We Shall Overcome (Bernie Sanders album)

We Shall Overcome is an album by American politician Bernie Sanders, recorded and released in 1987. The album combined folk music and spoken word, narrated by Sanders. He was the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, at the time of the album's release. The album was remastered and re-released in 2014 and gained wide exposure during Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign.^[1]

We Shall Overcome
BurlingTown cassette cover
Studio album by Bernie Sanders
Released	December 12, 1987
Recorded	November 1987
Studio	White Crow Audio (Burlington, Vermont)
Genre	Folk spoken word
Length	26:31 (Side A)
Label	BurlingTown
Producer	Todd Lockwood Douglas Jaffe

Background

In 1987, Burlington-based music producer Todd Lockwood was sipping coffee at Leunig's Bistro when he came up with the idea to approach the city's mayor, Bernie Sanders, to record a musical project at his studio, White Crow Audio.^[2] Lockwood wrote a letter to Mayor Sanders and a meeting was arranged at the mayor's office. Lockwood originally imagined the album as an audio portrait of Bernie Sanders, but Sanders saw it as an opportunity to tell a much larger story.

Sanders made a list of ten songs he would be willing to record, five of which made the cut for the album.^[3]

Because producer Lockwood found Sanders' musical skills inadequate to sing the folk songs on his own, he instead arranged for Sanders to speak the lyrics accompanied by a chorus of backup singers.^[2]

Commercial performance

It is estimated that the 1987 cassette tape sold about 600 to 800 copies,^[4][5] out of 1,000 that were produced.^[5] The 2014 reissue has sold about 3,000 copies as of March 2016.^[6] The album reportedly landed Sanders at No. 116 on Billboard's Top New Artist chart in February 2016.^[7]

Sanders signed a record contract in 1987 that would guarantee him royalties for any profits made, but did not receive any at the time due to the album's high production costs.^[4][8] In 2016, Sanders earned $2,521 in royalties for his participation in the recording.^[9]

Track listing

Side A

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Oh Freedom"	4:24
2.	"The Banks of Marble"	5:51
3.	"Where Have All the Flowers Gone"	5:48
4.	"This Land Is Your Land"	3:06
5.	"We Shall Overcome"	7:22

Side B

No.	Title	Length
6.	"A Conversation with Bernie Sanders"

Personnel

Credits are taken from liner notes of We Shall Overcome.^[10]

Band

• Andy Shapiro – piano
• Tom Berd – organ
• Don Sidney – electric guitar
• Mark Ransom – electric bass
• Jeff Salisbury – drums

Guest musicians

• Howard Mitchell – background vocals, chorus
• Ginny Peck – background vocals, chorus
• Emily Wadhams – background vocals, chorus
• David Weaver – background vocals, chorus
• Steve Rainville – background vocals
• Chris Bailey – chorus
• Nancy Beaven – chorus
• Marcia Brewster – chorus
• Dexter Brown – chorus
• Kathy Carbone – chorus
• Danny Coane – chorus
• Joanne "Little Joyce" Cooper – chorus
• David Daignault – chorus
• Frank Egan – chorus
• Dana Lavigne – chorus
• Tom Lyon – chorus
• Joe Moore – chorus
• Rick Norcross – chorus
• Michael Oakland – chorus
• Debbie Patton – chorus
• Pamela Polston – chorus
• KK Wilder – chorus

Narrative

• Bernie Sanders

Arrangements

• Don Sidney – musical
• Douglas Jaffe – harmony vocals

Technical personnel

• Chuck Eller – engineering
• Todd Lockwood – engineering, production
• Douglas Jaffe – production
• Adam Ayan – digital mastering
• Gateway Mastering – digital mastering

Artistic personnel

• Glenn Russell – photograph

Release history

Region	Date	Format	Label	Ref.
United States	December 12, 1987	Cassette	BurlingTown	[11][2]
	December 1, 2014	CD	Todd R. Lockwood Works	[12]
Worldwide		Digital download

See also

• American folk music
• Mayoralty of Bernie Sanders