Holly Near has been acting and singing for 35 years or more, and she enjoys a huge following in the U.S.A.She is not as widely known in the UK, although she did appear in 1987 at Cambridge Folk Festival and also in a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London -- or as the locals call it - Kensington Village Hall. Holly is a beautiful singer with a fine voice, trained for professional musical and theatre. She writes a lot of her own material in which the lyrics lean towards social comment, sexuality, feminism, capitalism, exploitation, and political protest. She doesn't sing with what I term the folk singer's voice or style that as is usually associated with this kind of music. In fact her vocal style is hard to describe accurately. I found the content in her lyrics and the subject matter very interesting. The songs are well crafted and some of the tunes unusual. I know many singers in the U.K. who, although they may not have recorded the songs, do include them in their repertoire. These are both double albums and fall into two different catorgries.

With Lifeline Extended, we find Near sharing the stage with Ronnie Gilbert of the ground-breaking 1950's Weavers folk group, whose career was cut short by the infamous blacklisting of the McCarthy era, for their support of labour causes. Gilbert, in fact, was the only member of the Weavers who was not called before the hearings, because she used her married name in her personal life, and the investigators never located her.

Lifeline Extended, as the title suggests, is an extension of a previous recording, Lifeline, which is now out of print. It was recorded live in April 1983, at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall. Here they re-visit the old tapes to produce the album. It is very nice, but the one thing I felt spoiled the overall album was the piano accompaniment. It got on my nerves and I found it a little monotonous after a while. But this recording was made 20 years ago, and as such, it is still a fine example of a live concert with the spirit and atmosphere of the night.

A couple of tracks stand out as my favourites: ' Si Me Quierres Escribir' sung in Spanish by Ronnie Gilbert, is about the Spanish Civil War. Don't worry if you can't speak Spanish, as the inset booklet accompanying the CD's has a translation that is easy to understand. Another is a nice duet of Charlie King's song 'Two Good Arms'. And 'Kids Song' a comical song I have not heard for years.

And Still We Sing is subtitled The Outspoken Collection. This is a compilation album and is made up from tracks taken from Near's previous albums, spanning over 30 years of musical history. Holly is very much an activist and prefers to see herself as a stage performer as opposed to a recording artist. This you will understand when hearing her subject material. For example in the song 'Hay Una Mujer Desaparecida' she mirrors the plight of Chile, as thousands of political prisoners and people disappeared into the hands of a dictatorship government, supported by the U.S and British governments of the time. Protest songs with subject matter such as these need a lot of introduction, and often that only works in a live performance.

If you are already a fan of Holly, chances are you may already have some of these recordings in your collection. But on the other hand if you have never heard of Holly Near before, either of these albums could serve as a good introduction to her music -- what Holly herself calls "Women's Music" for some reason!

In conclusion, I have to say I found some of the subject matter very moving, and thought provoking. It is good to see other people think this way, and if more took notice, the world might be a better place to live in. Both albums come with an extensive booklet containing lyrics and brief explanations about the songs. Both are very nicely sung and presented. With 23 tracks on Lifeline Extended and a whopping 37 tracks on And Still We Sing, there has to be something here to please everyone. Both the albums could be also filed under essential folk history.

[Peter Massey]