Freedom Highway follows the long tradition of music as an expression of struggle and solidarity. In all movements for justice, from the enslaved struggling for emancipation, to the employed struggling against exploitation, songs emerge as a means of building strength in the face of power. Each week we follow these songs across borders of race, class, gender and geography with an hour of politically potent music and conversation exploring connections between these histories and the present day.

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Neither Just Nor Wise

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Songs Of Slavery and Emancipation is a multimedia project presenting recently discovered songs composed by enslaved people and explicitly calling for resistance to slavery. The book, CD and documentary film come out Friday June 17, and we hear from Mat Callahan who spearheaded the project. He tells about the origins of these songs, the process of researching them and the significance of publishing them now in some cases for the first time in centuries.  Recognition March of the Independence of Hayti | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022March On | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022The Negro’s Complaint | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022Nat Turner | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022Children, We All Shall Be Free | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022Hymn of Freedom | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022Uncle Gabriel The Negro General | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022Song of the “Aliened American” | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022The Band of Thieves | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022

Strike Sweet Freedom’s Song

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The Poor Shall Wear The Crown

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This Kind of Thing Still Lives Today

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Much Concerned But Not Involved

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Class War, Last War

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Rakel Stammer joins to discuss the egregious breach of freedom that would be the outlawing of an individuals choice whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term, in the wake of the newly leaked Supreme Court document indicating an imminent decision as such. In between conversation we listen to several songs emerging from the long fight for bodily autonomy in the form of access to abortion in the 20th century. La Femme Fatale | Digable Planets | Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time And Space) | 1993Abortion is illegal (The Ballad of Paragraph 218) | Sylvia Anders, D. Justus Noll | There’s Nothing Quite Like Money | 2000Abort The System | Poison Girls | Songs of Praise | 1985Abortion Song | New Haven Women’s Liberation Rock Band | Mountain Moving Day | 1972Back Alley Surgery | Malvina Reynolds | Mama Lion | 1980

It Has Always Been Around

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To mark his centennial we spend the hour listening to the politically engaged music of Charles Mingus, the seminal jazz composer and bass player born April 22, 1922. Never shy to express his convictions, Mingus would often speak to contemporary political issues including war and racism, with commentary in song titles as well as recitations or lyrics within his songs. Original Faubus Fables | Charles Mingus | Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus | 1960Don’t Let It Happen Here | Charles Mingus | Music Written For Monterey 1965 (Not Heard... Played in its Entirety, at UCLA) | 1966It Was A Lonely Day in Selma, Alabama - Freedom | Mingus Big Band | Blues &amp; Politics | 1999Freedom - Pt.1 | Charles Mingus | The Complete Town Hall Concert | 1962 Oh Lord Don’t Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me | Charles Mingus | Oh Yeah | 1962

I Wonder About This Freedom

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Coming off last week&#39;s episode where we heard Paul Robeson&#39;s first commercial recording from 1947 of the song No More Auction Block, we trace the evolution of this song from it&#39;s likely 19th century composition by black workers held in slavery, to it&#39;s many interpretations in the mid and late 20th century, as well as it&#39;s melodic offspring in the form of well known songs We Shall Overcome and Blowin&#39; In The Wind.No More Auction Block | Paul Robeson | 1952No More Auction Block For Me | Odetta | At Carnegie Hall | 1960No More Auction Block For Me - William Riley, 1943 | Helen Creighton | Sankofa Songs, A Legacy of Roots and Rhythm: African Nova Scotian Songs From The Collection Of Dr. Helen Creighton | 2019No More Auction Block For Me | Alan Mills | O’ Canada: A History in Song | 1956No More Auction Block For Me | Sweet Honey In The Rock | Songs of the Civil War | 1991No More Auction Block | Pete Seeger | America’s Favorite Ballads - Vol. IV | 1961No More Auction Block - Live at the Gaslight Cafe, New York, NY - October, 1962 | Bob Dylan | The Bootleg Series, Vol. 1-3 | 1991Blowin’ In The Wind | Bob Dylan | The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan | 1963We Shall Overcome | Sing Out! Hootenanny | 1963 (recorded between 1950-1955)We Will Overcome | Texas Bill Strength | 1952No More, No More | Richie Havens | Live at the Cellar Door and at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium | 1972

