Some seventy years after a musical group of labor activists known as “The Almanac Singers”, comprised of legendary greats such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Lee Hays and Mill Lampell, traveled the country preaching the word of fair labor, another movement is stirring (or strumming) with the help and guidance of Pete Seeger and The Woody Guthrie Archives. “Totem Pole” Rik Palieri and George Mann will be winding up their tour in Buffalo, as they break out their guitars, banjos and sing songs about the hopes and blues of living the life of a laborer in today’s times. The duo is being brought to Buffalo by Bill Nowak, who was kind enough to share the story of their trek to Buffalo:
“A couple months ago I got a message from a friend about a couple musicians who were going across the country singing at union halls and stirring up the labor movement. They were getting their inspiration from the 1941 tour that Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie did with the Almanac singers and had actually worked with Seeger and the Guthrie Foundation to plan the tour.
“I’ve been working in the labor movement and know we can use a shot in the arm. Nothing like a good song to bolster your spirits when you need to fight back against the boss swooping in and taking away your health care or pushing you deeper into the race to the bottom.
“So my coworkers and I decided to bring those folks to Buffalo. Turns out one of them, George Mann, was active organizing the Graduate Student Union at UB back in the ’70’s. They’ll be here this Sunday as the last of 22 dates of the Almanac Trail Tour – August 11th, 3 – 6 PM. Yes, the final date of the tour will be in Buffalo!!!”
This Sunday, Sportsmens Tavern, 326 Amherst Street – 12 doors west of Grant Street.
Admission is only $5 and proceeds will be split between the WNYCOSH Worker’s Center and Strike Debt.