Barbara Dane was a folk, blues, and jazz singer who spent her career fighting for peace and justice through the power of song.
- Died: October 20, 2024 (Who else died on October 20?)
- Details of death: Died at her home in Oakland, California of heart failure at the age of 97.
- We invite you to share condolences for Barbara Dane in our Guest Book.
Barbara Dane’s legacy
Dane discovered both her love of music and her commitment to social justice at an early age. From the beginning of her career, she combined the two, singing at protests rather than in nightclubs or recording studios. She was just a teenager in the 1940s when she first began a lifetime of activism, working with singer and activist Pete Seeger (1919–2014) to develop a new chapter of his People’s Songs organization, devoted to the music of the labor movement. She also began developing her unmistakable sound, anchored by her low, powerful voice as she sang the blues and folk music classics.
Dane’s star continued to rise in the 1950s and ‘60s as she performed with such musicians as Louis Armstrong (1901–1971), Bob Dylan, The Chambers Brothers, Muddy Waters (1913–1983), and many others. But rather than focusing on growing her career or increasing her record sales, Dane continued to make it all about the message. She wore her socialism on her sleeve and recorded albums like 1973’s “I Hate the Capitalist System.” Dane led protests against the Vietnam War and launched a tour in Cuba, one of the first U.S. artists to play in the country after its revolution. Beloved in the social justice world, she was also considered a potential problem by the FBI, which kept a thick file on her at the height of her career.
In 1969, Dane and her husband, Irwin Silber (1925–2010), founded Paredon Records. The label was dedicated to bringing protest music from around the world to its listeners. After the label was shuttered in 1985, Dane and Silber donated its works to the Smithsonian Institution, and those recordings are now part of the Smithsonian Folkways label.
Dane continued to be active in both music and politics throughout her life, releasing her final album in 2018. In 2022, she published her autobiography, “This Bell Still Rings: My Life of Defiance and Song.” A documentary of her life, “The 9 Lives of Barbara Dane,” was released in 2023, and in the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” she is portrayed by singer Sarah King.
Notable quote
“There’s a power in music that unites people. You can take a roomful of people and make them feel their kinship in a way that nothing else can with a song.” — from a 2024 interview for The Guardian
Tributes to Barbara Dane
Full obituary: KQED
