The Working Class Movement Library, in conjunction with the University of Salford, is extremely pleased to invite everyone to its second musical fundraising concert. Fishing in the Dustbowl takes place at Peel Hall, University of Salford, on Sunday 5 June at 2pm.
It features Will Kaufman, performing and talking about some of his Woody Guthrie songs, and John Conolly performing and talking about his own songs about life and work in the east coast fishing industry. We are promised a couple of Ewan MacColl’s songs as well…
A singer, multi-instrumentalist and Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Central Lancashire, Will is the author of the first political biography of Guthrie, Woody Guthrie, American radical (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2011). He has two further books on Guthrie forthcoming in 2017. Most recently, Will unearthed Guthrie’s previously unpublished lyrics condemning the racism of his landlord, Fred C. Trump – Donald Trump’s father.
John Conolly is an internationally-respected singer-songwriter, whose compositions have been performed and recorded by many well-known artists. Many of his songs, like the classic “Fiddler‘s Green” and “The Trawling Trade”, have a tang of the sea, and a particular flavour of the east coast of England where his grandfather and great-grandfather were shipwrights on the banks of the River Humber. Several of his songs have so passed into the folk legend that they appear as “Trad” in some albums – much to the annoyance of John’s accountant (and wife) Vere.
Tickets at £10 (£8 concessions) now on sale here. They will also be available for purchase on the day.
This is a Manchester Histories Festival event.
