The music of the Southern churches has always been intertwined with the fight for rights and freedoms in our country and across the world, too. We’ll listen to some selections from Mavis Staples, The Golden Gate Quartet, Bernice Johnson Reagon, The McIntosh County Shouters and many more. Freedom is in the air … this week on The Sing Out! Radio Magazine.

LISTEN:

Artist/”Song”/CD/Label

Pete Seeger / “If I Had A Hammer” (excerpt) / Songs of Hope and Struggle / Smithsonian
              Folkways
Matt “Guitar” Murphy / “Matt’s Guitar Boogie #2” / Way Down South / Antones
Taj Mahal / “Diving Duck Blues” / The Real Thing / Columbia
Mavis Staples / “I’ll Take You There” / I’ll Take You There / Blackbird

Golden Gate Quartet / “Golden Gate Gospel Train” / Travelin’ Shoes / RCA Bluebird
Washington Phillips / “I’ve Got the Key to the Kingdom” / The Key to the Kingdom / Yazoo
Roy Wilkins / “Speech” / Pioneers in Protest-Dr Martin Luther King, Jr Vol.II / Goldwax
Morehouse Glee Club / “I’m Building Me a Home” / Pioneers in Protest-Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. / Goldwax
Bernice Johnson Reagon / “Freedom in the Air” / Give Your Hands to Struggle / Smithsonian-Folkways
Matt “Guitar” Murphy / “Thump Tyne” / Way Down South / Antones

The Clara Ward Singers / “Meetin’ Tonight-This Little Light of Mine” / Meetin’ Tonight / Vanguard
Billie Holliday / “Strange Fruit” / Protest! / Viper
Champion Jack Dupree / “I’m Going to Write the Governor of Georgia” / Classic Protest Songs
              / Smithsonian Folkways
Fannie Lou Hamer / “Woke Up this Morning” / Songs My Mother Taught Me / Smithsonian Folkways
The McIntosh County Shouters / “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit” / Spirituals and Shout Songs
              from the Georgia Coast / Smithsonian Folkways
Sonny Treadway / “Amazing Grace” / Sacred Steel / Arhoolie
Pete Seeger / “If I Had A Hammer” (excerpt) / Songs of Hope and Struggle / Smithsonian
              Folkways