Headlines & Footnotes: Collection of Topical Songs
The broadsides found on Folkways' second collection of Pete Seeger topical tunes are less broad than those found on its predecessor,If I Had a Hammer: Songs of Hope & Struggle. Where the earlier collection was laden with sweeping civil rights, labor, and antiwar songs,Headlines & Footnotes' selections are often drawn from specific events. "The Titanic" is a 1957 recording of the famed ode to the great ship.Woody Guthrie's "The Sinking of the Reuben James" was inspired by the sinking of a U.S. destroyer by the Nazis. "The Battle of Maxton Field" chronicles a confrontation between Klansmen and Native Americans. The generously annotated 23-song anthology contains a number of Seeger standards, including "Little Boxes," "The Bells of Rhymney," "Guantanamera," and "Wimoweh." Folkways controls a vast store of Seeger recordings made between the '40s and '70s.Headlines & Footnotesindicates they're in good hands.--Steven Stolder