Legendary Singer & Activist Barbara Dane Turns 96; Watch 2018 Interview & Performance

Barbara Dane has led a groundbreaking life. In the 1950s, she became a popular blues singer and performed with many leading musicians of the time, including Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Memphis Slim, Lightnin’ Hopkins and many others. She eventually largely dropped out of the commercial music world to focus on activism, becoming involved in the civil rights movement, as well as the GI resistance movement during the Vietnam War. She and her husband Irwin Silber started the record label called Paredon to release music from freedom struggles across the globe. Dane also released her own recordings on Paredon — one was titled I Hate the Capitalist System. In 2018, Barbara Dane stopped by the Democracy Now! studio to talk about her remarkable life and play a few songs. Smithsonian Folkways has just released a new retrospective titled Barbara Dane: Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs.