Why I play Union Songs
When I met my wife Gwen, an organizer for Unite Here Union, I saw the good things she was helping to accomplish for working class folks, and realized that these good ideas needed some help on the artistic front. I decided to merge all my previous musical styles to help give the International Labor Union movement some current sounding fight songs and adopted their cause as my own.
When I’m not playing Union Songs I’m often playing Irish Folk music, which always had a strong theme of standing up and fighting for your rights. My musical career goes way back, and includes Hardcore Punk in the 80′s and 90′s which also had strong political themes. Between the Punk and the Irish I played a bunch of American-based music like Rockabilly and Country and Rock and Roll and recorded a couple of albums in Nashville. The Old-School Country music is real working peoples’ music and talks about ordinary folks’ day to day lives. So…. I guess it just came naturally that when I decided to start writing Union songs I would combine the political themes, the struggle, the anger and the downhomeness,(plus some Picket Line chants) to come up with some tunes that might appeal to the average working person.
I composed my first Union song in 2005 and since that time have contributed music to rallies, picket lines and other Union events in the US, as well as international nightclub and festival appearances. In 2008, my Union Rock band, The Rabble Rousers recorded a CD, “New Hard Times” of mostly self-penned (but including remakes of some classic) tunes in support of the Union movement. In 2010 I helped Connecticut Democrats in their sweep of the midterm elections by writing, recording and touring my song “Put The Car In D”. In 2011 HBO chose to use a track off the ”New Hard Times” for an episode of its new series “Enlightened”.
Bill Collins and The Rabble Rousers Discography:
2008: “New Hard Times” CD
2009: “Health Care Is Our Right” Internet single – free download
2009: “Alle Gegen Alle” compilation CD – A tribute to Slime, the iconic German Punk band
2010: “Put the Car In ‘D’ ” single – free download