“Never Turning Back” by Pat Humphries is The Royal Peace Song of the Day for Labor Day, September 5th. It’s a great song for inspiration and cooperation. You can find the lyrics in the Rise Up Singing songbook on page 216.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcvqUpjy6jg]

More about why we chose this song for today…
Our friend Lisa Fishbein was a music teacher, choir leader, and labor activist. Her focus was on collecting, sharing, and performing music of the labor movement. Lisa passed away a few years ago, though her work carries on, through the musicians she touched, and the songs she taught all of us. Lisa Fishbein is one of the heroes we think of on Labor Day.

One of Lisa’s strong beliefs was that we should preserve the idea of “folk music” as being music of the folk, belonging to everyone, to be sung by everyone.

Lisa loved the song “Never Turning Back”, and taught it to her choir. She enjoyed songs with repetition and fun, so everyone could jump right in.

Here is video of Lisa leading the community in song at a 2007 peace demonstration:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRID3FI4ouE]

Excerpt from the song of the day,
“Never Turning Back”:

Gonna work for change together
Gonna work for change together
Gonna work for change together
Never turning back, never turning back.