Fred Small

Cambridge, Massachusetts resident Fred Small channeled his political insight, human compassion, and environmental concern—qualities that first prompted him to pursue a law degree—into folk-rooted songs that have long served as eloquent vehicles for those themes. His compositions have examined topics as varied as homosexuality in the military, the unnecessary difficulties confronting the disabled, radioactive frogs, and a moose’s infatuation with a cow. Numerous performers have interpreted his material, among them Pete Seeger, Rosalie Sorrels, the Flirtations, Steve Gillette, and Priscilla Herdman. In 1992 the song “Everything Possible” closed the AIDS benefit musical Heart Strings.

As grandnephew of famed painter Thomas Hart Benton, Small entered adulthood already oriented toward intellectual endeavors. He earned Phi Beta Kappa honors upon graduating from Yale University, then obtained both a law degree and a master’s degree in natural resources policy at the University of Michigan. Although his parents’ record collection, heavy with Kingston Trio albums, provided early listening, Small did not treat music seriously until his early twenties; he wrote his first song only hours before sitting for his initial law-school examination.

Following graduation he joined the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston as a staff attorney. Even as a stable career seemed assured, songwriting claimed an increasing share of his attention. Performances at area folk clubs and coffeehouses quickly earned notice for his witty, politically tinged material. Those perspectives made him a frequent attraction at political and antinuclear rallies, including the nationally broadcast Musicians United for Safe Energy concert held at New York’s Battery Park in 1978. The strong audience response encouraged him to leave his legal post and redirect his energies toward singing and songwriting.

His first album, Love Will Carry Us, appeared in 1981. While that release centered on acoustic guitar and voice, later recordings enlisted growing instrumental and vocal contributions from leading New England folk musicians. On March 26, 1993, accompanied by fiddler Johnny Cunningham, guitarist and mandolinist John Curtis of the Pousette-Dart Band, and background vocalist Catherine David, Small taped the live set Everything Possible: Fred Small in Concert at the Old Cambridge Baptist Church. After the turn of the millennium the Aquifer label issued his album Only Love. Small was ordained a Unitarian Universalist minister in 1993 and, in 2008, became Senior Minister at the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Cambridge; he also serves as co-chair of Religious Witness for the Earth, a nationwide interfaith environmental network.