Biography

"One of the true unsung heroes of American music," Barbara Dane has "a jazz musician’s sense of rhythm, a blues singer’s deep investment in the material, and a folk stylist’s attention to authenticity." (The Boston Globe, 2012) When she burst onto the scene in the late '50s, Playboy Magazine's jazz critic Leonard Feather described her voice as "Bessie Smith in Stereo." After hearing Dane sing, Louis Armstrong invited her to appear with him on national television's Timex Jazz Special. A seven-page Ebony Magazine article--their first feature story about a white woman (Nov., l959)-- was filled with photos of Dane working with Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Clara Ward, Mama Yancey, Little Brother Montgomery and others. An activist since her teens in Detroit, Dane was outspoken in her views on race and social justice and was unwilling to make the kind of compromises demanded by the music business of the day. Inspired by the intensification of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and the growing opposition to the Vietnam War, she turned away from the lure of fame and celebrity, striking out on her own path and dedicating her life to singing for peace and social justice. Dane sang at Washington peace rallies during the Vietnam War, often sharing the stage with Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Phil Ochs. Praised as a “People’s Singer,” Dane has long been “a versatile voice with a political purpose” (NPR) and remains a “symbol of resistance” even into the 21st century.