Sidedoor: Sing a song of protest
Barbara Dane refused to compromise her principles in order to achieve mainstream success. Instead, she gave lasting voice to generations protesting for social change.
As an up-and-coming young blues singer in the 1950s, Barbara Dane faced a choice: fame and fortune, or her activist principles. Rather than compromise, she left the mainstream music industry and became a revolutionary music producer—literally. Spurred by an international gathering of protest singers in Fidel Castro’s Cuba, Dane created a record label that published the sounds of social change around the world, and inspired protest music for generations to come.
Listen now to her story and her music.
Interested in learning more?
Check out this video based on the documentary film, “Barbara Dane: On My Way,”—directed by Maureen Gosling and courtesy of the Barbara Dane Legacy Project.
Dane’s career-spanning two-disc retrospective Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting songs is available in CD and digital from Smithsonian Folkways at:
https://folkways.si.edu/barbara-dane/hot-jazz-cool-blues-and-hard-hitting-songs