Newly energised by US/UK activities in the Gulf, Chumbawamba have chosen to re-record their 1998 album archiving the folk music of struggle. Starting with “The Cutty Wren”, written at the time of the Peasant’s Revolt in 1381, this largely a cappella album covers material relating to the Diggers, the Luddite Rebellion, the Chartist movement and the First World War, and comes (nearly) up to date with the 1984-5 miners’ strike. Sweetly sung and simply produced, these songs have a caustic political edge sadly missing from most of contemporary music.
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