Well May the World Go
Larry Long
Smithsonian Folkways Records
2000
12 tracks
Telling the stories of hard-working people in a way that highlights the courage, deep personal experiences, and heroism found in their lives is a tradition for which Woody Guthrie is famous and which Larry Long continues in this new release. Eclectic and richly orchestrated, Well May the World Go reflects the complexity of the human experience in the world today. [from the cover of Well May the World Go] |
Although Well May the World Go is Larry Long's seventh CD release, this is the first time I have heard him. That's my loss and the loss of anyone who has not yet heard this man's work.
This is special. This is very special. However much I may say about Larry Long and Well May the World Go, it can't adequately express how truly impressed I am. Larry Long may well turn out to be his generation's most important writer and performer of folk songs.
That Long has the whole-hearted endorsement of Smithsonian Folkways, that most venerable institution of American music, is not surprising. While Long takes a very contemporary approach to the mechanics of presentation, he brings to his words and music a humanity and rootedness that reaches deep into the past and brings forward what still matters.
Smithsonian Folkways curator Anthony Seeger, in his introduction to the 36 page booklet that accompanies this release, places Long in a tradition of American Folk Music that includes Phil Ochs, Malvina Reynolds, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and others. Long's are songs that tell stories of the people, music that cares, and music with a definite activist bent. At the same time, long's lyrics stand up well as literary works and his melodies are wonderful to hear for their own sake.
With this release, as I listen to each song it becomes my favourite... until the next. I am, however, especially taken by the title song, which integrates an interview with Pete Seeger (at 76 years of age) and with "Some Things Are Not for Sale," which incorporates native drummers and singers. This is part of the charm of Long's music, that he tells real stories of real people and that he involves some very fine musicians from different cultures in his work.
In fact, Well May the World Go features eighteen individual musicians and musical groups from around the world. These artists' input gives the songs much of their flavour and adds to their intrinsic strength. At the same time, Long's use of these elements in his recording never sounds forced or is intrusive.
As an activist must be, Long appears to be more than a little of the romantic, and this translates very nicely into the two love songs on this release, "Ramona" and "Sweet Lura Rose." Both paint beautiful, poetic pictures of the women they are about.
As an activist and folklorist, Long celebrates individuals he has met in his journey, writing and performing songs that tell their stories. A bonus with this release is that the jewel-box insert is a 36 page booklet packed with information. In his notes on the songs, Longs includes excerpts from his interviews with people whose lives his lyrics reflect as well as stories about his souces for the songs. The CD is worth having just for these stories of common humanity in the last century.
The lyrics which tell these stories are dense and evocative. There is a visual feel to them a feel almost of video, of the newsreels which miss this part of the story. This is political, strident and aggressive but a cry for more humanity from us and our institutions. If nothing else, these songs are honest.
It surprises me that Larry Long is not better known, not just in the world of folk music but in the world at large. In my humble opinion -- and the talent and dedication of this artist certainly does humble me -- this release should be getting airplay on every radio station in North America. It says something we all need to hear.
To learn more about Larry Long and his music, visit LarryLong.org.
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