Tony Dolan - Cry, The Beloved Country

Tony Dolan - Cry, The Beloved Country

Entities such as the media and institutions of education here in the United States are entrenched by liberal or left-wing ideology. That's what some reputable and knowledgeable people say, so since they have values and are always correct on political issues and current events, the first sentence must be true. However, what has not been mentioned is that there is another area dominated by liberals. This is where perhaps those liberals have greater influence over the hearts and minds of people. That is folk music.



Folk music came to prominence in the early 1960s especially protest songs about rights of people everywhere, injustice and war. There were many folk singers on the same ideological wavelength. However, during the sixties, there were a few folk singers such as Janet Greene and Tony Dolan, the subject of this post, who offered a right-wing or "fair-and-balanced" perspective. Tony Dolan was a sophmore at Yale University when he made the record, Cry, The Beloved Country. The record contains "ten timely and provocative songs" along with liner notes by conservative icon William F. Buckley, Jr. It is quite evident that Tony has different concerns than the vast majority of folk singers. Tony sings about the evils of communism, liberating Cuba from that commie Fidel Castro along with the conservatives' favorite institution to blame for the bad things taking place in America, the New York Times which still happens to be the most prominent newspaper in the liberal media (so they say).

I am not an expert in folk music and I have listened to a very little amount of folk music in my life so my assessment may be off the mark. It seems to me that Tony Dolan is just trying to be a right-wing version of Woody Guthrie or Joan Baez in terms of lyrical and performance style. Not surprisingly, Tony Dolan remains unknown. I do not know what Tony is up to these days (most likely still helping to advance the conservative cause I suspect), but his stance is very much alive in mainstream American life.

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Abolish, Abolish! {2:42}

2. Father Against Son {3:41}

3. Join the S.D.S. {2:14}

4. Cuba Will Be Free {1:55}

5. Cry, The Beloved Country {3:36}

Side 2

6. Remember Bloody Budapest {3:14}

7. Harry Pollitt {2:58}

8. Every Time You Turn Around {3:36}

9. New York Times Blues {3:26}

10. My Song in the Wind {2:55}