Appleseed Recordings is delighted to inaugurate its new association with the groundbreaking singer/songwriter/feminist/activist Holly Near with the release of this historic 2-CD live set. Holly assembled this all-star team of folk musician friends to play a handful of concerts in the fall of 1984, and the recorded results were released in 1985 on her own label, Redwood Records (which has since closed its doors), as a 13-song album called HARP (an acronym bearing the first letter of each musician’s first name). When listening to past concert tapes recently, Holly found a trove of unreleased songs from the HARP shows. Between the quality of the rediscovered performances, and the potential for a longer, looser and more representative presentation of these great singers and musicians at play on CD than on the original LP format, HARP doubled in size to 26 songs (plus previously excised onstage banter) on two CDs for this delightful (and remastered) release, now subtitled A Time to Sing! The musicians had played together before in various combinations but never as a quartet, so there is much unique musical and personal interaction captured here.

Former Weavers Pete Seeger and Ronnie Gilbert, the irrepressible Arlo Guthrie, and Holly all brought favorite songs to perform. Selections include various Near and Guthrie originals, traditional folk standards (“Wimoweh,» “Twelve Gates to the City,« a stunning rendition by Ronnie of “The Water is Wide») and cover tunes ranging from Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man« (complete with trademark deadpan commentary by Arlo) to the late Steve Goodman’s “City of New Orleans» to Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.« With primary instrumental support by Pete, Arlo and pianist/ composer/ musical arranger Jeff Langley, the four voices can be heard in varying configurations, sometimes uniting in a multi-generational rainbow of brilliant harmony. For the HARP shows, presented amidst the havoc of the Reagan administration, “it was a good time to sing,» remembers Holly. “These were very intense times. There were wars raging all over the world. The women’s movement was reeling from the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment. AIDS was new and frightening. The gay rights movement was in full force. Here are four singers, different styles, different generations, same tradition. This is live and raw and real. And when I think about how spontaneous this recording is, I am impressed by the skill of this quartet. These are people who know how to sing and what to sing about.«