Various Artists - Songs From A Stolen Spring

Updating the refrains of well-known peace songs from the U.S. charts, American and Arab artists sing multilingual duets.  The project, about the eternal struggle for freedom, has given birth to Songs from a Stolen Spring.  Featuring Blind Boys of Alabama, Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze, Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel, Soozie Tyrell (E Street Band) and more.

Updating the refrains of well-known peace songs from the U.S. charts, American and Arab artists sing multilingual duets.  The project, about the eternal struggle for freedom, has given birth to Songs from a Stolen Spring.

The album opens up with the Blind Boys of Alabama singing Richie Havens' classic "Freedom".  The song seamlessly blends with "A New Beginning" - a song from Egypt's Eskenderella that comes from the protests in Tahrir Square.

The album features performances from every genre including Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze, Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel, Soozie Tyrell (E Street Band), blockbuster film singer-songwriter Lisbeth Scott, American bluesmen Terry Evans and Mighty Sam McClain, and singer-songwriter Maria McKee.

It will also serve as an introduction to western listeners to the music of Palestine's Rim Banna, Lebanon's Tania Saleh, Egypt's Dina El Wedidi, Massar Egbari, and Ramy Essam, and Tunisia's Lobna Noomene and Mounir Troudi.
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Freedom songs across continents

Songs have shown themselves to be important weapons throughout history in the struggle for freedom. At decisive moments in the histories of many nations, people have turned to the streets and the squares to bring about change. Singing has always accompanied these waves of women and men marching for freedom. Recent examples include the anti-war and civil rights movements in the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s. A number of landmark songs of freedom were created during that period. Many of those well-known songs are still important weapons in the continuous battle against oppression.

What in the West has been named the “Arab Spring” brought so much hope when it started in Tunis in January 2011. But in all the countries involved, those revolutions have been stolen by forces of various kinds, from salafist militants to military coups. Still, people refuse to give up. In Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine people keep fighting, and they carry hope and faith that one day a new dawn of liberation will arise. Just as people at similar moments of struggle have done before them, Arab artists also created new songs, shared by the masses in the squares of Tunis, Cairo, Beirut, Damascus, Jerusalem and in many other cities. This album presents a few of their songs paired with some from the time of the American struggles. These songs show that humanity shares a fight that is continuously rolling across time and continents, our fight for freedom, self-determination and equality for all people. 

- Erik Hillestad, Producer

2-VLT-15256