During the pandemic, Dawn Landes found herself homebound, leafing through a songbook she’d picked up years before at a used bookshop. The Liberated Woman’s Songbook was published in 1971 at the height of the Women’s Liberation Movement. Dawn’s album version leads us through a history of women’s activism from 1830 through the 1970s. Among the stories highlighted are those of Ella May Wiggins, a union organizer murdered in Gastonia during the 1929 Loray Mill Strike, in the song “Mill Mothers Lament (1929).” “The Housewife’s Lament (1866)” was discovered in the diary of Mrs. Sarah A Price who wrote, “Life is a toil, love is a trouble.” The album features guest artists including Emily Frantz (Watchhouse, formerly Mandolin Orange) on fiddle and vocals on “Bread and Roses (1912),” and vocal performances by Charly Lowry, Rissi Palmer, and Lizzy Ross (Violet Bell). “We’re suddenly back in 1971 all over again,” said Landes, “I know we’re in for a long fight and it helps to find solidarity where you can. …There’s something remarkable about walking around the grocery store in 2024 humming something from the 1800s that feels like it was written yesterday. It’s inspiring during today’s hard times, these women struggled, resisted, endured, and triumphed.” Check out these rebirthed songs, on the eve of International Women’s Day!
Thursday 3/7: Dawn Landes – The Liberated Woman’s Songbook
