Steal Away - Songs of the Underground Railroad

Kim & Reggie Harris | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 20, 1998)
• Original Release Date: January 20, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Appleseed Records
• ASIN: B000005BPI
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,306 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Sing Out!, Summer 1999

"...A rich legacy of African-American folk songs...beautifully rendered by Kim and Reggie Harris on this stunning recording."

Product Description

Before the Civil War, when a slave’s every action was monitored by his "owners," songs became a powerful and vital form of private communication and expression on Southern plantations. Emotions and information that a slave could never plainly voice could be sung in coded spirituals and folk songs. When daring slaves sought a path to freedom in the North on the so-called Underground Railroad, actually a series of travel routes and safehouses, these songs became tools to transmit information and advice about escape plans, to assert defiance, inspire runaways, and express fear and elation at the harrowing journey ahead.

On "Steal Away: Songs of the Underground Railroad," veteran folk duo Kim and Reggie Harris capture the power, spirit and messages of these encrypted songs in a rich and moving collection of largely traditional material. This album, the core of an ongoing series of workshops and presentations for students, teachers and families by the Harrises, has become an important educational tool and is stocked in many libraries and museums around the country.

The CD’s booklet includes informative, detailed liner notes and the lyrics to its 16 selections, shedding light on their hidden or inherent meanings: "Wade in the Water" reminded runaways to follow rivers and streams for direction, cover, and food; "Follow the Drinking Gourd" taught slaves to use the Big Dipper to find the North Star as a celestial signpost to freedom; "Let Us Break Bread Together" signaled secret planning meetings. Other traditional songs here such as "Oh Freedom," "Now Let Me Fly," "Free at Last," and "No More Auction Block for Me" require no decoding. These standards are joined by three contemporary songs – "Harriet Tubman," a tribute to the escaped slave who became one of the most famous Underground Railroad "conductors"; "Ain’t I a Woman," a musical arrangement of a famous speech by Sojourner Truth, a 19th century crusader dedicated to slavery’s abolition and women’s rights; and the Harrises’ own "Heaven is Less than Fair," based on narrative accounts of escaped slaves about their flight to freedom and the loved ones they left behind.

The Harrises present these songs with simple grace, using yearning harmonies and acoustic guitar accompaniment to convey the melancholy of slavery, the glimmerings of hope for a better life, and the joy of achieving a hard-won freedom.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Songs of power, protest and defiant hope, May 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Steal Away - Songs of the Underground Railroad (Audio CD)

Kim & Reggie have done it again with their latest release. This extraordinary collection features a diverse collection of the "code" songs of the Underground Railroad, the brave group of African-Americans who escaped the oppression of slavery in the U.S. South and then joined Harriet Tubman, the group's "foundress," in her quest to bring others to freedom. The songs in this collection truly touch every human emotion as they convey a history that is too often forgotten in our society which is more racially divided than ever. I am struck by the confident hope expressed by songs such as "Harriet Tubman/Steal Away," "Great Day," and "Wade in the Water." The story & accompanying song "Heaven Is Less Than Fair" brings home the brutality of slavery that separated families and loved ones from each other. All the songs carry a messaage for today, especially songs like "Ain't I A Woman?" as we discover that these words of Sojourner Truth could still in some ways be spoken today. This CD is a great listen, a great gift, and a great teaching tool. Highly recommended to all.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Beautiful Music, March 29, 2000

By 

Anne L. Watson (San Pedro, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Steal Away - Songs of the Underground Railroad (Audio CD)

This is quite simply the most beautiful music I've ever heard in my life - not just one song, but the entire CD.

Kim and Reggie Harris's voices are extraordinary, their harmonies are perfect, and their guitar work supports each song ideally. In addition, the selections are so moving that more than one of them brought me to tears.

I don't think the samples nearly do it justice.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bright Music From A Dark Period, December 12, 2009

By 

Gregor von Kallahann - See all my reviews

This review is from: Steal Away - Songs of the Underground Railroad (Audio CD)

When I was in high school back in the late 60s, I had a good friend who, like me, liked most kinds of music and was interested in exploring any and all genres. Except, in his case, he held what he called "Hootenanny Hoot" music in particular contempt. Near as I could tell, he was referring to the folk music of the early 60s, and I gathered what irritated him was the sheer, unmitigated earnestness the young white, mostly college educated artists (and their fans) displayed. I sort of understood where he was coming from but felt that he was being limited and limiting. Yeah, even at that age, most of my favorite music had a kind of ironic distance, and that was true even when it was socially conscious. But there was room enough in my universe for the overtly sincere, sometimes deadly earnest acoustic artists of the 1960s. In small doses, it was actually something of a healthy corrective to the emerging political anger and the nihilism that dogged its heels even before the dawning of the 1970s.

I wonder what my high school friend would say about more recent folkies, like, say, Kim and Reggie Harris. These are artists every bit as political (and, perhaps, "politically correct") as any of the emerging artists of the early 60s "folk scare." But in Kim and Reggie's case, they ARE African-American, which even back then lent you some street cred among white h.s. and college students.

If it's contemporary folk music's (at least)occasional didacticism that is a turn-off for some, well, I'd just remind them that some of that just goes with the territory. A great number of the non-superstar folk musicians I've met make a good part of their living--aside from concertizing--by developing educational programs for schools, libraries and churches. Kim and Reggie Harris are no exception, and many of their recordings show some trace of that. This thematic album, for instance, contains spoken, semi-dramatic segments that I'm sure they incorporate into their educational programs. Plus the liner notes are chock full of information about the Underground Railroad, the code language used in some of the Negro spirituals and work songs that clearly serve a didactic end.

But, hey, nothing wrong with that, especially if you have the musical chops to back the "message" up. Kim and Reggie do, in abundance. They are such accomplished singers and musician that there is no question that this entire album could simply be appreciated on strictly musical terms. Or people might enjoy the gospel numbers like "Swing Low," "Steal Away," or "Wade In the Water" as the spirituals they've come to know and love for their religious message. But putting them in their historical and cultural context of the Underground Railroad--if done with real skill and artistry--can only enhance their meaning.

Kim and Reggie Harris are just the right people to pull this off. There is nothing dry or pedantic about this album. I won't say they make their "history lesson" painless exactly: learning more about this dark period in our nation's history can never be FUN, but by creating so many moments of real beauty in the telling of this harsh tale, they create an experience that begins to resemble transcendence.

I have no idea whether my high school friend is still quite so critical of didactic folk music these days as he was some 40 odd years ago. But I wouldn't mind playing STEAL AWAY for him as example of how music can be socially conscious and still be a thing of beauty at the same time. Or to put in another way, Kim and Reggie show us how music can be righteous, without being self-righteous. And that's something.