Trench Songs

Description

Trench Songs – The Fugitives

Trench songs were written by frontline soldiers during WW1.
Essentially protest songs, they were often parodies of well-known
tunes. The Fugitives have rewritten new melodies and music for these words, in
order to more readily access the emotional content of the lyrics, and to
continue folk music’s long tradition of reshaping songs over time — the
same way soldiers reshaped these songs in the trenches.
It’s the most stripped down album we’ve done.

During the pandemic, where war metaphors abound, these songs have
given us much-needed perspective around hardship, the sacrifice of
previous generations, and, mostly, what vulnerable communities can be
forced to endure at the hands of the government and military in a crisis.
We think about these soldiers when we sing, and hope you will too.