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‘Bob Dylan was an endearing young scallywag!’ Barbara Dane, the singer who burned a path through folk, blues and activism
The US singer-songwriter, who has died aged 97, encountered Louis Armstrong and more as she championed civil rights as much as music. In her final interview conducted last week, she explained why she was still angry
In her remarkable autobiography, This Bell Still Rings: My Life of Defiance and Song, Dane recalls encounters with Woody Guthrie, Big Bill Broonzy, Pete Seeger, Earl Hines, Jack Teagarden, Count Basie, to name but a few. Photograph: Chris StrachwitzDane released her debut album, Trouble In Mind, in 1957 – “Bessie Smith in stereo” declared British jazz critic Leonard Feather – and, in 1959, Louis Armstrong, having shared the stage with her, invited Barbara to join him on a TV special. Appropriately, Smithsonian Folkways has compiled a double CD career retrospective, Barbara Dane: Hot Jazz, Cool Blues& Hard Hitting Songs, while Jasmine Records is reissuing her earliest albums.
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