Tag: homelessness

BGS Wraps: Old Crow Medicine Show, “Trim This Tree”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Old Crow Medicine Show
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Trim This Tree”

In Their Words: “‘Trim This Tree’ is our Christmas card to Nashville, the city we love and call home. It’s got all the trimmings of a Music City holiday, from the Goo Goo Clusters to the light-up plastic nativity scene. We were happy to be joined on this by special guests The Purple Martin Choir featuring students from the school I started, the Episcopal School of Nashville, as well as Nashville penny whistle master Jim Hoke. December has always been an important time for the Old Crow Medicine Show in Music City. Our Rockin’ New Year’s Eve show at the Ryman Auditorium is now in its 15th year. We’ve seen quite a few changes in our hometown since we first opened up our case to play for the hat on Lower Broad, but one thing in Nashville that hasn’t changed at all is homelessness. Christmas is the season for giving and Old Crow is proud to be fundraising and raising awareness for Room in the Inn, Nashville’s sanctuary for the unhoused and safe haven for those struggling with addiction. Let’s make the holidays a little bit brighter with this fun, spirited tune and Happy Holidays Y’all, from Nashville to you.” — Ketch Secor, Old Crow Medicine Show

WATCH: Alright Alright, “Missouri Calling”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Alright Alright (husband and wife Seth and China Kent)
Hometown: Denver, Colorado
Song: “Missouri Calling”
Album: Crucible
Release Date: October 23, 2020

In Their Words: “‘Missouri Calling’ is an empathetic, compassionate vignette of a woman who leaves Missouri after being kicked out of her unhappy home. She heads to Denver with marijuana-tinted dollar signs in her eyes, and eventually finds herself out on the streets. After working with homeless women at a shelter for several years, Seth and I heard enough stories to understand that people find themselves without homes for countless reasons, and we are all closer to that line between shelter and no shelter than we would like to believe.

“This summer, the reliable network of church-led homeless shelters shut down due to COVID, and as a result, countless homeless camps began popping up all around Denver. Huge city parks and lots were filled with tents and makeshift shelters, laundry hanging on chain link fences, as pop-up bike repair stations appeared on random street corners. I wanted to capture footage of these homeless camps around the city to bring the plight of the unhoused to light in the age of COVID. Our 13-year-old son, Fender, and I took a trip to the capitol building where the largest of these camps was located, and equipped with only a GoPro and iPhones, we walked around and captured the footage that is now in the video.

“After editing the footage together, I wondered if, perhaps, the video would be made stronger by the addition of fact-based context. If, perhaps, we could find out some statistics about homelessness in Denver and maybe understand a little more about why the unhoused were so visible all of a sudden. Our kids attend an amazing school whose mission is to provide students with a racially and economically diverse educational environment, so we asked the social justice teacher at our kids’ school to help. Mx. Saleh was so excited about the prospect that they jumped right on it, and Fender’s 8th grade class researched and wrote all of the facts presented in the video.” — China Kent, Alright Alright

Photo credit: Made Shop