Browse Items (42 total)

This song can be used to introduce students to Civil Rights songs, many of which spoke to the movement's optimism. However, this song was unique in comparison to other songs such as "We Shall Overcome" for not being as optimistic. Like many other…

This song may be used to introduce students to the image of the soldadera and Adelita during the Mexican Revolution.

"Another Man Done Gone" centers around the American South's early 20th century penal farm system, whose conditions were notoriously terrible. Like many institutions of the post-reconstruction era, they were heavily racialized with a disproportionate…

Sung from the perspective of a flood victim in Nashville, this song discusses floods, a common occurrence in Southern life and a common theme found in blues music. The song's release coincided with the notorious Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.

Hugh Masekela, considered the father of South African Jazz, wrote this anthem-like song in 1986 with Nelson Mandela in mind. The lyrics, though few, call for the immediate release of Mandela (who was a big fan of Masekela) and for him to return home…

Used in conjunction with the Himno Zapatista, which samples Carabina 30-30, this song is a way to show the ways in which the Zapatista movement invokes the memory of the Mexican Revolution.

This song can be used to discuss "Old South" or the "Antebellum South" nostalgia, which became a part of U.S. Southern culture. The song presents the story of an ex-slave who is longing to return back to their day on a plantation. The ideas expressed…

This song can be used to discuss "Old South" or the "Antebellum South" nostalgia, which became a part of U.S. Southern culture. The song presents the story of an ex-slave who is longing to return back to their day on a plantation. The ideas expressed…

The song could be used as an example of the loose narrative and references to the supernatural and/or folk beliefs often found within the blues genre. Though the song lacks a linear narrative, the collection of somewhat unrelated vignettes which…

This song introduces the common Blues music themes of crossroads and collective suffering. Crossroads, high traffic vehicular roads, feature prominently as landmarks in the Mississippi Delta area that Johnson called home. In the song, Johnson tries…