This Bell Still Rings - by Barbara Dane (Paperback)

About the Book

The autobiography of a courageous singer-songwriter, activist, and American icon.

Book Synopsis

The autobiography of a courageous singer-songwriter, activist, and American icon.

"Barbara Dane is someone who is willing to follow her conscience. She is, if the term must be used, a hero."--Bob Dylan

A renowned folk, blues, and jazz singer who performed with some of the twentieth century's most celebrated musicians, from Louis Armstrong to Bob Dylan. A proud progressive who has tirelessly championed racial equality and economic justice in America, and who has traveled the world to sing out against war and tyranny. An organizer, a venue owner, a record label founder, and a woman who has charted her own creative and political path for more than ninety years. Barbara Dane has led an epic, trailblazing life in music and activism, and This Bell Still Rings tells her story in her own adventurous voice. Dane's memoir charts her trajectory from singing in union halls and at factory gates in World War II-era Detroit, to her rise as a respected blues and jazz singer, to her prominence as a folk musician frequently performing at and participating in civil rights and peace demonstrations across the US and abroad--from post-revolutionary Cuba to wartime Vietnam. This Bell Still Rings illuminates "one of the true unsung heroes of American music" (Boston Globe), and it offers a wealth of inspiration for artists, activists, and anyone seeking a life defined by courage and integrity.

Review Quotes

"Barbara is someone who is willing to follow her conscience. She is, if the term must be used, a hero."--Bob Dylan

"I first met Barbara when I was seventeen. She taught me that 'Wild women don't worry, wild women don't get the blues.'"--Linda Ronstadt

"What a life of service in the fight for civil rights and human dignity. Barbara Dane's music lifted us as it lifted me when we were together in Mississippi in 1964 to register African American voters. Thank you for keeping the faith all these years."--Judy Collins

"Barbara Dane has always been a role model and a hero of mine, both musically and politically, and for her lifelong commitment to truth, justice, equality, and representation for all."--Bonnie Raitt

"An important read: the amazing story of Barbara Dane, a powerful radical citizen-artist whose magnificent voice, and uncompromising dedication to freedom, social justice, and global liberation continues to ring."--Danny Glover

"A true unsung hero of American music [with] a jazz musician's sense of rhythm, a blues singer's deep investment in the material, and a folk stylist's attention to authenticity."--James Reed, The Boston Globe

"Barbara Dane is a long-haul kind of woman: committed, loyal, gifted, and steadfast in the struggle for deep social change. And here's something none of you know: She persuaded me to make the movie Klute."--Jane Fonda

"This book is medicine for the soul in these dark times; not a book of songs but a book that sings. It tells the story of movements that have transformed American consciousness, told from the perspective of a life lived for giving."--Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples's History of the United States

"Barbara Dane has led the way, showing us, through the choices she made throughout her life, how to use music as a tool for more than just entertainment. She knew it best, that when we sing about what matters, songs can change hearts, and changed hearts will change minds. This is how music changes the world: one changed heart at a time."--Mary Gauthier

"Dane's new memoir This Bell Still Rings offers a fascinating look at a time when Berkeley nurtured a bohemian culture that would come to shape the nation in the following decade."--Berkeleyside

"What leaps out from Dane's memoir is her spirit--loving, cooperative, collective-minded, generous, risk-taking, humble, and warmly contemplative." --People's World

"The notion that organization and collectivity are prerequisites of revolutionary politics is a sentiment that Dane expresses again and again in This Bell Still Rings. In music as in politics, Dane stressed the primacy of collaboration. She never recounted a musical performance or recording without elaborate descriptions of the key roles played by her fellow musicians." --Jacobin

About the Author

Barbara Dane, born in 1927, is an American folk, blues, and jazz singer-songwriter. She was prominent in the movements for peace and justice as the struggle for civil rights spread and opposition to the Vietnam War mounted, singing at demonstrations throughout the United States and all over the world. In 1966 she became the first US musician to tour post-revolutionary Cuba. By the early 1970s Dane had started Paredon Records with her husband, the late Irwin Silber, in their adopted hometown of Oakland, California. Specializing in international protest music, she produced fifty albums, including three of her own. The label is now part of Smithsonian Folkways. Dane is the recipient of numerous honors, and the New York Times featured a full-page profile of her in 2021. Bob Dylan said of her: "The world needs more people like Barbara, someone who is willing to follow her conscience. She is, if the term must be used, a hero."