Tag: John Lewis

WATCH: Dan + Claudia Zanes, “Let Love Be Your Guide (for John Lewis)”

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Artist: Dan + Claudia Zanes
Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland
Song: “Let Love Be Your Guide (for John Lewis)”
Album: Let Love Be Your Guide
Release Date: September 10, 2021
Label: Smithsonian Folkways

In Their Words: “The part that says ‘for John Lewis’ tells you how this song originated…. In March of 2020, when the national state of emergency was declared, we started a Social Isolation Song Series. It felt like the right thing to do, release a performance of a song a day until things calmed down. The calming down hasn’t really happened yet, but we did manage to go for 200 straight days releasing a new video every afternoon. Along the way we started having trouble finding songs to say what was on our hearts and we began writing more and more.

“John Lewis died on July 17th. His funeral was held on July 30th at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. We watched the service on TV and read his op-ed in the New York Times that same morning. As everyone remembers, racial justice was at the forefront of the national conversation last summer. For many, this was a time of awakening. For others it was a time of confusion. For many more, a time of frustration. And here was John Lewis, once again at the center of it all encouraging us to ‘walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.’

We sat at the dining room table and wrote ‘Let Love Be Your Guide’ in about 20 minutes. After a quick change into some clean clothes, recorded it for the series and put it out there. We can never sing this song without mentioning John Lewis and his legacy of non-violence, the guiding principal that he called ‘love in action.’ We wanted this video — made with friends from our neighborhood — to be about pure love, joy, and community.” — Dan + Claudia Zanes

Photo credit: Xavier Plater

Artist of the Month: Tim O’Brien

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Tim O’Brien is putting his best foot forward with He Walked On, a new collection of eight originals and five carefully chosen covers. Through his music he shares his worldview, by channeling significant figures like Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, Congressman John Lewis, and John Prine. The topics on this self-produced record may be heavy, yet O’Brien believes that the music offers an opening for reflection.

“When you sing something, it kind of sneaks in, in that music is a powerful medium,” he says. “It’s a language that’s mysterious on its own — it tugs on the emotions. It grabs people’s attention in a certain way and prepares them to hear things, and music kind of draws people together.” O’Brien wrote the album’s lead single, “I Breathe In,” which BGS proudly premiered in May. He relied on longtime band members like Mike Bub on bass, Pete Abbott on drums, and fiancée Jan Fabricius on vocals to round out the record.

“The project is about what you need to do to survive in America,” he told BGS. “We all need a roof over our head and something to eat, of course, but we also need love. I’ve been grateful to have Jan beside me during the pandemic. The song stresses the need to take things one step or one breath at a time, and to keep those you love close as you do so.”

O’Brien’s own journey has carried him from his birthplace in West Virginia, through the Colorado bluegrass scene, and ultimately to Nashville, where he’s been a key figure in the roots music community since the ’90s. In some ways, He Walked On reads like a map, with distinctive songs like “Five Miles In and One Mile Down,” about the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster in West Virginia in 2010. (The banjo adds some serious mood to this narrative, too.) In addition, “El Comedor” was written with Fabricius after they joined a grassroots humanitarian effort to provide water and food to immigrants at the border near Tucson, Arizona.

“You talk about the music, where would we be in America if we didn’t have this mix of people from Africa and Europe and Native Americans,” he says. “We’re family, but we’re estranged, and we’ve never learned to be family in so many ways. And it’s crazy, and we’re still suffering from that. If you read James Baldwin — America’s insane. And until we figure out how to actually deal with reality here, we’re just going to stay insane.”

With a multi-tasking musician like Tim O’Brien, who plays mandolin, fiddle, guitar, mandola, and mandocello on this record, his creative path could carry him almost anywhere. And his comic timing is impeccable on songs like “Nervous” and “See You at the Funeral.” Until he brings us on his next adventure, let’s enjoy a few songs from He Walked On, mixed in with some classics, on our BGS Essentials playlist. Read part one of our Artist of the Month interview here. Read part two here.

Photo credit: Michael Lewis

LISTEN: Crys Matthews, “Call Them In”

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Artist: Crys Matthews
Hometown: Richlands, North Carolina (currently Washington, D.C.)
Song: “Call Them In”
Album: Changemakers
Release Date: March 26, 2021

In Their Words: “As a social-justice songwriter, my approach to songs has always been to lead with love and hope, even when it is hard to do, especially when it is hard to do. That message is at the heart of ‘Call Them In.’ It is so easy for those of us committed to justice to do the work of calling out injustice, but it is much harder to take that next step and try to invite people in. But that is the charge, that is the task before us. Not a lot of people did that better than John Lewis.

