Pages tagged “billy bragg”

WXPN, everyone's favorite non-commercial radio station out of the University of Pennsylvania, has announced plans to start a new radio and web-based series called "Power of Song." Launching exclusively for September, the series hopes to bring attention to the importance of music in culture by exploring "the intersection between music and politics, tracing the history of music rich in social commentary."

Angry folkie-punk ripens with age

Considering the impassioned stump speeches he’s been known to give during live performances, it’s hard to imagine Billy Bragg at a loss for words. But the mere two discs of original material he’s released during the last 17 years betray a dearth of things to say, both in quantity and quality, lacking as the albums have been in the keen emotional punch and wit that established Bragg as an artist of singular gifts. That’s why this album is such a particular pleasure. Rather than being a return to form, it’s a leap forward in maturity, depth and nuance. While the themes of emotional politics and social justice are in place, Bragg strikes a bold new balance between the two. As such, songs like “M For Me,” “The Beach Is Free” and the delightful title track reveal a wiser, more playful approach than ever.

Legendary British songwriter Billy Bragg will release his new album Mr. Love & Justice April 22 on Anti- Records. And while his fans may have grown a little impatient over the last six years since the release of Bragg’s last album England, Half-English, they’ll have to forgive him when they hear the schedule he’s been keeping.

After collaborating with Wilco in 1998 and releasing an album of unpublished Woody Guthrie songs in 2000, Bragg was commissioned to write new lyrics for Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” The new lyrics were unveiled during a 2007 performance at London’s Royal Festival Hall attended by the Queen herself. Q magazine honored Bragg with its Classic Songwriter Award later that year.

Bragg also celebrated several significant milestones outside of the music world over the past few years. His book The Progressive Patriot was published by Bantam in 2006, and he founded the Jail Guitar Doors, a charity that supplies free guitars to prison inmates, soon after.

Mr. Love & Justice will feature 12 new songs penned by Bragg, backed by his band The Blokes. The Small Faces’ Ian McLagan plays organ and piano, and Robert Wyatt contributes vocals on the album’s first single “I Keep Faith.”

Bragg will be performing several songs from the upcoming album during an Anti- Records showcase March 13 and another showcase at Smokin' Room on March 14 during the South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas.

The album’s tracklist is below.

Mr. Love & Justice tracklist:
1. I Keep Faith
2. I Almost Killed You
3. M For Me
4. The Beach Is Free
5. Sing Their Souls Back Home
6. You Make Me Brave
7. Something Happened
8. Mr. Love & Justice
9. If You Ever Leave
10. O Freedom
11. The Johnny Carcinogenic Show
12. Farm Boy

Related links:
BillyBragg.co.uk
Billy Bragg on MySpace
Paste: Billy Bragg Wins Award, Chums Queen, Plans Record

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Legendary British songsmith and politico Billy Bragg was recently awarded the 2007 Classic Songwriter at the UK's venerable Q Awards. After accepting the award, Bragg took a metaphorical victory lap around London, visiting his old grammar school on behalf of one his charities, Love Music, Hate Racism, then rubbing elbows with Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Festival Hall before eventually performing a rendition of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

Collaborating with Beethoven, entertaining the Queen, (hey, she asked for a signed copy of the score!), it's really all in a day's work for your favorite folk troubadour. With a new record in the works, Bragg will begin 2008 at a new home, independent music label Anti-, home to other kindred spirits such as Michael Franti, Sage Francis, Mavis Staples and Tom Waits.

Related links:
BillyBragg.co.uk
Q Awards 2007
Love Music, Hate Racism

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Left. Right? Left.

Billy Bragg’s notion of “Englishness” has taken quite a beating lately. First came the 2005 London subway bombings, perpetuated by homegrown terrorists who spouted jihadist rhetoric in broad Yorkshire accents. Ten months later, the BNP—an overtly racist, right-wing political party—won a dozen seats on Bragg’s hometown council. It’s just the sort of group the socialist folkie-punk railed against in the ’80s at Rock Against Racism concerts alongside cohorts like Joe Strummer.

Bragg’s response this time was The Progressive Patriot, a political autobiography that weaves everything from the medieval Levellers to Bragg’s great-grandfather’s dockworker strike to The Clash into an English tradition of inclusiveness and progressive dissent.

Patriot bogs down at times, at one point taking chapters to prove the obvious connection between ’60s protest singers and English tradition. But at its most personal moments, Patriot succeeds admirably, reclaiming everything from the folksong to the flag in the name of Bragg’s English Lefty.

Yep Roc Records has announced four simultaneous reissues of Billy Bragg back-catalog titles, each including a bonus disc of rare and previously unreleased material.

Set for a September 20 release, the albums will be available individually and as a box set that will include an additional booklet and DVD of unreleased live footage.

The releases will include 1983's Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy, an EP that sold over 100,000 copies in Bragg’s native U.K. This is followed by 1984's Brewing Up With Billy Bragg, 1986's Talking With the Taxman About Poetry, and a release that combines 1990's The Internationale and 1988's Live & Dubious EPs. Each release will feature the remastered original and a second disc of bonus material, much of it previously unavailable and handpicked by Bragg and longtime cohorts Grant Showbiz and Wiggy.