April 2001

George Mann & Julius Margolin
“Miles To Go Before We Sleep”
Running Scared Productions

            George Mann is a name synonymous with unions, labor relations and the like. He’s been an activist for years, and so has Julius Margolin, who is a former CIO organizer. The two of them manage to make music when they’re not making waves, and their second and current release, “Miles to Go Before We Sleep” is as forthright as the title suggests.

            Mann, who performs at various functions around the state, hooked up with Margolin to put out various songs of solidarity, protest and even a dash of humor. It’s pretty much a folk-type disc that has echoes in spots of the Grateful Dead and CSNY, similar to their 1998 debut, “Young and Younger.”

            Each of them takes turns singing, and both of them get their messages across pointedly, and if you listen hard, you can hear the Irish roots the two of them share. The opener, “Someone Robbed the Pension Plan,” illustrates what these two gentlemen are all about, as Mann sings and plays like a Pete Seeger of union causes. Thing is that it’s the 85-year-old Margolin who has some of the best moments on the disc.

             Margolin takes a humorous turn with “A Pedestrian’s Lament” (which truly did happen to him), and his spoken word soliloquy about comparing current-day poor Blacks with his time during the Depression that opens “We Demand a Living Wage,” is downright stirring and chilling. He also goes on about the perils of being a bar musician in “Heartbreak Nightlife.”

            Aside from the opener, Mann’s best stuff includes the closing “Union Burying Ground,” written by Woody Guthrie and “Percy Sang,” in honor of a friend who died just after singing the National Anthem prior to a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field. All in all, “Miles to Go Before We Sleep” is a very good album by two gentlemen who are trying to right perceived wrongs and keep them right, one song at a time.

   - Lou Friedman