Singer/Activist Barbara Dane on Dylan and 1960s Greenwich Village

Barbara Dane has been passionate about music and social justice for decades. By 1959, the jazz and blues singer had performed with Louis Armstrong, Willie Dixon, Memphis Slim and Jack Teagarden and in 1963 appeared on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. Dane, 93, is recognized as much for her activism as her music, championing civil rights and protesting the wars in Vietnam and Iraq.

A new documentary, The Nine Lives of Barbara Dane, is currently in production. The film traces Dane’s career and her evolution as a social activist. In 2018, Smithsonian Folkways released a 2-CD retrospective, Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs. Its 38 tracks feature collaborations with Lightin’ Hopkins, Doc Watson, Pete Seeger, Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, Art Hodes, and more from music recorded 1957–2014.

Dane’s early mentors included Seeger and Count Basie. Today Dane inspires singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt, who has fought for environmental protection and safe and sustainable energy. Raitt first heard Dane as a teenager in Los Angeles. “She’s always been a role model and a hero of mine—musically and politically,” Raitt told San Francisco radio station KALW. “I’m such a huge fan.”