POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Bragg Atop Barricades

How does a socialist folk singer fare at a time when world socialism is in upheaval? Quite well, thank you, in the case of Billy Bragg. The Englishman’s nearly 2 1/2-hour performance at the Coach House found him not only still manning the barricades, but dancing nimbly atop them.

Like his sister-in-arms Michelle Shocked, Bragg draws his politics more from compassion than a concrete ideology, and the thrust of his performance was to convey the spirit of his beliefs in a world of change with a very human emotion and wit.

Bragg composed the set Sunday from his older, guitar-based tunes and a wealth of new, unrecorded songs. His 1986 “Help Save the Youth of America” was updated to include the Gulf crisis, while retaining the same tag line: “You can fight for democracy at home / Not in some foreign land.” The most affecting of his new songs was the encore “Trust,” a harrowing song about the elevated importance of honesty and love in the age of AIDS.

Considering that he was preaching to the converted, Bragg spent far too much time explaining his positions rather than expressing them through his art. He repeatedly voiced a desire to inspire his audiences, something that would have been explicit in the performance were his talents better focused. And as affecting as Bragg can be at times, even a folkie saint like Phil Ochs would ultimately have been diluted by such a lengthy performance.