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LISTEN: Si Kahn, ā€œBeen a Long Timeā€

Nov 3, 2021

Artist: Si Kahn
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
Song: ā€œBeen a Long Timeā€
Album: Been a Long Time (released in 2000, reissued 2021)
Release Date: October 15, 2021
Label: Sliced Bread Records

In Their Words: ā€œI never waited in a house built of grey rock and stone for Gabriel Kahn, my fatherā€™s father, my grandfather, my Zade to come home from a job on the railroad. But itā€™s also true that after ā€˜Gabeā€™ deserted the Czarā€™s army in Russia, he indentured himself to the Canadian Pacific Railway, a yearā€™s labor in return for shipā€™s passage to Canada, swinging a pick, digging with a shovel as they built the roadbed and laid the track. Did hearing his stories, told in Yiddish-tinged English, inspire me to write the song ā€˜Been a Long Timeā€™? I donā€™t know. Itā€™s been too long a time. But listening to the song now for the first time in many years, I am grateful to welcome him home.ā€ ā€” Si Kahn


Photo Credit: Janice Jo Lee

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