Tag: gun violence

LISTEN: Julie Williams, “Big Blue House”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Julie Williams
Hometown: Tampa, FL
Song: “Big Blue House”
Album: Julie Williams EP
Release Date: May 12, 2023 (single); June 2, 2023 (EP)

In Their Words: “‘Big Blue House’ is a song about racism and violence through the eyes of a six-year-old girl, who is told by her father that she can’t play outside with the other kids, but she doesn’t know why. Originally written as a poem, the story came to me after reading the news of Keyon Harrold Jr., a teenager who was assaulted by a white woman who thought that he stole her cell phone. It made me think of the conversations that parents of color have to have with their children — that you might be a child, but some people in the world will see you as a threat. I knew that this story was special and that I had to bring it to life with my friend and one of my songwriting inspirations, Brittney Spencer. I brought her the poem written on scraps of white notebook paper and together we created the song that you can hear now.

“What really brought the magic was working with Nicole Neely — an amazing violinist and composer who arranged the strings and brought together an all-female lineup of players, including Monique and Chauntee Ross of the SistaStrings and Josée Weigland-Klein, to record the strings. Together with Gabriel and Gideon Klein’s production and Rodlin Pierre’s mixing magic, the song and stories came to life.

“I originally planned to release ‘Big Blue House’ with the rest of my EP that comes out on June 2, but after the recent Covenant Shooting, the expulsion of the Tennessee Three, and the continued news of gun violence and political inaction, I felt called to release the song and its message into this world. I wrote this song over two years ago, and it is heartbreakingly still relevant.”

Photo credit: Mackenzie Ryan

The Show On The Road – Iris DeMent

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

This week, we feature my conversation with beloved folk firebrand Iris DeMent. Born the youngest of 14 to a singing Pentecostal family in Arkansas and raised in California, DeMent released her iconic 1992 John Prine-endorsed debut, Infamous Angel, and has been creating poetic protest records and warm collaborations ever since (garnering two folk Grammy nominations along the way), culminating in her much anticipated and fiery new LP, Working On A World.

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Certain songwriters in the folk field will occasionally speak up about injustice or corruption — but with Working On A World, DeMent puts the protest front and center: honoring luminaries like Mahalia Jackson, John Lewis, Martin Luther King Jr. and even The Chicks for giving her hope that putting your principles and life on the line will help bend history towards progress and righteousness.

DeMent, who is now based in Iowa with her musician and collaborator husband Greg Brown (check out their biting co-write “I’ll Be Your Jesus”), will be the first to say that at times in her wide-ranging career, playing clubs to enraptured but small audiences, she has questioned whether she was doing enough to make a difference. But songs like the epic Dylan-esque take-down “Going Down To Sing in Texas” show that Dement is still at her fired-up best, confronting the Lone Star State’s open carry gun laws that put so many at risk, while also spitting in the face of all the wannabe tyrants who shun the very progress she is still hoping to see. In many ways, Working On A World is a hard-won release of pent-up energy, created over the course of six years with co-producers Richard Bennett, Jim Rooney and Pieta Brown.

While many of her longtime fans are used to her fearless political confrontations — 1996’s seething The Way I Should and its dark anthem “Wasteland of the Free” demand answers from sexual abusers and government war mongers alike — casual listeners may only know DeMent from her playful duets with sonic soulmate John Prine, most notably the foul-mouthed love song “In Spite Of Ourselves.” With a little laugh, she says she’s alright with that too. Life is long and the music, no matter the light or the dark, is equally as powerful.

Photo Credit: Dasha Brown

LISTEN: Calexico, “Wash (La Luz Brilliante)”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Calexico
Hometown: Tucson, Arizona
Song: “Wash (La Luz Brilliante)”
Album: Luz de Vida II: A Compilation to Benefit Homicide Survivors
Release Date: November 5, 2021
Label: Fort Lowell Records

Editor’s Note: All proceeds from Luz de Vida sales and fundraising efforts will go toward services for advocacy, support, and emergency assistance for families impacted by homicide.

