Old Protest Musicians Singing Again... Generated by Firefly Adobe. When I was a young person, a boarder in a Catholic convent school, I thrilled to the "hootenanny" events staged by the nearby boys' high school. A young man named Jim Jutras would sit down at the piano in the large auditorium and lead us in a vigorous singalong of pieces made popular by the Limelighters (the Hammer Song ) and the Medical Mission Sisters ( Long Road to Freedom ). We also sang Dylan's Blowin' In the Wind and other like songs that gave us deep sentimental stirrings about the wickedness of War and racial inequality. The "folk" protest music tradition has long been a powerful force for social change, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s. Artists like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Phil Ochs turned music into a vehicle for activism, addressing issues like civil rights, war, and government corruption. Their songs weren’t just entertainment—they were rallying cries. Dylan’s Blowin’ in...
Living the Green Life