As folk singer Si Kahn sees it, being a songwriter is a lot like having a ”permanent lottery ticket” in your pocket.
”The chances are that you`re never going to win,” Kahn says with cheerful candor, ”but you don`t actually know that for sure.”
Kahn`s lucky number has yet to come up, at least as far as big-time commercial success goes. The Charlotte, N.C.-based singer`s heartfelt songs of working-class struggles, leavened with good-natured humor and delivered in a warm, rich voice, probably won`t turn up on MTV anytime soon. In contemporary folk music circles, though, it`s a different story.
Kahn`s eight albums of original songs-along with his appearances on National Public Radio`s ”A Prairie Home Companion” show and at folk festivals around the country-have garnered him a glowing reputation as a leading light among socially crusading singer-songwriters.
In addition, nearly 50 of his songs have been recorded by other artists, from the Red Clay Ramblers to the Irish band Planxty.
”I really define myself as a songwriter who makes records and performs occasionally,” says Kahn, who will showcase songs from his new release, ”I Have Seen Freedom,” in concert at 8:30 p.m. Friday at the First
Congregational Church in Downers Grove. ”I like it when other performers carry my songs on to audiences I might not reach.”
Kahn, who has worked as a civil rights/labor organizer in the South since graduating with honors from Harvard University in 1965, describes ”I Have Seen Freedom” as a look back at his 25 years in the field of human rights.
”The theme is freedom and struggle, whether it relates to specific issues or the search for love in a tough world,” he says. ”Those are struggles that we all are part of.”
Kahn dedicated the album`s title song to James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, three civil rights workers who were murdered in Mississippi in the early 1960s. He`s aware that the names may be unfamiliar to younger members of his audience, but notes, ”Part of what you try to do with songs is stimulate questions.
”I may be a little more hard-core than a lot of songwriters in my material,” he acknowledges, ”but I try not to hit people over the head with messages. It`s important to keep a sense of humor. And whatever my political values, I accept the fact that when I perform, I am by definition an entertainer. When people pay hard-earned money to come to a show, they have a right to expect entertainment, not a political diatribe.”
Kahn, a rabbi`s son who grew up in Pennsylvania listening to Top 40 radio ”and lots of Jewish music,” became interested in folk music as a teenager. Later, at Harvard, he was drawn into the burgeoning Southern civil rights movement.
”I discovered activism, political music and the South all at once and fell in love with all of them,” says the singer, who released his first album in 1975.
After working in Georgia and Arkansas, Kahn moved to Charlotte to work in a union organizing campaign and stayed. In 1980, he founded Grassroots Leadership, the not-for-profit resource center for community organizers where he works practically full time. (Concert proceeds benefit Grassroots.)
”Most musicians do 150 or 200 shows a year,” says Kahn, who finds time to do about 30 concerts annually. ”I can`t. So it`s really quite amazing that I can do the kind of music that I do, on a part-time basis, and that so many people go out and buy the records.”
Lately, Kahn has been turning his songwriting talents in a new direction: musical theater. Next month, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater will present
”The Most Dangerous Woman in America,” a collaboration between Kahn and Ronnie Gilbert of the Weavers.
The one-woman musical, starring Gilbert, is based on the life of American labor radical Mother Jones. And in August, the prestigious Goodspeed Opera House, a Broadway developmental theater in East Haddam, Conn., will present
”Some Sweet Day,” a musical comedy Kahn describes as ”a kind of multiracial `Oklahoma!` ”
”It`s based on the history of black and white sharecroppers organizing in Arkansas in the 1930s,” says the singer, who wrote the show`s music. ”But it`s very much a traditional musical comedy, with lots of big dance numbers and love songs and humor. We`re hoping it will go to off-Broadway or even Broadway. It`s been really interesting doing a musical that can reach all kinds of people.”