In Their Words: “I’ve had friends and family members who have been directly affected by gun violence. We need to find some kind of solution to gun violence and improve the situation here in our community, Southern Arizona, and nationwide. I’m friends with former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and Senator Mark Kelly and their work on this issue has been vital, not to mention inspiring. So when I was asked to be involved with the second incarnation of Luz de Vida, it was an emphatic ‘Yes!’ I chose to re-record an old song called ‘Wash,’ which was on our first album Spoke. The song was inspired by the spaciousness of the Sonoran desert as well as its healing quality. The second verse deals with embracing death and seeing it as not necessarily a bad thing but something that happens in life which we can choose to give negative energy or we can look at it in a more positive light. We are all searching for meaning on our own unique path in life; this song touches on these themes.” — Joey Burns, Calexico

Fort Lowell Records · Calexico "Wash (La Luz Brillante)"

Photo Courtesy of the Artist

WATCH: Bonnie Whitmore, “Time to Shoot”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Bonnie Whitmore
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Song: “Time to Shoot”
Album: Last Will and Testament
Release Date: October 2, 2020

In Their Words: “When I wrote ‘Time to Shoot,’ it was after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. It was the largest death count of any mass shooting and was in the summer of 2016. Remember 2016? That year of a thousand losses that started with David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen on Election Day, and Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) right at the end? I was reflecting back on the earliest mass shootings that I could recall and I remembered it was Columbine in 1999. It struck me that it has been 20 years, and nothing has changed. Twenty years of making mass shootings normalized. The potential of becoming someone’s target practice is no longer how, but which large gathering.

“I was in high school when Columbine happened and I remember the immediate fear and repression that came afterwards, and for more than half of my life I’ve watched systemic violence being tolerated by my country and its people. I can see a pattern of unaddressed mental health issues and the ease of accessibility to these military-style weapons, and also the toxic masculinity and fear and shame that’s at its core, but each time it happens nothing changes. Nothing but more fear and ‘thoughts and prayers.’ I cannot accept that this is the only way. I know this is not an easy topic to discuss, but it is worth discussing over and over because we have to find a solution. It’s time we collectively shed some light in those dark places and do the work to get through this, because if the desire is to build towards a better future, then there is a lot that’s got to change for the better.” — Bonnie Whitmore

Photo credit: Eryn Brooke; Video: Ryan Doty

Jill Andrews, ‘Safe’

Posted on by Editor

It was part of just another mundane drive home in October, trying in vain to get my grumpy toddler to share whatever he could from his day at pre-K, in between bites of snack and the Trolls soundtrack on the radio. My son was eating some sort of weird chocolate granola — a sugary public school thing — and I remember it because I remember the crunch. I remember the crunch, because I remember the silence.

“We did lockdown today,” he said. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. We were at the light, and I didn’t notice it turn green until a row of cars started honking at me. “Go. Mom. Go. Go!”

My four-year-old, about a week after the horrific events at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, then told me that they had been running drills at school — to him, they were in case of a “robber,” but I later realized “robber” was kid code for “active shooter.” He spent his days at pre-K discovering the alphabet, wrestling with his buddies for control of the good Legos, and learning how to act if someone walks into the building with an AK-47. You know. Normal kid stuff.

I pulled over on the side of the road and sobbed, outside of a liquor store in East Nashville. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. “Mom. GO!” We made it home, eventually, after I picked up my baby daughter at her daycare a few blocks down, and soon, my anger and upset turned to relief. Congress wasn’t passing any gun control. None of this was going to stop any time soon. I was glad, at least, that the teachers were instructing my son in what to do in the event of the absolute worst-case scenario, an idea that makes me nauseated to simply think about but has been the reality for so many people across our country. I just want him to be safe. We all want to be safe.

Jill Andrews felt the same the day after the Vegas shooting and was inspired to write “Safe,” a song dedicated to the victims of gun violence and the feeling of unrest we all carry in our inability to guarantee the security of the ones we love most.

“There is an ever-present feeling of fear inside of me these days,” she says. “A fear that I cannot protect my family, my neighbors, my children, myself. I’m so tired of having the nagging urge to find the exits in a crowded room before I can settle in and enjoy myself. I’m tired of worrying about my children when I drop them off at school. I’m tired of wondering when the next senseless attack will take place. And I’m tired of the perpetrators getting exactly what they want: their name in all the headlines. We won’t always be able to stop every disturbing action of other people, but we can surely stop putting semi-automatic weapons into their hands. I’d like to dedicate this song to the families and friends of victims affected by gun violence. I’m sorry we haven’t done better. I’m sorry that this is still happening.”

On “Safe,” Andrews’ voice — a blend of sweet and guttural, raw — pines for protection in a completely uncertain world. “Wish I could say that it’s over, that something’s gonna change,” she sings. “Take you to school tomorrow and not be afraid.” I know that feeling, too. “Safe” is a reminder that we aren’t alone, and it’s a musical plea for hope that, one day, our kids can spend their afternoons practicing soccer kicks, not lockdown protocol. Until then? Stop at any light you need to. Listen to that crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Our loved ones, safe and sound, that’s beautiful music, too.