Anne Feeney, the American folk singer and activist who described herself as a “performer, producer, hellraiser”, has died of Covid-19 at the age of 69.
Her daughter Amy Sue Berlin announced the news in a Facebook post calling her “brave, brilliant, beautiful … We were very lucky that she fought hard enough to open her eyes, and gave us a few days to join her. before she finally decided it was time to let go. “
Feeney was born in Pennsylvania in 1951 and grew up near Pittsburgh. Feeney started playing guitar as a high school student and gave her first performance in an anti-Vietnam War demonstration in 1969. It was the beginning of a life where activism and music were mixed. after the release of her debut album Look to the Left in 1992, the first of a total of 12 albums. Her song Have You Been to Jail for Justice, later recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary, became an anthem for worldwide protest movements.
Peter Yarrow of that trio was one of those who paid tribute, saying that Feeney was “joyful and ardent in her determination to use her music to uplift those most marginalized and to push for more justice in the country.”
Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine called Feeney “a fearless and formidable force for justice and workers’ rights on stage, in the studio and on the picket”.
An advocate of unionization, she was the first female president of the Pittsburgh Musicians’ Union, and also co-founded the Pittsburgh rape crisis initiative Action Against Rape.
She married twice, first to employment attorney Ron Berlin in 1977, with whom she had Amy and son Dan. They divorced amicably in 1995, and she married Swedish artist Julie Leonardsson in 2002.