Larry Long is an American singer-songwriter who has made his life work the celebration of everyday heroes. Author, historian, actor, film producer and broadcaster Studs Terkel called Larry “a true American Troubadour.” His non-profit organization "Community Celebration of Place" encourages community building through music and intergenerational story-telling. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Larry Long's work is rooted in the troubadour tradition. Throughout his long career he has written and performed hundreds of ballads celebrating community builders and history makers. While still in his early 20s, Long wrote a song for farmers fighting a high voltage power line Pope County Blues and traveled with a tractorcade of family farmers to Washington, D.C. to demonstrate for fair prices. It was then he met Pete Seeger, who inspired him to organize the Mississippi River Revival, a decade-long campaign to clean up the Mississippi river. In 1989, he assembled the first hometown tribute to Woody Guthrie in Okemah, Oklahoma, which today has evolved into the annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival with an array of established and upcoming artists. In 2001 Long sang for Rosa Parks at the 45th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Now a Smithsonian Folkways recording artist, Long has sung at major concerts and festivals throughout the United States and world, including , Winnipeg Folk Festival and at the Hollywood Bowl with Kris Kristofferson. In May, 2009, he performed at Madison Square Garden with Joan Baez and others for Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Celebration. PBS broadcast the concert nationally as part of its Great Performances series.
Elders' Wisdom, Children's Song
In 1989, while working with communities in rural Alabama, Long created an intergenerational process called Elders' Wisdom, Children's Song. The program brings community elders into the classroom to share their life histories. Based on these stories, the children create songs and lyrical work that celebrate the diverse and often unsung history makers of their community. Long organized Community Celebration of Place, a non-profit organization committed to intergenerational and cross cultural community building. Through CCP Long has organized dozens of community-school collaborations in Minnesota and across the nation. In song books and CDs Long has recorded the stories and music that have flowed from these collaborations.
