FREEDOM ROAD
Created on 11/06/2024Latest update on 11/06/2024
Artist: Josh White
Author: Emerson Harper/Langston Hughes
Label: Asch/Folkways
Year: 1944
Langston Hughes lyrics (I'm Marching Down Freedom Road) encouraged Afro-American soldiers to go fighting against the nazi's. Josh's brother Bill was in the army then. Reissued on Smithsonian/Folkways cd Free And Equal Blues.
Covers:
- 2022:
Indra Rios-Moore [altering "gun" for "ballot" in the lyrics, while the Voting Rights Act ('65) was under serious threat, the American Senate put the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act ('21) on hold and GOP governors tried to re-design the contours of voting districts in their benefit where possible]
"Ought to be plain as the nose on your face/There's room in this land for every race/Some folks think that freedom just ain't right/Those are the people I want to fight". Josh White was blacklisted following the McCarty Un-American Activities hearings.
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- ONE MEAT BALL
Covers from artist:
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- HALLELU
- 1933
- MOTHER'S CHILDREN (HAVE A HARD TIME)
- 1933
- JESUS MAKE UP MY DYIN' BED
- 1933
- GOING AROUND THE WORLD
- 1934
- MEAN MISTREATER MAMA
- 1934
- EVERYBODY'S DOWN ON ME
- 1935
- MILK COW BLUES
- 1935
- WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN
- 1935
- I'VE GOT A HOME IN THAT ROCK
- 1940
- CARELESS LOVE
- 1942
- JOHN HENRY BLUES
- 1942
- HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN, THE
- 1944
- WE GONNA MOVE TO THE OUTSKIRTS OF TOWN
- 1944
- BACK WATER BLUES
- 1944
- DUPREE BLUES
- 1944
- STRANGE FRUIT
- 1944
- I GAVE MY LOVE A CHERRY
- 1944
- T.B. BLUES
- 1944
- EVIL-HEARTED ME
- 1944
- DINK'S SONG
- 1945
- JELLY JELLY
- 1945
- NOBODY KNOWS YOU WHEN YOU'RE DOWN AND OUT
- 1945
- DID YOU EVER LOVE A WOMAN
- 1945
- HOUSE I LIVE IN, THE
- 1946
- MISS OTIS REGRETS
- 1946
- ST. JAMES INFIRMARY
- 1947
- IN DUBLIN'S FAIR CITY
- 1947
- LORD RANDALL
- 1951
- BARBARA ALLEN
- 1952
- CRUCIFIXION, THE
- 1955
- ONE MORE ROUNDER GONE
- 1955
- ETHAN LANG
- 1955
- I'M GOING TO LIVE THE LIFE I SING ABOUT (IN MY SONG)
- 1956
- COTTON EYED JOE
- 1956
- JOSHUA FOUGHT THE BATTLE OF JERICHO
- 1956
- GO 'WAY FROM MY WINDOW
- 1956
- JERRY (LORD DIS TIMBER GOT TO ROLL)
- 1957
- PRISON BOUND BLUES
- 1957
- ON THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL
- 1958
- DON'T SMOKE IN BED
- 1960
- EMPTY BED BLUES
- 1963
- TIE-TAMPING CHANT
- 1964
- SHENANDOAH (ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI)
- 1965
- OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL CITY
- 1965
- 500 MILES
- 1968
- WORLD I USED TO KNOW, The
- 1969
- APPLES, PEACHES AND CHERRIES
