American Industrial Ballads is a studio album by American folk singer Pete Seeger. It was released in 1956 by Folkways Records. It was reissued in 1992 by Smithsonian Folkways.
| American Industrial Ballads | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Studio album by | |
| Released | 1956 |
| Genre | |
| Length | 49:25 |
| Label | Folkways Records |
| Producer | Moses Asch |
| Alternative Cover | |
 The 1992 reissue album cover. | |
Album
editSeeger sings songs of struggle which emerged from the coal mines, textile mills and acres of farmland, and spoke of issues important to the American laborer. There are twenty-four songs, written about the unprecedented industrialization of the 19th century, including "Peg and Awl", "The Farmer is the Man", and "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues". Irwin Silber's notes provide a history of labor folk song and its role in American popular music.[1] The cover design for the 1992 reissue was done by Carol Hardy.[2]
Critical reception
edit| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
Writing for Allmusic William Ruhlman wrote "Seeger presents the songs straightforwardly with only occasional flourishes, intent on getting the meanings across." He continued, "Taken together, they chronicle a century and a half of the efforts of farmers, textile workers, and miners, primarily, to get what they deserve from increasingly rich and powerful captains of industry."[4]
Track listing
edit| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Peg and Awl" | 2:29 |
| 2. | "The Blind Fiddler" | 1:17 |
| 3. | "Buffalo Skinners" | 2:44 |
| 4. | "Eight-Hour Day" | 1:00 |
| 5. | "Hard Times in the Mill" | 2:16 |
| 6. | "Roll Down the Line" | 3:15 |
| 7. | "A Hayseed Like Me" | 1:16 |
| 8. | "The Farmer is the Man (Who Feeds Us All)" | 1:43 |
| 9. | "Come All You Hardy Miners" | 2:00 |
| 10. | "He Lies in the American Land" | 2:01 |
| 11. | "Casey Jones" | 2:20 |
| 12. | "Let Them Wear Their Watches Fine" | 3:41 |
| 13. | "Cotton Mill Colic" | 1:41 |
| 14. | "Seven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat" | 1:58 |
| 15. | "Mill Mother's Lament" | 1:37 |
| 16. | "Fare Ye Well, Old Ely Branch" | 2:11 |
| 17. | "Beans, Bacon, and Gravy" | 2:56 |
| 18. | "The Death of Harry Simms" | 2:14 |
| 19. | "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" | 1:09 |
| 20. | "The Ballad of Barney Graham" | 1:48 |
| 21. | "My Children are Seven in Number" | 3:59 |
| 22. | "Raggedy" | 2:32 |
| 23. | "Pittsburgh Town" | 1:30 |
| 24. | "Sixty Percent" | 1:00 |
References
edit- ^ "American Industrial Ballads". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. 1992-01-01. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
- ^ "Pete Seeger – American Industrial Ballads (1992, CD)" – via www.discogs.com.
- ^ Ruhlmann, William. "Pete Seeger - American Industrial Ballads". AllMusic. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
- ^ "American Industrial Ballads - Pete Seeger | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic" – via www.allmusic.com.