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Tom Juravich -- Click to enlargeTom Juravich got his start as a performer singing for workers and their unions on picket lines, at rallies, and in meeting halls.  Now, twenty years since the release of his first album, Tom Juravich is one of the leading singer/songwriters whose music remains firmly rooted in the labor movement.  As Richard Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, put it: "Tom Juravich captures the drama of our history and brings it forward with a vitality and vision that is inspiring to all of us."

Tom Juravich represents the very best in contemporary labor music.  With his strong voice and solid guitar, Juravich has achieved national recognition for his hard-hitting songs about the struggles of working people.  As one reviewer of his most recent album wrote: "From the opening blast, Billy Ed Wheeler's "Coal Tattoo", through the classic union ballad "Which Side Are You On?," Tom's rumbling voice and straight ahead delivery hit the mark squarely and without compromise."  Whether working alone or with his hard-driving No. 9 Band, his music speaks to people.  It rouses, inspires and points with hope and determination toward the future.

Tom Juravich has released three albums to date, most recently A World To Win and Out of Darkness, both on the Flying Fish/Rounder label.  Tom's first album, Rising Again, was produced by the UAW in the first such undertaking by a major union in more than twenty years.  The title cut, "Rise Again," was featured in the "New Voice" video produced for the campaign by John Sweeney, Richard Trumka, and Linda Chavez-Thompson and is fast becoming labor's new anthem.  As John Sweeney has often said, "As I travel the country, I can feel what Tom Juravich calls "the spirit rising."

Over the past two decades Tom Juravich has performed for hundreds of labor groups across the country, including major appearances at the international conventions of the UMWA, UFCW, APWU, UAW and others.  His songs have been featured in a number of labor films and videos produced for ACTWU, SEIU, UPIU, LIPA and IUD, as well as in labor songbooks, including Pete Seeger's Carry It On.

Tom Juravich is also the Director and Professor at the Labor Center at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.  Juravich is author of Chaos on the Shop Floor, Commonwealth of Toil, and Ravenswood: The Steelworker's Victory and the Revival of American Labor, and numerous other publications about work and labor.  He has written extensively on music and culture and is currently editing a collection of contemporary labor songs.