The New Song Library is a unique song resource library that collects and
preserves songs about people's lives, hopes and struggles, and
helps performers, teachers and community activists
share these songs with a wide variety of audiences.

The New Song Library was started in 1974 by Johanna Halbeisen.
The music comes from the lives and struggles of workers, women and men, elders
and young people, gays and lesbians, other minorities and Third World people.

      Contents

New Song Library at Work
What's in NSL
How you can use NSL
Information for Singers and Songwriters
You Can Help NSL Put Songs to Work
Write to NSL
Useful music links and web pages for musicians in NSL

A singer and storyteller sang songs from NSL
about disabilities at an accessibility arts festival
in Amherst, Mass.

The Unitarian Universalist Association

found songs through NSL for a nationally

distributed curriculum on racial justice used

with seventh and eighth graders.

Participants in a Spring Hill Center weekend
for adult children of alcoholics used songs from
NSL to help them deal with their feelings and experiences.

National Public Radio called NSL for

a song on animal rights  for a feature

on All Things Considered.

Arts with Heart, a performers' cooperative, came
to NSL to get songs for their Hunger Awareness
program put on in several Long Island communities.
 

A music teacher from South Hadley,

Mass. used NSL to prepare a

curriculum for Black History Month.

A singer in Washington, D.C., called NSL to check
on the words to a song she wanted to sing at a
rally about Central America.

NSL was a major resource for the

creation of the sing-along

song book Rise Up Singing

published by  Sing Out Magazine

NSL's recorded music is regularly
used on Undercurrents, a weekly current
affairs show, and other music shows  on
WMUA-FM, Amherst, Mass.

Cassette tapes consist mostly of live recordings made at concerts,
music festivals, song swaps and  People's Music Network  gatherings.

Record albums (on LPs, cassettes and CDs) include both individual artists
and anthologies, many on hard-to-find small labels.

The library also has songbooks, song indexes, and folk song magazines.

Some of the special collections:
 

Labor songs, both contemporary and historical

Recordings by gay and lesbian artists (partially funded by FLOWER, For the Love Of Women Economic Resources)

Tapes of workshops and song swaps from every  People's Music Network gathering from 1977 to 1989.

Civil Rights movement songs, and songs of other freedom movements around the world.

Collections of songs about parenting, growing older, family violence, addictions and spiritual growth.

60's-era recordings of the Weavers, Malvina Reynolds, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and many others.

Are you looking for songs on a particular topic or to serve a specific purpose in your work?

You can write or call about your song needs. The director will assess what NSL has that can help you and collect lyrics or make a tape (subject to copyright laws and the wishes of the artist). You can get information on how to purchase the music you need. You can make an appointment to visit the library and browse or do your own research. The collection does not circulate.

As a singer and songwriter, you can make your songs accessible to many audiences through NSL. We do this in ways that are sensitive to your needs and goals as an artist.

NSL is a nonprofit tax-exempt organization collecting music for educational use and historical archiving .

NSL's main purpose is to get your songs out to people who can use your music in their work and to do this in ways that support you as an artist. We depend on you as a songwriter and performer for this music, so our policies are designed to support you and your music as well as to serve the people who come to NSL for music.

NSL is an archive of songs about people's lives and struggles. Your CD, tape or songbook will become a part of the documentation of our music history.  NSL users who come to the library will be able to listen to your recordings. People who use NSL by mail ask the NSL staff to introduce them to songs on particular topics. NSL staff will make a tape of songs for the user on a requested topic. The user reads the NSL User Policy  and completes and signs the  NSL User Agreement  agreeing to use the tape only for the educational use stated.

NSL music is played regularly on the radio. Johanna Halbeisen hosts topical folk music shows on WMUA, 91.1 FM, Amherst, Mass.

NSL is consulted by songbook producers to select songs to include and to contact songwriters. The list of songbooks NSL has assisted include Winds of the People, We Raise Our Song Again, Rise Up Singing, Here's To the Women, Songs of the Spirit and a coming sequel to Rise Up Singing.
 

1.  Send NSL your CDs or tapes (CDs are preferred for airplay). Be sure to put NSL on your list of people to receive a promo copy of your new releases.

2. Include info on how to order your CD or tape, so NSL users (including the NSL radio audience) can order your music.

3. Send the lyric sheets to NSL if lyrics aren't included in your album. Having the lyrics to refer to when working on a research request or a radio show makes it a lot more likely we can use your songs.

4.  Send tapes of your performances for the historical archives and possible radio airplay. Your written permission is needed before they can be aired or anyone can copy any part of a performance tape.

5.  Tell us if you want a different policy for the use of your work. Check our user policy. Some performers need the exposure more than they need the money from an album. Some have written songs for a particular cause and want the songs used as widely as possible. Some may want their music in the archive but not to be copied in any way for NSL users. You can indicate your specific preferences when you put your music in the library.

NSL records, collects and preserves music of social justice movements. When you help the library, you not only help this music to be used now, you are helping maintain an important and unique archive of our social justice history.

 

• Make a donation. NSL is a research library providing many services to performers, teachers, and community activists. It is supported by donations and fees for research services.

• Tell others about NSL. If someone is looking for a song on a social justice topic, send them to NSL.

• Donate music: records, CDs, tapes, songbooks and periodicals, old or new. If you have put out an album, send NSL a copy and be sure to include ordering info so we can pass it on to library users who want your album.

Johanna Halbeisen, Executive Director
New Song Library
PO Box 295, Northampton, MA 01061
(413) 586-9485

johanna.newsong@rcn.com

 

 
 
 

Useful music links

Appleseed Recordings  sowing the seeds of social justice through music
Children's Music Network a must-see for children's performers
Digital Traditions Folksong Database key word search of a lyrics database
Folkmusic.org to find many performers' home pages
Labor Heritage Foundation strengthens the labor movement through music and the arts
Ladyslipper Music  catalog and resource guide of music by women
People's Music Network  for Songs of Freedom and Struggle, international network
Rounder Records  for many contemporary folk musicians
Sing Out! Magazine folk music magazine
Smithsonian Folkways  for Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Josh White, Lead Belly, much more
Songs for Social Change  a network of Los Angeles-based songwriters and singers
Songs for Teaching  using music (K-adult) for education, a growing collection
Sounds Celebrating Resistance currently the archives of a 'zine on all kinds of resistance music 

Web Pages for Musicians in NSL