Our Song of the Day is ‘Song of the Lower Classes’, performed live by Anglo-American duo Cath and Phil Tyler. The song features on their album The Ox and the Ax which we reviewed here. The lyrics for this traditional song were written by Chartist leader and poet Ernest Jones. Jones, who knew Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels personally, joined the Chartist agitation in 1845. He quickly becoming its most prominent figure, and vigorously carrying on the party’s campaign on the platform and in the press. His speeches, in which he openly advocated physical force, led to his prosecution, and he was sentenced in 1848 to two years’ imprisonment for seditious speeches. The song featured in Notes to The People, a Chartist newspaper he conducted from 1850–1852 after being released from prison.
Cath and Phil have a few upcoming gigs:
25 May – Bakers Field, Kirkcaldy
26 May – The Waverley, Edinburgh
27 May – The Doublet, Glasgow
11 July – Topic Folk Club, Bradford
Photo Credit: Jason Thompson