Celebrating the music of Barbara Dane – Part 1

Cultural Manifesto

Hear the first episode in our two-part series celebrating the life and music of Barbara Dane, a legendary, folk, blues, and jazz singer who used her voice to advocate for social justice and civil rights. Dane passed away in October of 2024, she was 97 years old. Listen to a 2018 interview Dane recorded with WFYI’s Kyle Long, along with rare recordings from her discography. Barbara Dane was born Barbara Jean Spillman in Detroit, Michigan in 1927. She began singing on the picket lines of Detroit as a teenager. Politics and activism would remain a central focus of her music. Dane would go on to record for the biggest labels in American music and collaborate with iconic artists, including Louis Armtstrong, Earl Hines, and Lightnin’ Hopkins. At the height of the 1960’s folk music boom, Bob Dylan called Dane a hero. But Dane never experienced the commercial success of her folk singing peers like Dylan. She refused to compromise her principles for corporate record companies, which led Dane to start her own label in the 1970s, Paredon Records. Through her Paredon label, Dane issued revolutionary music from Palestine, Vietnam, and Cuba. She also released her own recordings on the label, including the 1973 album “I Hate the Capitalist System”.