Folk Plus - PMN Setlist

"Not the preacher, not the congress, not the millionaire but me" -Pat Humphries

Saturday June 10, 2000
Focus on the People's Music Network: Songs of Freedom and Struggle
PMNSFS@hvi.net

This organization of people love to sing. They represent many political interests. Handicapped, gay and lesbian, anti-racist, united to make the world a better place. They meet in the Summer in a rural area and in the Winter in a city, next January in Hartford, CT. Workshops and concerns included: Death penalty, campaign finance reform, political situation in Russia, funding for violence, UN sanctions and many other issues.
Mainstays of the organization include Charlie King, Pat Humphries and Pete Seeger.

At breakfast the first day, around 7 am, Pete Seeger was speaking to three people at a table with the same wisdom and attention that he would give if he were speaking to the National Press Club. I asked him to elaborate on what I heard him say at the National Press Club a year earlier.
See photo and more text.

1. Comments by Pete Seeger:
"I am absolutely convinced in this year of 2000 if there is a human race here in 100 years it will be saved not by thousands, not millions, but perhaps hundreds of millions of little organizations. This means a community organization... (for the full comment and other PMN interests see my interview with Pete)...but somebody who raises a child to be an honest person, a constructive person, they are saving the world.

Fade in
2. Bound for Freedom - Pat Humphries - movingfwd@mindspring.com
     Taped at the NEFA at Split Rock Nov. 1999
     "Not the preacher, not the congress, not the millionaire but me
      I will organize for justice, I will raise my voice in song
      And our children will be free to lead the world and carry on"
      "How the greedy live on poor and hungry people everywhere"

I read some of the bumper stickers from cars outside workshops:
    -6% of the world uses 90% of it's resources.
    -Live simply so that others may simply live
    -You can't hug with nuclear arms
    -Teach Peace
    -Some people are so opposed to murder they'll kill anyone who commits it
    -MillionMomMarch, I vote
    -Support small business, it does big things
    -Kids learn what they live
    -Domestic violence feeds on silence
    -Trabajodores agriculturas almendan al mundo
    - farm workers feed the world
    -Fight aids, not people with aids

3.   Singing For Our Lives - Ronnie Gilbert and Holly Near
      Lifeline - Redwood Records
      "We are a gentle angry people, singing for our lives"

WJFF Station ID (19 sec, 425K) by Pete, saying "Hydro-powered radio, wow!"

4. Talking Union - Pete Seeger
      The Best of Pete Seeger written in 1941
      "pass out a leaflet, call a meeting...decide to do something about it"
      "Take it easy, but take it"

Spoke about Weavermania, now on tour including Michael Smith (Dutchman etc.) appearing as Lee Hays.

5. Mimimum Wage Strike - David Rovics
We Just Want the World - DRovics@aol.com www.davidrovics.com
"when all the minimum wage workers went on strike"

6. The Work That I Do - (Bob Blue) Linda Pollack-Johnson
      Recorded live - PMN 1999
      From the viewpoint of Kanga who doesn't get the accolades due her for the work of parenting Ro.
      She wants to answer when someone asks,
        "intending no harm, tell me what kind of work do you do?"
        I want to say to them 'Open Your Eyes' "

7. Dear Mr. President - Bob Blue
Inspired by a letter from a second grader on how two kids fight over who has more stickers.

8.   Who's the Criminal Here? - Charlie King
      Somebody's Story - VaguelyRem@aol.com
      "32 Brave cops and feds, come swinging chains and busting heads"

9. I read here from an e mail from Charlie explaining the history and purpose of PMN.

10. Rise Again - Si Kahn
In My Heart - Si is listed in the PMN membership directory

11. Opening singing of PMN 2000
A french tune. Sung by roughly 150 attending the opening. Makes you remember how nice a feeling it is to just sing, live, in a group of people who love to sing.

12. Voice in the Chorus - (Pat Humphries and) Eileen Vance
After the Night - avandlt@cruzio.com
"Fill the emptiness before us, we're all voices in the chorus"

13. When to Move (John McCutcheon) - Eve Goldberg
       Ever Brightening Day - patootie@interlog.com www.interlog.com/~patootie
        "Some 3M workers in South Africa walking off their jobs for me"
         "You gotta know how to recognize your story when you hear it,
          from just the other side of the railroad track or an ocean away from here."

