American Industrial Ballads (Folkways FH 5251, 1956) collects work songs, labor anthems, and protest ballads drawn from American industrialization. Pete Seeger performs solo on banjo and guitar, delivering pieces tied to coal mines, textile mills, railroads, and union organizing drives — including songs from the Ludlow Massacre and the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. The record was part of Seeger's sustained effort to recover and disseminate the music of working-class struggle at a politically charged moment; Seeger himself had faced HUAC investigation and blacklisting in the preceding years. The album stands as a document of the folk revival's alignment with labor history, and remains a primary reference for folklorists and historians interested in the music of American industrial workers.
Tracklist
- 1 Peg and Awl 2:30
- 2 The Blind Fiddler 1:17
- 3 Buffalo Skinners alt version 2:45
- 4 Eight-Hour Day 1:01
- 5 Hard Times in the Mill 2:16
- 6 Roll Down the Line 3:16
- 7 A Hayseed like Me 1:17
- 8 The Farmer is the Man (Who Feeds Them All) 1:43
- 9 Come All You Hardy Miners 2:01
- 10 He Lies in the American Land 2:01
- 11 The Ballad of Casey Jones alt version 2:21
- 12 Let Them Wear Their Watches Fine 3:42
- 13 Cotton Mill Colic 1:41
- 14 Seven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat 1:59
- 15 Mill Mother's Lament 1:38
- 16 Fare Ye Well, Old Ely Branch 2:12
- 17 Beans, Bacon, and Gravy 2:56
- 18 The Death of Harry Simms 2:14
- 19 Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues 1:10
- 20 The Ballad of Barney Graham 1:49
- 21 My Children are Seven in Number 4:00
- 22 Raggedy 2:32
- 23 Pittsburgh Town 1:31
- 24 Sixty Percent 1:01
