Jim Page (born 1949) is an American folk singer-songwriter and social activist.

Early life

Page was born in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

in 1949 and moved to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

in 1971.

Music career and activism

He is known for his political songs and for his activism in support of

buskers Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is pra ...

. He is one of the organizers of Buskerfest in

. He frequently appears with

Artis the Spoonman Artis, known professionally as Artis the Spoonman (born October 3, 1948), is an American street performer and musician from Seattle, Washington, who uses spoons as a musical instrument. He frequents the Pike Place Market accompanying singer/son ...

. He tours internationally, yet he still plays at

Pike Place Market Pike Place Market is a public market in Seattle, Washington, United States. It opened on August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the United States. Overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront on Pug ...

as a street performer. Page began playing guitar at age 15. In 1974, his

protest song A protest song is a song that is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of ''topical'' songs (or songs connected to current events). It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre. Among social mov ...

and

testimony In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. Etymology The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word ''testis'', referring to the notion of a disinterested third-party witness. ...

convinced the

Seattle City Council The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-l ...

to drop the requirement that street performers have a permit to perform.

Notable work

Page is well known in coffee houses and folk clubs in Seattle and the northwest, as well as in Britain and Ireland, where he toured for several years. His best known songs include "Fireside", his first song, written in 1967, Hiroshima Nagasaki Russian Roulette", an anti-nuclear weapons song from his 1976 album "On the Street Again", later covered by

Moving Hearts Moving Hearts is an Irish Celtic rock band formed in 1981. They followed in the footsteps of Horslips in combining Irish traditional music with rock and roll, and also added elements of jazz to their sound.Harris, Craig''Moving Hearts'' AllMusic ...

and

Christy Moore Christopher Andrew "Christy" Moore (born 7 May 1945) is an Irish folk singer, songwriter and guitarist. In addition to his significant success as an individual, he is one of the founding members of Planxty and Moving Hearts. His first album, ...

, "On the Street Again", "Time Enough for Questions When the Killing's Done", about the eternal quest for a 'man of honor', "Cultus Bay Serenade", "Miles and Miles", about the modernization of the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

, " Anna Mae", "An Old Pair of Red Shoes", and " Gasworks Park". He has also questioned US involvement in the

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Discography

*''A Shot of the Usual'' – Whid-Isle Records, LP, 1975 *''On the Street Again'' – Whid-Isle Records, LP, 1976 *''Hot Times'' – Whid-Isle Records, LP, 1979 *''In the Act'' – First American Records, LP, 1980 *''This Movie Is For Real'' – Nacksving, LP, 1982 *''Visions in My View'' –

Flying Fish The Exocoetidae are a family of marine fish in the order Beloniformes class Actinopterygii, known colloquially as flying fish or flying cod. About 64 species are grouped in seven to nine genera. While they cannot fly in the same way a bird d ...

, LP, 1986 *''More Than Anything Else in the World'', 1993 *Jim Page & Artis: ''On The ~~Street~~ Sidewalk Again'',

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in th ...

, 1994 *''Whose World Is This'', 1997 *''Heroes and Survivors'', 1997 *''Gettin Squeezed'', 1999 *''Music From Big Red'', 2001 *''Collateral Damage'', 2002 *''Human Interesting – A Temporary Retrospective'', 2002 *''Seattle Songs'', 2004 *''Head Full of Pictures'', 2006 *Jim Page & Artis: ''After All This Time'', 2007 *''I See What You Mean – Jim Page in Nashville'', 2007 *''Ghost Bikes'', 2010 *''A Hand Full Of Songs'', 2017 *''Pretty Simple'', 2020 *''The Time is Now'', 2022

References

External links

Official homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Page, Jim Musicians from Seattle 1949 births Living people American folk singers Singer-songwriters from Washington (state) Political music artists