9/15 @ 7:30PM
British singer/songwriter/guitarist Billy Bragg’s commitment to social justice activism runs deep — back to his years in England’s ’70s punk scene.
In the middle of his current U.S. tour last month, he made a detour to St. Louis, Missouri, where he performed a concert in support of the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson where an unarmed black teenager was apparently gunned down without provocation by a police officer. According to Rolling Stone, the concert collected money, school supplies and food for a church food pantry in Ferguson. The magazine reported that Bragg performed a mix of his own justice-oriented political tunes and similarly themed material by Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan.
The same day, says Rolling Stone, they met with striking railroad workers in nearly Galesburg, Illinois, and joined teachers walking a picket line for a few songs. So you know that those on the right who think the minimum wage and labor’s right to negotiate should be eliminated won’t find much to sympathize with in his music
Bragg does have some more personal and less rabble-rousing material. But there’s so much to get outraged about these days that it is likely to color his performance when he appears at the Music Box Supper Club.
Vancouver folksinger Billy Pettinger, who performs as Billy the Kid, opens.
Tickets are $40 in advance, $45 at the door.