A World Like This

Seasoned producer and performer of what he describes as ‘folk/roots/labour and protest music,’ George Mann is a former union organiser and activist based in Ithaca, New York, whose impressive resume includes working with the likes of Pete Seeger, Utah Phillips, Tom Paxton and Ani DiFranco.

Coming fast on the heels of last year’s The Coronavirus Sessions, most of A World Like This is a commentary on the impact exerted by COVID-19 on the American socio-political landscape. The music is straight-ahead old school folk and folk-rock performed by Mann and regular collaborators Doug Robinson (bass) and Michael Wellen (drums), along with Rich DePaolo (guitar and harmony vocal), Mary Brett Lorson (harmony vocal) and Molly Macmillan (keyboards and harmony vocal). A nostalgic bent to some of the songs conjures up the working class revolutionary idealism of the 60s (eg Si Kahn’s ‘They All Sang ‘Bread and Roses’’ from 1991), but doesn’t distract from Mann’s sometimes sardonic observations on the human condition, including misfit anxiety (‘A Cross and a Beer’), right-wing lunacy (‘We Only Turn Right Around Here’), a certain former US President (‘I Don’t Miss What’s-His-Name at All’) and the best laid plans put on hold by a viral pathogen (‘Maybe Next Year’).