Anne Feeney

Feeney was born in Charleroi, Pennsylvania,[1] to Annabelle (née Runner) and Edward J. Feeney. She had a younger sister, Kathleen. The family moved to the nearby Brookline neighborhood of the city of Pittsburgh in 1954.[2][3] She graduated from Resurrection Elementary School in 1964. Her grandfather William Patrick Feeney, who was a mine workers’ union organizer and violinist, was a significant early influence on Feeney.[1]

Feeney graduated from Fontbonne Academy, a Catholic girls' high school, in 1968.[4] She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1974 with a Bachelor of Arts degree,[5] and from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1978.[1]

After saving for one year as a high school student, Feeney purchased a Martin D-28 guitar in 1967 and gave her first performance at an anti-war protest in 1969, playing songs by Phil Ochs.[1] She played the same guitar for 40 years. In 1976, she joined a bluegrass band, Cucumber Rapids.[6] Feeney played rhythm guitar and acoustic double bass. The other members of the band were John Wiley Nelson (guitar), Paul Boas (harmonica), Gary Mohler (guitar and dobro) and Bill Vandivier (banjo, bass and trumpet). Later, Larry Zierath (mandolin) replaced Gary Mohler, and violinist John Mattes joined the band shortly thereafter. The group disbanded in 1977.

Feeney worked for 12 years as a trial attorney and served as president of the Pittsburgh Musicians' Union (the only woman ever elected to this position) from 1997 to 1998.[7]

The Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement were influential events that shaped her politics and songwriting. Feeney was also influenced by her grandfather, William Patrick Feeney, who was a mineworkers' organizer and violinist who also used his music in the service of political and labor causes.[4][1]

In 1972, she was arrested in Miami at the Republican National Convention where she was protesting Richard Nixon's re-nomination for President of the United States. The charges were subsequently dismissed. That same year Feeney attended the 2nd Annual Conference on Women and the Law. Inspired by the group that founded "Women Organized Against Rape" in Philadelphia, she began a campaign for a rape crisis center in Pittsburgh. The work begun by her committee evolved into Pittsburgh Action Against Rape, which still provides services to rape victims in the Pittsburgh area.[8]

Feeney has remained involved in community activism and regional performances at political and labor rallies. She was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World[9] as well as the American Federation of Musicians.[7]

Feeney toured North America and the world beginning in 1991 to perform and participate in political and labor rallies and events.[10] Feeney's music is frequently featured on the broadcast radio program Democracy Now! and her anthem "Have You Been to Jail for Justice?" is featured in the documentaries This is What Democracy Looks Like,[11] Isn't This a Time: A Tribute to Harold Leventhal[12] and Get Up/Stand Up: The History of Pop and Protest.[1]

Her first recording, Look to the Left, was released in 1992.[13] Since then she released several more albums, including Union Maid, If I Can't Dance, Have you Been to Jail for Justice?, and Dump the Bosses Off Your Back,[9] and, most recently, Enchanted Way (2010).

Feeney and her daughter, Amy Berlin, performed Feeney's song "Ain't I a Woman" at the March for Women's Lives in Washington, D.C. on April 25, 2004.[14] Feeney's music was recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary[10] and played in concert as well. Political cartoonist Mike Konopacki included her recording of "Union Maid" in a flash animation in 2003. She released her last album, Enchanted Way, in 2010.[15]

On November 19, 1977, she married labor attorney Ron Berlin.[16] She and Berlin had two children, Dan (b. 1979) and Amy (b. 1981). The marriage ended in divorce in 1995. In 2002, she married Swedish political artist Julie Leonardsson.[17]

In August 2010, while touring in Sweden, Feeney was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer.[18] She underwent treatment for that, as well as a MAC infection in her lungs. Her friends held benefit events to pay her living expenses. In 2013, the cancer was reportedly determined to be in complete remission.

Feeney died of complications related to COVID-19 at UPMC Shadyside hospital in Pittsburgh on February 3, 2021, aged 69, with her family by her side.[1]

• Official website
• Anne on Myspace
• Anne Feeney's blog
• Anne Feeney discography at Discogs