Billy Brag

Today, on the verge of the release of his eleventh and best album, Mr. Love & Justice, he is known as Billy Bragg by his loyalists worldwide yet he is still called Steven by his Mother and still referred to as the Bard of Barking by the press.Finding inspiration in the righteous anger of punk rock and the socially conscious folk tradition of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, Billy Bragg was the leading figure of the anti-folk movement of the ’80s. For most of the decade, Bragg bashed out songs alone on his electric guitar, singing about politics and love. With bitingly intelligent, warm and humane, lyrics, Bragg never neglected to write melodies for songs that were strong and memorable. Throughout the ’80s, he managed to chart consistently in Britain, yet he only gathered a cult following in America, which could be due to the fact that he sang about distinctly British subject matter, both politically and socially.