Well May the World Go

Well May the World Go

Tracklist

Telling the stories of hard-working people in a way that highlights the courage, deep personal experiences, and heroism found in their lives is a tradition for which Woody Guthrie is famous and which Larry Long continues in this new release. Eclectic and richly orchestrated, Well May the World Go reflects the complexity of the human experience in the world today. Annotation includes interviews and song lyrics. 36-page booklet. 55 minutes.

CREDITS

Smithsonian Folkways Records
SFW40114 | 2000

Telling the stories of hard-working people in a way that highlights the courage, deep personal experiences, and heroism found in their lives is a tradition for which Woody Guthrie is famous and which Larry Long continues.

For twenty-five years Larry Long has been traveling around the United States and visiting some distant countries, meeting people, listening to their stories, and writing songs about them that depict their hard lives in a way that presents them as vibrant, active individuals rather than facelss members of a class or some ethnic group. Like Woody Guthrie before him, he celebrates the specificity of individual lives and actions. An activist troubadour, he and his guitar have accompanied farmers’ movements, demonstrations, and community action activities. He has produced six previous CDs and several tapes and videos.

This recording is an innovation for socially activist music making in general. Long says, “I have come to the realization that we can’t talk about social issues without taking into account people’s spiritual lives as well.” Whether it be the power of the vision quest of Melvin Jones, an Anishinabe Indian living on the shore of Red Lake near the Canadian border (track 10), the importance of Christian faith in the life of Leaner “Sugar” Bell Johnson, an Alabama sharecropper (track 5), the support of Islamic prayers for a refugee from the violence in Somalia (track 4), the spiritual excitement of free through and espression in Moscow in the era of glasnost (track 9), the deep bond between a father and his daughter (track 12), or even the spiritual side of love between two people (track 8), these songs celebrate the courage of individuals who overcame tremendous difficulties to make meaningful lives for themselves, their families, and communities in the late 20th century.

Larry is introducing something new in his music as well. Songs about thee struggles of the dispossessed have for over a half-century been associated with a single voice and a guitar or banjo. In Well May the World Go, recorded in an era of multi-track recordings and carefully produced sounds, Larry’s music is as cople and rich as the lives he describes. He does this by collaborating with musicians from many cultural and musical backgrounds, mixing language and sounds that draw on the traditions of those he sings about, but with stylistic innovations of his own. The sounds here are not impersonal samples from other recordings: they are studio collaborations among artists created to communicate the complex interrelatedness of human experience in the world today.

Moses Asch, the founder of Folkways Records, wanted to record artists who had something important to say, and he abhorred the use of more than one or two microphones and mono recording. He issued many singer/songwriters on his label who had a lot to say, among them Woody Guthrie, Malvina Reynolds, Phil Ochs, Peggy Seeger, and Pete Seeger. Today, artists may use multi-track mixes, but the test is still whether they have something to say. Larry Long does.
– Dr. Anthony Seeger, Curator, Smithsonian Folkways

Album Review: Well May the World Go by Larry Long
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Larry Long’s Well May the World Go is a moving and masterfully crafted tribute to the working-class spirit and the enduring human will. Released by Smithsonian Folkways, this collection of songs draws from the same deep well of American folk tradition as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and other storied chroniclers of the people. With heart, humility, and reverence, Long gives voice to farmers, millworkers, immigrants, veterans, and elders—those whose lives are too often left out of history books but who form the backbone of a nation.

At the heart of Well May the World Go is Long’s gift for storytelling. These songs are not abstract laments or romanticized portraits; they are rooted in real experiences, drawn from interviews and oral histories. Long, like Guthrie before him, walks alongside the people he sings about. He listens deeply and reflects their truths back to the world in songs that honor their struggles and triumphs.

The title track, “Well May the World Go,” is a traditional folk song popularized by Pete Seeger, and here it acts as a kind of mission statement for the album. It’s a simple blessing—a wish for peace and hope—that opens the door for a journey through a mosaic of American life. What follows is a deeply human, often emotional ride.

One of the album’s standout tracks is “Rosie,” a song that tells the story of Rosie Green, an African American woman who raised a family while working tirelessly on the railroad and as a domestic worker in Alabama. The song honors her quiet strength and dignity, echoing the voices of generations of women whose unpaid and underpaid labor built homes and communities. Long’s gentle guitar and sincere vocals underscore the respect with which he handles her story.

“Dancing with the Angels” is a poignant tribute to Native American elders and cultural preservation. With its bittersweet melody and reflective lyrics, it acknowledges both the sorrow of loss and the resilience of indigenous traditions. In this track, Long demonstrates his sensitivity as a songwriter—never speaking over the people whose stories he shares but lifting them up through his music.

“Pine Bend Pulp Mill” captures the labor of millworkers in northern Minnesota, painting vivid scenes of the sweat, danger, and camaraderie found in the mill. The track brings to life the pride of craft and the toll of the job, without ever veering into sentimentality. Like Woody Guthrie’s “Hard Travelin’” or “1913 Massacre,” it tells the story of workers with unflinching honesty and empathy.

What sets Long apart is his ability to transform oral history into song without losing the personality and spirit of his subjects. His songs are not just about people—they are the people. He doesn’t flatten their experiences into clichés or overwrite them with his own ideas. Instead, he amplifies their voices, acting as a bridge between their stories and a wider audience.

“Yah Sure, You Betcha” provides a touch of humor and local color, spotlighting the voices of Scandinavian immigrants in the Midwest. The track has a lightheartedness that brings balance to the album’s heavier themes while still holding space for identity, migration, and adaptation.

The production on Well May the World Go is warm and intimate. Acoustic guitar, fiddle, banjo, and upright bass form a familiar folk palette, allowing the lyrics to take center stage. This sparse instrumentation is deliberate—it reflects the rawness and truth of the stories being told.

Smithsonian Folkways has long been a steward of American roots music, and this release continues that legacy with grace. Well May the World Go is not just an album—it is an archival document, a musical storytelling project that ensures the voices of everyday heroes are not forgotten.

Like Woody Guthrie’s songs of dust bowl refugees or Pete Seeger’s civil rights anthems, Larry Long’s work here is a reminder that folk music is more than entertainment—it is a vessel for truth, justice, and memory. These songs matter because the people in them matter.

In a time when digital overload and political noise can drown out the human voice, Well May the World Go offers a necessary pause—a chance to listen, to remember, and to feel. It is an album that belongs in classrooms, in community centers, and around family tables. It is, above all, an album that honors courage, one voice at a time.