Bruce Young says the songs he will perform and teach at the Cranberry Public Library next Thursday have a strong point of view.

His program, "Songs of the Labor Movement," is likely to appeal to people who don't see the words "liberal" or "socialist" as insults, he explained in an interview this week.

"The last time I did this program in Pittsburgh, people brought along their own copies of the "Little Red Songbook," he said.

First published in 1909 by the Industrial Workers of the World, the "one big union" known as the Wobblies, the book has gone through at least 36 editions. It includes labor ballads such as "Solidarity Forever" and the "Internationale."

He'll be performing numbers from that source and by writers such as Woody Guthrie and Joe Hill.

"I'll talk about the historical and social context of the songs," he said. "Then I'll sing, and I'll teach the audience the choruses," he said.

Many of the songs are sharp in their criticism of management, he said. "These songs were meant to be sung along with ... and they have a message for people struggling to obtain basic human rights," he said.

One song asks:

"Are you tired, forlorn and hungry?

Are there lots of things you lack?

Is you life made up of misery?

Then dump the bosses off your back."

Are such songs relevant in a time when a minority of American workers belongs to unions?

"It is important to remember labor history," he said. "And these issues keep coming up over and over again around the world -- the battle for a 40-hour week, sanitary, safe working conditions, an end to child labor."

His visit to Cranberry is funded by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council.

Mr. Young, 57, has been performing traditional folk music for almost 40 years. He also has had 13 years of classical music training.

Born in Connecticut, he grew up in several eastern states before enrolling at Penn State.

He began playing traditional fiddle and dance music in 1974 with the Penn State Folklore Society. He performed with the Tyrone-based Hilltoppers square dance band and later played country dance music for the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire for almost a decade.

In recent years, he has studied both dance calling, or prompting, for contra and country dancing and Suzuki violin teaching.

He continues to play and call dances across the Mid-Atlantic states and to teach in his studio, Fiddle Fantastick, in State College.

Mr. Young's program, "Songs of the Labor Movement, is scheduled for 7 p.m. next Thursday in the Cranberry library's meeting room.

The library's adult summer reading program also includes a technology fair beginning at 7 p.m. July 13. Representatives from area companies, including Armstrong Cable, Consolidated Communications and Ritz Camera.