New track: The Chartist Anthem (extended version)

An Old Song Refreshed

The Chartist Anthem was one of the first songs we chose to develop for our Song on the Times album back in 2016. From the beginning, we felt like this song just wasn’t quite long enough. Then in 2018, as we were planning to perform the song for Christmas Celtic Sojourn, Brian O’Donovan had the same thought, so we jumped into action to find more verses. Since there is lots of Chartist poetry, we were able to find two more verses that we felt fit in with the flow of the song as well as having the matching meter. Though we only ended up singing one of those extra verses for the Christmas Celtic Sojourn show (and you can see a video of that performance here!), we like the arc of the song with both the two new added verses.

We performed The Chartist Anthem in our New Year’s Eve livestream a few months ago, and a few observant audience members asked about the extra verses in the comments, having noticed that these aren’t in the recorded track on Song on the Times. As this expansion happened after the album was recorded and released, this updated longer version isn’t recorded anywhere … except here just for you! 🙂

Chartist History

In the 1830-40s in England, the Chartists rose up as a working class, grassroots movement calling for voting rights. The demands in The People’s Charter include tenets we now consider to be the foundation of modern democracy, such as the right to a secret ballot, and in a time before cars, telephones, and the internet, the Chartists delivered over a million signatures in support of their demands to Parliament in giant wagons. Their movement, however, was unsuccessful in its own time and most of the leaders died never having seen the things they fought for come to pass. Almost two centuries later, however, we take for granted that these rights are part of democracy. 

Fighting beyond one lifetime

For us, this song speaks to the importance of fighting for things beyond ones own lifetime, and fighting for what is right, not just what is politically expedient. As the guest author for this piece in our songbook, Eliza Carthy writes: “Progress feels slow; it is slow. It is the process of generations and imperfect steps. The Chartist Anthem speaks not only to the long and unending nature of struggle, but also to the power we hold and the progress we make through unrelenting persistence.”

THE (new) CHARTIST ANTHEM

Melody: Ben Boucher

Arranged by Windborne

Words: Ben Boucher, Ernest JonesH