Run for Freedom Available Now On Digital Platforms Worldwide THROUGH LARRY LONG MUSIC IN ASSOCIATION WITH ROCK THE CAUSE RECORDS
Larry Long’s lost classic Run For Freedom has been reissued and remastered digitally for the first time. Run for Freedom is a tapestry of working-class anthems and social justice hymns from a bygone era that still speak urgently to the social and environmental justice activations of the present day. We encourage you to discover Run For Freedom for yourself and dig deep into the legacy of one of America’s still-living folk greats!  – Scott Herald, Rock the Cause Records  (Click to stream or download)
From Woody Guthrieâs America, Larry Long has come a-singing and organizing, his dog Dubious at his side, his guitar slung handsomely over his faded work shirt. Long hasnât made a record in a number of years and if you studied his calendar, youâd see why he hasnât had the time. For one he spent three years organizing chapters up and down the Mississippi ver, trying to clean up the Big Muddy. Two, heâs put in a lot of time singing for the American Indians and their numerous causes, not to mention Central American peace committees, farmers who are about to lose the seat of their pants plus their land, and just about anyone else who asks to be on his mailing list.
So, Run for Freedom is a long-time a-cominâ, but itâs come out real good (as they say down on the farm) in the long run. Moving to the city from his little Granite City abode in St. Cloud has sharpened his musical wits and exposed him to a wide range of non-folkie players, most of whom he uses judiciously and, in the case of Billy Peterson, the grand Twin Cities bassist, poetically. Petersonâs playing on âMichaelâ is as spirited as it can get without drawing to much attention to itself. And although the ubiquitous Claudia Schmidt falls apart on âIt Feels OK,â crumbling into the contagious laughter Long can elicit with his own big grin and muse, thatâs OK, too. âCause throughout âRun for Freedomâ a genuine spiritless remains â even when the story is told at the expense of songcraft, âAnna Maeâ is a case in point. The song seeks to immortalize people such as Anna Mae Aquash, a recent Indian hero, and by some accounts, including Longâs, a martyr for a human and just cause â Indian rights. The message gets in the way, but the emotion runs so true within the tale that it finally doesnât matter whether the songs itself works.
The rest of Longâs second record is chock full of American folksinger attributes â tuneful melodies and strong lyrics looped over tunes about the wide panorama of North Americaâs varied regions. It has what John Wayne called âtrue gritâ.
In âBlue Highwayâ Long confirms the sentiment of William Least Heat Moonâs travelogue, âBlue Highwaysâ. Both are about life on the road, as so many good American stories are, and Long underlines the same dimension: the unseen people who live along those untraveled backroads and affect us with their invisibility. (Long penned this song as he watched the river near St. Anthony Falls and claims that he never laid eyes on Moonâs best seller).
The passing of causes and individuals â whether their American Indians or farmers resorting again to penny sales Long sings about in âGrandmaâs Penny Saleâ â represents an important time in American history. The folk singer has always been there to record his or her version of these transitions, whether theyâre tragic or magical, (the feeling behind âSacred Black Hillsâ covers both). To his credit, Longâs written and recorded the transitions of our time in one of the finest national anthems the USA has ever heard â âAmerican Hymnâ â a deep song that makes room for everyone, regardless of political motivation or how you feel about corporations or fishing rights on Leech Lake.
Larry Long has a pretty good idea about whatâs bad in America. But more importantly he understands itâs people. So, when heâs singing these songs, heâs really just singing about me and you, and how we stand above what some other folkie once called âthe fruited plainâ. The patriot who wrote those lines would do well to check out the âRun for Freedomâ LP. The population has changed quite drastically â more newborn babies, worldwide immigrants, and illegal aliens everyday â since âpurple mountainsâ majestyâ was an âin phraseâ.  Long might be able to provide quite a few new lines for âAmerica the Beautiful.â Knowing his budget for such endeavors, itâs likely heâd work cheap with this fellow songwriter, providing, of course, the chap picks up a copy of this vinyl history.  – Martin Keller | City Pages| 1984