January 24, 2020

Hot Blast: Contemporary Songs Written and Sung by Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl

Folkways Records FW 8710

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
Country: US
Released: 1978
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
A1 Blast Against Blackguards (4:09)
A2 The Tenant Farmer (3:35)
A3 The Pay-Up Song (5:01)
A4 Emily (5:38)
A5 Cut Price Hero (3:15)
A6 You And I (3:05)
A7 Legal Illegal (4:13)
B1 The Invader (5:27)
B2 The Father's Song (2:23)
B3 White Wind (18:37)
[Credits]
Peggy Seeger (concertina/guitar/vocals) Ewan MacColl (vocals) Bruce Turner (clarinet) Calum MacColl (guitar/psaltery/dulcimer/bongos/tin whistle/kalimba/backing vocals) Neil MacColl (guitar/mandolin/backing vocals) Jim Carroll, Kirsty MacColl, Pat MacKenzie (backing vocals)
Photographer: Walker Evans, Designer: Ronald Clyne, Engineer: Stephen Hardy
[Notes]
Political themes run powerfully through this 1978 recording, written and performed by husband and wife Ewan MacColl (1915–1989) and Peggy Seeger (b. 1935). Songs cover apartheid, domestic abuse, and worker's rights. MacColl and Seeger point out that writing and singing political songs is an age-old tradition, and they hope that the songs on this album will be useful weapons in the arsenal of those who are "against the brutal exploitation of the working-class, against the senseless waste of human and natural resources and against the pernicious disease of racism." Liner notes include song lyrics for each of the tracks.

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