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Anne Feeney
labor and protest singer and songwriter
from Pittsburgh, Pa.
has died of COVID
at age 69.
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Anne's songs helped to build solidarity and arouse sympathy for the labor movement.
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Live from the Fogartyville Community Media and Arts Center Sarasota, Florida. WSLR 96.5 Community Radio, 2017.
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From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Scott Mervis
Music Writer
- Born
in Charleroi, Pennsylvania and raised in Brookline, Anne took early
inspiration from her grandfather, William Patrick Feeney, a mine
worker's union organizer and a violinist. In 1967, while still in high
school, she bought a Martin guitar and did her first public performance,
singing Phil Ochs songs, at an anti-war rally in 1969. She was arrested
at the Republican National Convention in Miami in 1972 protesting the
nomination of President Richard Nixon.
- In
1972, while at the University of Pittsburgh, she co-founded Pittsburgh
Action Against Rape. She graduated from the Pitt School of Law in 1978,
worked 12 years as a trial attorney and served as president of the
Pittsburgh Musician's Union. She also was president of a NOW chapter and
served on the board of the Thomas Merton Center.
- During
that period, she married labor attorney Ron Berlin, with whom she
raised two children, Dan and Amy. (They were divorced in 1995.)
- In
1991, she hit the road hard, traveling around the country to perform at
folk festivals, labor conventions and rallies, including the WTO
demonstrations in Seattle, Solidarity Day in Washington, D.C., and the
2004 March for Women's Lives.
- Her business card read: “Performer, Producer, Hellraiser.”
- In
1992, she delivered her debut album, “Look to the Left.” Her subsequent
albums in the ‘90s and ‘00s -- mixing original and traditional songs
and blending folk, pop, Irish and bluegrass -- included “Union Maid,"
"Have You Been to Jail for Justice?" and “Dump the Bosses Off Your
Back.”
- Her
songs were recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary and she shared stages with
such legends as Pete Seeger, Billy Bragg and Loretta Lynn. Her song
"Have You Been to Jail for Justice?" is featured in such documentaries
as “This is What Democracy Looks Like” and “Get Up/Stand Up: The History
of Pop and Protest.”
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In reviewing one of her albums, The Fort Worth Weekly
wrote, “Dissent is an essential element of the American ideal. Feeney
has never shied away from expressing opinions that are unpopular with
people who have the loudest voices.”
- In 2005, she received the Joe Hill Award from the Labor Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.
2/4/2021 edited
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