Biography

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“I perform solo at most of my concerts, and always tell my audiences how much I wish they could hear ‘the band’ of musicians who create these albums with me,” explains George Mann, a former union organizer and activist based in Ithaca, New York, about his latest album, This Chain. “On this new album, our third in four years, we’ve found a wonderful mix of styles that bring so much to the songs. It feels more like a complete document than any of my other albums.” 

When recording began in March, George says “I only had a few new songs; I hadn’t been writing much in the year or so since A World Like This came out in October 2021. Last year, I cautiously resumed touring, but I got Covid in July 2022, four days after getting off the plane in Seattle, and blew a week of gigs in Washington and Oregon!” He was able to tour Australia for four weeks in October, his first in three years, and wrote the title song “This Chain” in a teardrop trailer while quarantining in California before going on to another week of gigs.  

“When the songs for this album began to come together, I saw that it would be less overtly political, and a little more personal in the song choices, than what people usually expect from me. I think that makes this album accessible to more people, and reflects a different, quieter outlook on life as I enter the next phase of mine.”
Also included are covers of Si Kahn’s “Aragon Mill,” Townes Van Zandt’s “I’ll Be Here in the Morning,” and “The Goodnight-Loving Trail” by Utah Phillips, all of whom George calls mentors and influences on his work. “I always look back on these songs, and these songwriters, who have guided me and helped me in so many ways, with fond memories and appreciation for what they have given us, and I am glad to be part of that chain of folksingers keeping these stories and songs alive.

“I struggle with questions of why I keep writing songs and making albums, and this one was not easy to make. But bringing back the core musicians from my recent albums— Michael Wellen and Doug Robinson in the rhythm section, Rich DePaolo handling so many guitar parts and harmonies, and Molly MacMillan on piano and keys— was so much fun. They make it look so easy and in Will Russell’s beautiful old church at Wilburland, the songs sound so warm. 

“We began with three songs, then slowly, a few more came and there were eight, and, eventually, the eleven songs that make up this album. “Down in the Dumps Tonight” and “If I Could Turn Back Time” were written and recorded in the last weeks of the project, as we had begun mixing the album, and three other songs ended up on the cutting room floor. This album, these 11 songs, feel whole, complete, kind of like a chain, if you’ll pardon the pun.”