Forty-five years later, a 67-year-old Seeger teamed up with Jane Sapp and Si Kahn to record a new album for Flying Fish Records in the same spirit and even using some of the same songs. Most of the disc was recorded at the studio of Fred Hellerman (like Seeger, a former member of the Weavers) in Connecticut with a small band including Hellerman on synthesizer, Arlen Roth on guitar, and John Miller on bass, accompanying Seeger's banjo and 12-string guitar, Sapp's piano, and Kahn's acoustic guitar. But a few tracks ("Talking Union," "I'm Gonna Be an Engineer," "De Colores," "Joe Hill") come from a live recording of Seeger alone made at the People's Church in Chicago. On those songs, Seeger is his usual song-leader self, interacting with an audience. But the studio tracks, on which he uncharacteristically has to deal with other musicians, are the most interesting. As producer Bruce Kaplan acknowledges in his liner notes, this is not "a smooth record" or "a sophisticated record," and what he means is that the players are more concerned with getting their messages of labor solidarity across than in coming up with cooperative arrangements or doing a lot of takes. It sounds like Kahn, who has a good conversational tenor, and Sapp, with her soulful wail, are, like Seeger, accustomed to performing by themselves, and the backup musicians usually seem to be winging it. But this just gives the album a frisky charm. It's as if a bunch of workers who can sing and play happen to have gotten together to swap union songs. And so they do, chronicling the unfair practices of corporate bosses and the struggles of employees to get fair pay and working conditions. Seeger and the Almanacs made these points nearly a century earlier, and sound perfectly relevant today. ~ William Ruhlmann

Product Details

Release Date:	09/29/1992
Label:	Flying Fish
UPC:	0018964010423

Tracks

1. Step by Step
2. Talking Union
3. Harriet Tubman
4. Bread and Roses
5. I'm Gonna Be an Engineer
6. John Henry
7. Black, Brown and White (Blues)
8. Hurry Hurry Hurry
9. Hayseed Like Me
10. De Colores
11. Carry It On
12. Aragon Mill
13. Union Maid
14. Popular Wobbly
15. Soup Song
16. No Nos Moveran/We Shall Not Be Moved
17. I Am a Union Woman/Which Side Are You On?
18. Joe Hill
19. Somos el Barco
20. He Lies in the American Land
21. Solidarity Forever

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Pete Seeger   Primary Artist,Banjo,Vocals,Guitar (12 String)
Sapp   Primary Artist
Kahn   Primary Artist
Si Kahn   Primary Artist,Guest Artist,Vocals,Guitar (Acoustic)
Flying Fish   Primary Artist
Jane Sapp   Primary Artist,Guest Artist,Piano,Vocals
John Miller   Bass (Electric),Bass
Mike Seeger   Guitar,Vocals,Featured Artist
Arlen Roth   Bass (Electric),Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric)
Fred Hellerman   Synthesizer

Technical Credits

Millard Lampell   Composer
Alfred Hayes   Composer
James Oppenheim   Composer
Andrew Kovaly   Arranger
Traditional   Composer
Si Kahn   Composer,Performer,Liner Notes
Almanac Singers   Composer
Aunt Molly Jackson   Composer
Joan Baez   Composer
Earl Robinson   Composer
Flying Fish   Performer
Florence Reece   Composer
Jane Sapp   Performer
Lorre Wyatt   Composer
Len Chandler   Arranger,Composer
Pete Seeger   Arranger,Composer,Musician,Performer,Transcription
Woody Guthrie   Composer
Gil Turner   Composer
Big Bill Broonzy   Composer
Fred Fisher   Composer
Fred Hellerman   Mixing,Engineer
Walter Robinson   Composer
Lee Hays   Composer
Smokey Robinson   Composer
Peggy Seeger   Composer
Rich Warren   Engineer
Mimi Farina   Composer
Bruce Kaplan   Mixing,Engineer,Producer,Liner Notes
Anthony Hayes   Composer
Lenora Davis   Design,Illustrations
Ralph Chaplin   Composer
M. Taylor   Composer
T-Bone Slim   Composer