“As a fellow Black southerner, I grew up hearing about the freedom songs people would sing (like ‘Eyes on the Prize’) as they marched for justice, and I wanted this song to feel like something they would be proud of and maybe march to, which is why I wanted to build a choir into the song. Fellow social-justice songwriters Kyshona Armstrong and Heather Mae, who are singing on the track, definitely helped me achieve that. I hope that this song passes on a little of the love and hope that he and Dr. King passed on to me and so many others. May we never stop believing in good trouble, or in the vision of America that Congressman Lewis bled for on that bridge all those years ago.

“In the summer of 2020, while the entire world was learning how to live through a global pandemic, America was in the middle of a reckoning nearly 400 years in the making. George Floyd’s brutal killing at the hands of police in Minnesota sparked the kind of national outrage that had been sparked decades ago when John Lewis and so many others were brutalized on Bloody Sunday. And while George Floyd was not the first and, in some ways, not even the most horrific of these all too frequent instances of police brutality, he woke so many people up to the reality at the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“In an interview he gave on The TODAY Show, Congressman Lewis said that he thought Dr. King would be very proud of how many Americans were standing up for justice, and speaking out for better. Lewis said, ‘He’s looking down and he’s saying to each and every one of us, keep it up, and never give up, never give in, but to keep the faith and to keep your eyes on the prize.’ At 80 years old, and after having suffered so much cruelty and brutality, this great man was still doing the work of calling out injustice while simultaneously calling in more allies, more willing change agents, more of what Dr. King called ‘drum majors for justice.’ So when he died on July 17, 2020, I knew that I wanted to honor him. It is my sincere hope that ‘Call Them In’ does just that.” — Crys Matthews

Photo credit: Rah Foard

LISTEN: Leigh Nash (ft. Ruby Amanfu), “Good Trouble”

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Artists: Leigh Nash (featuring Ruby Amanfu)
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Single: “Good Trouble”
Release Date: February 5, 2021

Editor’s Note: “Good Trouble” was inspired by the words of late Congressman John Lewis, who fought tirelessly for the social justice and racial equality we are still striving for to this day. His famous “Get in good trouble’ quote has become a modern call to action in dismantling an oppressive system and inspires hope for future generations.

In Their Words: “I had always admired Congressman Lewis and the work he did. I was enamored with a speech of his that talked about good and necessary trouble. I wanted to explore the concept more and once I started working with Matt and Ruby, everything just came together effortlessly.” — Leigh Nash

“When Leigh Nash reached out to ask me to join her and Matt Maher in co-writing ‘Good Trouble’ with them, it felt like a hand reaching out to hold mine. Allyship is so important to me and I believe that it is necessary now more than ever. Writing the second verse of ‘Good Trouble’ came as a natural response to what Leigh was singing in the first verse. I wanted to share my perspective, innermost feelings and the struggles I face walking around every day in a body with brown skin. I am reminded of the poem by German Lutheran pastor, Martin Niemöller, ‘First they came…’ Now is the time to identify privilege. It’s the time for being shaken awake. It’s time to speak up boldly as now-saints such as Representative John Lewis, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and many, many others have paved the way for us to do so. This time of unrest in our country is affecting our generation and many others in a way that we can no longer deny.” — Ruby Amanfu

Photo credit: Allister Ann

Interviewed by His Daughter, Mac McAnally Recounts a ‘Lifetime’ in Music

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Mac McAnally is a highly-decorated and prolific multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter, and artist. He tours with Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band, plays on countless sessions in Nashville and Muscle Shoals, and produces a number of independent artists, too. But more important to me, he’s my dad. And he’s a great one. On the occasion of the release of his new album, Once in a Lifetime, we discuss guitars, bluegrass, moments of social change, why he covered a Beatles song, and the process of making this record amidst a pandemic. And though I get to talk to him most days of my life, it is heartening to hear him put a fine point on his eternal optimism.

BGS: Growing up, music was constant in the house and one of the most pervasive cover songs you played was “Norwegian Wood.” What do you think it is about that song that sticks in your craw and drew you to record it?

Mac McAnally: As you know, I’ve always loved that song. In the very first line, from a lyric standpoint, “I once had a girl/Or should I say/She once had me,” you can tell any story in the world after that. That is something that I subconsciously try to do and have since the beginning.

Specifically, why I recorded it is because I bought an octave mandolin about four years ago. I did a show with Sarah Jarosz and she had one and let me play it and I thought, “I am going to have to get me one of these.” I always feel like I have to do something to justify the purchase so I play it on as many sessions as I can to try to amortize the cost, but I also came up with this new way to play it that is kind of a cool arrangement that I’ve never heard. I don’t in any way challenge the Beatles version and don’t mean any disrespect; I’m trying to find ways to justify the guilt of buying an octave mandolin.

