The Bernie Beat Goes On

In 2008, the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign was moved to share this picture of young Barack Obama with the voting public.

In 1987, while serving as Burlington’s mayor, Bernie Sanders recorded an album of folk classics for the defunct BurlingTown Recordings label. Vermont's Seven Days found it in an archive search for Bernie Beat, its digital guide to Sanders' colorful political career. Sen. Sanders better watch out; if the Clinton campaign decides to go after the folk music vote, you can bet this will be everywhere: Sanders sings The Banks Are Made of Marble, and it ain't pretty.

R.I.P.: Irwin Silber

There was a time, not so long ago really, when the Left actually made a difference, not only politically, by fielding an army of citizens passionately determined to make the lives of ordinary people better and by providing the intellectual foundation and institutional muscle behind progressive change, but also by helping to shape popular culture. The passing of folk music champion Irwin Silber this week gives us a chance to look back on an era when a group of avowed lefties like The Weavers, for example, could be stars.

Here's an interview with Silber from 2002.

"Hot town/summer in the city/back of my neck/gettin' dirt and gritty"

Here's one to help the NY-NC corridor get through the next few days:

Music break: 12-String Bliss

Katie's Been Gone So Long: Surprising -- amazing, really -- to hear the incomparable but neglected Karen Dalton, a god of my Village days, amid the superstars and one-hit-wonders at Starbucks today (that's her and Fred Neil at Café Wha? in 1961 with some new kid on harp).

Her best album, In My Own Time, at Amazon.