14. Connection - Two of a Kind
Connections - david2kind@aol.com www.twoofakind.com
"You've all your life for your song to be perfect"

        In 1999 the PMN gathering focused on shutting down the School of the Americas
15. What Shall We Do With the School of Torture - Jolie Rickman
       Sing It Down - Songs to close the SOA   jcrickma@mailbox.syr.edu
        Take an old melody and rewrite words.
         "Close it up no more to open, early in the morning"

In 1998 the PMN gathering focused on the life and accomplishments of Paul Robeson
16. Paul Robeson Song (Powerful Voice) - Two of a Kind
Connections - david2kind@aol.com www.twoofakind.com

        In 1997 the gathering focused on the life work of Harriet Tubman. Sis Cunningham attended.
17. Harriet Tubman - (Walter Robinson) Bev Grant
       We Were Here (cassette) - bgrant1@osborne.ny.org
        "I got a life-line"

18. Reading from this year's brochure on IMF WTO
Full detailsand links.

19. Look To The Left - Anne Feeney
       Look to the Left - unionmaid@earthlink.net
       http://home.earthlink.net/~unionmaid
       "It'll open your eyes, when you look to the left... of your dial"

Pete: "WJFF is a great little radio station"

20. When Did We Last Have Sauerkraut (Berryman) - Faith Petric
When Did We Last Have Sauerkraut - FaithPet@aol.com
"Don't you ever wonder what became of all those activists?"

Faith was born in 1915 and has no plans to stop singing. I turned to the 90 year old woman Dorris Haddock, who had just walked across the country to bring attention to campaign reform.
21. Read from Sassafrass (PMN Newsletter) about Granny D and campaign finance reform.

22.   Ways of the World - Mary Gauthier
       Dixie Kitchen -   BakerPR@AOL.COM
        "When you're 10 years old its cute to be a tom boy in a couple of years
             you gotta deal with the ways of the world"

On the same subject:
23. Suffer to be Beautiful - Julie Rickman
Suffer to be Beautiful - jcrickma@mailbox.syr.edu

24. Victor Berzikosky and friends
        A song written in Russian to make people never forget what war is.
        Again Russia has the young fight "with forever shaven heads"
        Live from the PMN gathering 2000

Many countries make a habit of arresting or killing those they deem troublmakers.
25. Read from Mumia literature -see http://www.workingtv.com/mainp13.html and http://www.freemumia.org/

26. Mumia - Tom Nielson
Dancin' Shoes
Photo of Tom with Charlie King along with information about Mumia is a the interview site.

27. Two Good Arms - (Charlie King) Betty and the Baby Boomers
Tumbling Through the Stream of Days - stannelee@aol.com
Words inspired by Bartolomeo Vanzetti when facing Judge Thayer, though the state didn't dispute testimony that Sacco and Vanzetti were not at the murder scen they were "morally guilty because they are the enemies of our existing institutions"

Other members of PMN

27. In The Heat of the Summer - (Ochs) Kim and Reggie Harris
In the Heat of the Summer - KimandReg@aol.com

28. Violin - Terry Kitchen
Blanket - TerryKit@aol.com
In war, "cigarettes were money then and music was just thin air"

29. Everything Reminds me of my Therapist - Nancy Tucker
Treasures in the Attic

All this worry about world affairs might send you to a shrink, unable to cope. A little humor from PMN member Nancy Tucker. Again, here is the tradition of taking another song and rewritting it. This song was patterned after Jane Siberry's "Everything reminds me of my dog".

On a private note, Pete signed his musical autobiography (a great purchase by the way) saying "There are mistakes in here, but for now, this is all I have" This thought has already helped me a thousand times in the week since. I tend to be a perfectionist and not do things for fear of not having them perfect. Completing this setlist and interview page was particularly hard on a very hard-to-capture-easily topic. It has taken me a while to post. It isn't exactly how I'd like it, but for now, it's all I have. Getting something out there, imperfect, but out there, is better than nothing at all.