Photo Credit: Ginny Suss

Today, Sept. 16, Rhiannon Giddens has shared a new cover of Peggy Seeger’s protest anthem “How I Long for Peace” to mobilize fans for National Voter Registration Day. Delivered in collaboration with Nashville, Tenn.-based singer-songwriter Crys Matthews and the 60+ member female and nonbinary vocal collective Resistance Revival Chorus, the stirring treatment arrives as a call for civic responsibility as it voices a collective vision of a more just world. This urgent message is accompanied by a music video, featuring behind-the-scenes content of the intimate and cooperative recording process.

“When Crys asked me to collaborate on this with her I got really excited,” Giddens recalls. “I have been a longtime Peggy Seeger fan and think she has written an incredible song that says some hard but crucial things and most importantly allows space for us all to wish for a better world.”

Penned over two decades ago (and formally released on 2021’s First Farewell), Seeger’s “How I Long For Peace” is as prescient as ever today as Americans face one of the most important and closely contested elections of recent memory. The insightful track puts forward a vision for a world unburdened by violence, hypocrisy and greed, between an echoed refrain of the speaker’s yearning for a brighter future. In today’s version, the all-star chorus of activist artists resolves to an uncountable collective, voicing a longstanding and ever-growing demand for change: “O how I long for peace/ Among the peoples and the nation/ How I long to halt the plunder/ Of the wonders of creation/ O how I long for peace“

Seeger herself has testified to the soul-stirring effect of the Giddens-helmed cover, writing “Rhiannon, Crys, and Company have done an amazing interpretation of my song ‘How I Long for Peace. It really works and will take this simple song to new levels. Thank you, Rhiannon, as always—now it’s on its way!”

“While participating in the Library of Congress Archive Challenge, I came across a live video of Peggy Seeger singing ‘How I Long for Peace,’” Matthews recalled of the origins of the cover. “The words were so poignant and relevant even though the video I was watching was from 2007, which was almost a decade before when I had stumbled across it. I fell in love with it, and adapted it to feel like how I would sing it in my family’s church because that is where I first learned about social justice music and freedom songs.

“I carried that song with me for many years and then, one day, after seeing a post on Rhiannon’s Instagram about a student-led, antiwar demonstration she had witnessed while giving a commencement address, I sent it to her. Next thing you know, she and I are in a studio in NYC singing it with the Resistance Revival Chorus.”

Today’s offering is released in collaboration with acclaimed nonpartisan voter engagement organizations Joy to the Polls and HeadCount, both of which leverage the transformative power of music to inspire action through high-profile concerts and more. Joy To The Polls will use “How I Long for Peace” to kick off a campaign urging musicians around the country to write anthems of their own, giving voice to the issues at the heart of a new generation of voters. Other activities surrounding National Voter Registration Day include the Musicians for Kamala livestream event, which will broadcast tomorrow, Sept. 17.

Listen to “How I Long for Peace” on all streaming services here, and watch the official music video below.