Emotionally powerful stories of real people
Caution to the Wind
By Phil Cohen and Patricia Ford
Hard Miles Music
Order at <http://metalab.unc.edu/hardmile>
REVIEW BY BARRY HEALY
Politically conscious folk music first came to prominence in the 1930s when artists such as Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie articulated the struggles of the masses during the Great Depression. In the 1960s, Bob Dylan opportunistically adopted the same working-class persona to launch his career as an entertainer.
Luckily for those who care about integrity in music, Phil Cohen and Patricia Ford are quietly plugging away in the backwaters of the music industry writing and singing songs that tell the stories and hopes of ordinary people.
Cohen started travelling the world when he was 16. He has worked in all sorts of jobs, from managing a skid row hotel to driving cabs in New York. While driving buses in North Carolina he became active in the trade union movement and since 1988 has been an organiser with the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE).
Cohen has served on the front lines of some of the most intense labour campaigns in recent US history. The scars of these battles come through on the eight songs contained on Caution to the Wind.
Patricia Ford contributes to the labour movement through her cartoons and artwork. Before that she earned her living as a street musician. Together, Cohen and Ford are a potent team. The songs they present drip with understanding of just how tough life is for those at the receiving end of economic rationalism, though they are tender and gently sung.
"To rest is something I forget what it feels like", Ford sings in "Frail Light", a moving song for single mothers who work to support their families. "My heart is aching for something just out of reach", she sighs.
Almost in answer to the pain of the previous song, "Hard Miles" is a pungent account of real-life labour organising in the Carolinas. You hear about Cohen's experience of standing at factory gates with scabs threatening his life. He stands true to the hope that unionism brings. He talks of spending countless hours doorknocking to recruit and seeing "folks standing tall who once lived in fear". "The union is a light in the face of despair", he concludes.
On Caution to the Wind there is little dramatisation in the singing or the music, yet it will move you to tears and make your heart soar. It is wonderful to be reminded of just how emotionally powerful simple guitar and voices in harmony can be when attached to the stories of real people.
It finishes with "Stars and Moon", a beautiful lullaby Cohen wrote for his three-year-old daughter — a tender touch.