Many Thousand Gone

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Paul Robeson was a widely celebrated singer (among many other vocations) and a fiercely outspoken revolutionary. Born April 9, 1898 in Princeton, NJ, the son of a formerly enslaved man, Robeson understood the connections between racial discrimination and labor exploitation. His commitment to using his public life in the struggle against racism and capitalism brought significant personal consequences, facing violence from the KKK, political persecution from the House Un-American Activities Committee, and the revocation of his passport for a number of years. We learn about his sustained commitment in the face of resistance, in between recordings of his extraordinary voice. No More Auction Block | Paul Robeson | 1947Spring Song | Paul Robeson | 1941The Peat-Bog Soldiers | Paul Robeson | 1942Joe Hill | Paul Robeson | 1942My Thirty Thousand | Billy Bragg, Wilco | Mermaid Avenue Vol. III | 2012Scandalize My Name | Paul Robeson | 1959

Alive As You or Me

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In 1973 Lavender Country crowdsourced funding to make the first known openly gay country music album. Now nearly 50 years later Lavender Country is bringing their brand new follow-up record on tour, with a nearby show <a href="http://www.theegremontbarn.com/events/2022/4/8/the-round-up-featuring-lavender-country-paisley-fields-and-more" rel="nofollow">Friday April 9 at the Egremont Barn</a>. We listen to selections from an interview with Lavender Country founder Patrick Haggerty originally aired in 2018, where he speaks about using music to communicate connections between the struggle for gay liberation and wider revolutionary movements. Cryin’ These Cocksucking Tears | Lavender Country | Lavender Country | 1973Waltzing Will Trilogy | Lavender Country | Lavender Country | 1973Straight White Patterns | Lavender Country | Lavender Country | 1973 Clara Frazer, Clara Frazer | Lavender Country | Blackberry Rose | 2022Workers - Get Ready | Progressive Labor Party | Power To The Working Class | 1971Roll The Union On | The Song Swappers | Talking Union and Other Union Songs | 1941There Is Power In A Union | Billy Bragg | Talking With The Taxman About Poetry | 1986Roll The Union On | John Handcox

Til We're Dealing With The Fact

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We begin with Gil Scott-Heron&#39;s musical reference to President Eisenhower&#39;s 1961 warning about the formation of a military industrial complex, then we go back and explore the history and ongoing relevance of wartime era songs of the past, in particular the first commercially successful anti-war song, I Didn&#39;t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier, from 1915. Work For Peace | Gil Scott-Heron | 2001Madison Avenue | Gil Scott-Heron | Secrets | 1978I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier | Morton Harvey | 1915Let Us All Speak Our Minds | Elizabeth Knight | Songs of the Suffragettes | 1958I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier | John Kirkpatrick | Tunes From The Trenches | 2015I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier | Rana Choir | 2018Stay Down Here Where You Belong | Tiny Tim | God Bless Tiny Tim | 1968Praise The Lord and Pass The Ammunition | Eli Radish Band | I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier | 1969Over There | Eli Radish Band | I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier | 1969When Johnny Comes Marching Home | Eli Radish Band | I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier | 1969 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/freedomhighwaywkny/" rel="nofollow">instagram.com/freedomhighwaywkny</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/freedomhighwaywkny" rel="nofollow">facebook.com/freedomhighwaywkny </a><a href="https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway" rel="nofollow">radiokingston.org/broadcast/freedom-highway</a>

No Freedom Without Peace

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Trouble You Can't Hide

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People You Know It's True

Freedom Highway follows the long tradition of music as an expression of struggle and solidarity. In all movements for justice, from the enslaved struggling for emancipation, to the employed struggling against exploitation, songs emerge as a means of building strength in the face of power. Each week we follow these songs across borders of race, class, gender and geography with an hour of politically potent music and conversation exploring connections between these histories and the present day.