Let My People Go! (2005)

About this title: There are plenty of connections between the Jewish and African-American people. Both have been oppressed and enslaved during history, and many Jews were involved in the civil rights struggle of the 1960s. This album is as much a celebration of that time as it is a political statement of solidarity in song, cantorial chant, and spoken word reminiscences. At times quite extraordinarily lovely, as on "Venomar Lefanav (Let Us Sing a New Song)," with its klezmer overtones, or "I Have a Million Nightingales," it can also turn deeply spiritual, as on "In the Mississippi River." It's definitely not a ... read more

Tracks:

1. B'chol Dor Va'dor (In Every Generation)/I'm On My Way [Traditional]
2. Ha Lachma Anya (This Is the Bread of Oppression) [Traditional]
3. Avodim Hayinu (Slaves Were We) [Schwartz/Gelbart]
4. In the Mississippi River [Jones]
5. Remembering Phil Ochs [Ochs]
6. What's That I Hear [Ochs]
7. The New Colossus/Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor/Motherless Child [Lazarus/Berlin]
8. Democratic National Convention 1964 [Waskow]
9. Mah Lecha Ha'yam (Sea, Why Do You Flee?) [Traditional]
10. Man Come into Egypt [Hellerman/Minkoff]
11. Ilu Finu (Were Our Mouths Oceans of Song) [Traditional]
12. Let My People Go: Story of an Activist's Life [Nelson]
13. Freedom Road [Harris/Harris]
14. I Have a Million Nightingales [Darwish/Hirschhorn]
15. Venomar Lefanav (Let Us Sing a New Song) [Traditional]
16. We Shall Overcome: Evolution of a Song [Seeger]
17. Ani Ma'amin (I Believe)/We Shall Overcome [Traditional/Horton/]
18. I Won't Turn Back [Jones]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.