Mat Callahan is a musician and author originally from San Francisco, where he founded Komotion International. He is the author of Sex, Death & the Angry Young Man;Testimony; and The Trouble with Music as well as the editor of Songs of Freedom: The James Connolly Songbook. He currently resides in Bern, Switzerland.
Listen to Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore at the Marxist School of Sacramento on January 16th, 2014 HERE.
Check out this great Interview with Mat Callahan May 2017
Check out Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore singing the songs of James Connolly at the Starry Plough in Berkeley, California January 26th, 2014.
Working-Class Heroes (CD)
Author: Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore
Publisher: PM Press/ Free Dirt
ISBN: 9781629637624
Published: 4/2019
Format: CD
Size: 5.5×5.5
Length: 58 minutes
Subjects: Music/Folk & Traditional / Labor & Industrial Relations
Praise
“The world needs more thinkers like Mat Callahan.”
—Jared Soper, SLUG magazine
Working-Class Heroes: A History of Struggle in Song: A Songbook
Editors: Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore
Publisher: PM Press
ISBN: 9781629637020
Published: 9/2019
Format: Paperback, mobi, ePub, PDF
Size: 8.5×11
Page count: 96
Subjects: Music/Folk & Traditional / Labor & Industrial Relations
Praise
“This is one of the most captivating, intimate, no-holds-barred books of
working-class history I have ever read. And it’s a songbook, too!”
—David Rovics
“The world needs more thinkers like Mat Callahan.”
—Jared Soper, SLUG magazine
The Explosion of Deferred Dreams: Musical Renaissance and Social Revolution in San Francisco,
SKU: 9781629632315
Author: Mat Callahan
Publisher: PM Press
ISBN: 9781629632315
Published: 1/2017
Format: Paperback, mobi, ePub, PDF
Size: 6 x 9
Page count: 352
Subjects: History-San Francisco/Music-1960s/Cultural Studies
Praise
“Mat Callahan was a red diaper baby lucky to be attending a San Francisco high school during the ‘Summer of Love.’ He takes a studied approach, but with the eye of a revolutionary, describing the sociopolitical landscape that led to the explosion of popular music (rock, jazz, folk, R&B) coupled with the birth of several diverse radical movements during the golden 1965–1975 age of the Bay Area. Callahan comes at it from every angle imaginable (black power, anti–Vietnam War, the media, the New Left, feminism, sexual revolution—with the voice of authority backed up by interviews with those who lived it.” —Pat Thomas, author of Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965–1975
“All too often, people talk about the ’60s without mentioning our music and the fun we had trying to smash the state and create a culture based upon love. Mat Callahan’s book is a necessary corrective.” —George Katsiaficas, author of The Imagination of the New Left: A Global Analysis of 1968
“Something very special took place in San Francisco in the Sixties, generating waves of social and aesthetic motion that still ricochet around this planet. The Explosion of Deferred Dreams takes a clear-eyed, politically engaged view that separates truth from propaganda. Grasping why the time became legendary and how society dealt with the challenges it created is what Explosion is about—and it accomplishes this critical task with intelligence and clarity.” —Dennis McNally, author of A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead
“In this landmark work, Mat Callahan painstakingly braids disparate threads of the rich tapestry of San Francisco—music, politics, race, culture. In this vast, panoramic portrait, Callahan digs out social/political undercurrents that have never been more thoroughly explored.” —Joel Selvin, Summer of Love: The Inside Story of LSD, Rock & Roll, Free Love and High Times in the Wild West
Songs of Freedom: The James Connolly Songbook
SKU: 9781604868265
Author: James Connolly • Edited by Mat Callahan • Preface by Theo Dorgan • Foreword by James Connolly Heron
Publisher: PM Press
ISBN: 9781604868265
Published: 9/2013
Format: Paperback, mobi, ePub, PDF
Size: 6 x 9
Page count: 96
Subjects: Music-Lyrics/History-Ireland
Praise
“My grand aunt Nora Connolly, in her book We Shall Rise Again,
said of rebel songs: ‘For more may be remembered of a country’s history
and treasured deep in the heart of a people through a song or a poem
than through the pages of a history book’—how true. It was Nora who
taught singers her father’s songs. ‘After 1916,’ she said, ‘I never did
any more singing’—how sad. Now with this project and through the great
talent and commitment of all involved we can hear Nora sing again.”
—James Connolly Heron, great-grandson of James Connolly and author of The Words of James Connolly
Book Events
Reviews
- Working-Class Heroes Songbook in Philosophy Football
- Working-Class Heroes in Folker— German Music Publication
- Working-Class Heroes Finds Striking Relevance in Songs of Past Struggles
- Working-Class Heroes CD: A Review
- Working-Class Heroes (CD) in The Vinyl District
- Working-Class Heroes (CD) in Revolution in the Air
- Working Class Heroes: A History of Struggle in Song in Socialism and Democracy
- Warm San Francisco Nights: A Review of The Explosion of Deferred Dreams
- This Weekend I’ll Also be Listening to…Songs of Freedom from the James Connolly Songs of Freedom Band
- The Explosion of Deferred Dreams: A Review
- Songs of Freedom: The James Connolly Songbook
- Singing songs for the people: James Connolly comes to life in a new book of revolutionary songs: A Review
- Revolutionaries Lived in San Francisco but Wore No Flowers in Their Hair
- People’s Music for the Soul
- Musician Mat Callahan Explores San Francisco Politics in The Explosion of Deferred Dreams
- Mat Callahan talking about Working-Class Heroes on Against the Grain
- Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore Celebrate Women of the American Labor Movement
- Live Review: Mat Callahan sings James Connolly
- How to Read an Election: Working-Class Heroes on Philosophy Football
- Folk Singers Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore Show That a Working Class Hero Was Something to Be
- Explosion of Deferred Dreams in Socialism and Democracy Journal
- Explosion of Deferred Dreams in Nixbeat
- Explosion of Deferred Dreams in Midwest Book Review
- Explosion of Deferred Dreams in Donovan’s Literary Service
- A Political Album That Will Make You Smile
Interviews
- Free Leonard Peltier— A New Song by Mat Callahan
- Songs of Struggle, Songs of Hope— Mat Callahan on Against the Grain
- Working Class Heroes: A History of Struggle in Song— Recorded at the 2019 Howard Zinn Book Fair
- Working Class Hero: Mat Callahan on High Plains Morning
- Mat & Yvonne performing Working Class Heroes at the Bundy Museum in Binghamton, New York
- Explosion of Deferred Dreams in City Lights Summer of Love Reading List
- Explosion of Deferred Dreams: Stadtrand on the Swiss radio station Radio X
Working Class Heroes: A History of Struggle in Song at the Howard Zinn Book Festival 2019
Mentions
Blog
- Songs of Slavery and Emancipation— the Film
- It’s Right to Rebel
- Proposal for Social Transformation
- Free Leonard Peltier— A New Song by Mat Callahan
- Songs of Struggle, Songs of Hope— Mat Callahan on Against the Grain
- Discussions with David— and Mat Callahan— By David Rovics
- Working Class Heroes: A History of Struggle in Song— Recorded at the 2019 Howard Zinn Book Fair
- If You’re Going To San Francisco Be Sure to Disregard All That Happened There
- Working Class Heroes project
- Music and Historical Memory