Chatham Folk Singers Rally For Ukraine With New Song

CHATHAM, NJ — The Other Brothers formed in the 1960s, but the Chatham folk duo continues to create music about issues close to them. That includes the war in Ukraine, the nation from which singer Tom Farrell's maternal grandparents hail.

Farrell and Jim Fix came together for the latest Other Brothers tune: "The Fate of Ukraine." The song is set to the tune of Woody Guthrie's World War II ballad "Sinking of the Reuben James," with a music video featuring recent photos involving the crisis since the Russian Federation's invasion. (Watch the music video below.)

The war feels personal for Farrell, whose maternal grandparents came from a small village near Lviv in western Ukraine.

Neither member of The Other Brothers lives in Chatham now — Fix is on the Florida Gulf Coast, and Farrell is in Bend, Oregon. But they stay on top of local issues near and dear to them, including efforts to "save" Noe Pond from its previously uncertain fate.

The duo released "The Ballad of Noe Pond" in March 2021. At the time, the longtime owners of the local swimming hole sold the property to a developer, resulting in the Noe Pond Club's closure. Read more: Folk Singers Lend Voices In Effort To 'Save' Chatham's Noe Pond

The ballad became part of the all-out, local effort to "save" Noe Pond, which became successful in February after a group of club members formed a group of investors to purchase and preserve the pond.

Watch and listen to "The Fate of Ukraine" below:

Visit otherbrothersfolk.com for more music.

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