On almost every record that you’ve made there’s a nod to bluegrass, like “Brand New Broken Heart” on this record. Who are some of your biggest bluegrass influences?

I have to preface this by saying I am a bluegrass fan, I am not a bluegrass player. Anything that I might be doing would just be trying to pay homage to what the greats can do. I’ve gotten to play with some of them, which I count high among the blessings of my life. When I wrote “Brand New Broken Heart,” I envisioned I would someday pitch it to Ricky Skaggs or Dailey & Vincent. I recorded it because I was a lazy song plugger who never pitched it to anybody.

Doc Watson was one of mine and my dad’s heroes. He was sort of my intro to real bluegrass. And all the way through my life, Emmylou Harris. We played her songs in bands when I was a teenager. Bryan Sutton is just frighteningly good. I can’t even fathom what he is doing, let alone try to do it myself. He inspires me to go get a pick out and play differently than I play because I love so much of what he does. And I’m crazy about I’m With Her.

What brought about recording “Changing Channels” for this record?

I have always loved that song. It is the second song that Jimmy (Buffett) and I wrote together. We wrote it in one my favorite places I have ever been. He had a spot down in Thomasville, Georgia, with a big porch. As you know I’m a porch guy. We sat out on the porch and wrote that song. He did a great version of it on Off the See the Lizard and I honestly never imagined myself cutting it but I love to play it. It has worked its way into my shows over the last ten years and his fan base will come up after and ask which one of my records the song is on. They had cash out trying to buy it and I don’t have it. You know better than anybody how terrible of a businessman I am, but eventually enough people tried to buy a version of it that I listened.

You have collected a lot of guitars, and in various ways: some saved from landfills, some gifted, some cast for you by friends and colleagues. How do you pick which guitars make your records?

It is certainly not an exact science but sometimes it is the guitar that the song came out of. The main thing that has always made me select guitars is if I think they have songs in them. I would happen to be holding them and a couple of my stories got mashed with them. In more cases than not, if I wrote a song on a guitar, that’s the one I’ll record. You end up learning over the years. In the same way when you are photographing someone, you learn what the best side of their face is. … A Gibson with dead strings is an awesome rock ‘n’ roll rhythm guitar. A Martin with new strings is an awesome fingerpicking guitar.

We are in a moment of social change. Music has the power to both inspire and record change. You moved to the Shoals in the ‘70s. Thinking back on those early days in the studio, what was it like in those moments?

Playing music in Muscle Shoals was extremely encouraging from the standpoint of equality. They didn’t really think of it in terms of race. Music transcended that. And I love that. And I still love that. I’m standing in Muscle Shoals right now proud to be part of that. You can be encouraged on some levels and discouraged on some levels and I am both of those things. I haven’t in my life ever thought that I was better or worse than anybody else and I look forward to that being a more prevalent vantage point for everyone.

I want to challenge you on that a bit. One of your dear friends and longtime collaborators, Ralph MacDonald, told you that he never felt comfortable coming to Muscle Shoals and we’ve heard from more folks that it wasn’t an inviting place to come collaborate, so a lot of those musicians opted for Detroit or Miami. With that added perspective, does it make you feel differently about the time?

Absolutely, it makes me more aware of the context. As I said, Muscle Shoals would have been advanced in terms of racial relations in the music community in the South. As I look back now, I realize that doesn’t mean it was great. It was just better relative to the surroundings.

Ralph and I, we were like brothers. He told me he would’ve been scared to death of a big red-headed dude from Mississippi. And he was a Black man from Harlem. I could not have imagined that we would connect on as many levels as we did. We both had misconceptions that got better. He was one of my heroes. He was one of the best percussionists that ever played. And I loved him. It is hard to get into racial discussions without stirring stuff up. But we made each other better. Music is one of the best ways to bridge across preconceptions. I think it’ll play a big part of getting us the rest of the way home. ‘Cause we ain’t there yet.

Stirring stuff up is the way we make progress.

That’s true and they are not easy discussions. I don’t think of myself as someone with prejudices, but when I think back, some of the things I laughed at growing up as a kid in Mississippi I’m embarrassed of. And I was mainly laughing because everyone around me was laughing, but when I think of what it was we were laughing at, it is embarrassing. I don’t really want to talk about it, I just want to be a better person, because I know it was wrong. But you are right. Talking about it is better. Air it out.

What does it feel like to release an album in a pandemic?

Well, not speaking ill of either thing, but I hope it is a one-time thing. I hope I never have to try to beat a pandemic album with a second pandemic album. My records are normally made in what I call “the cracks of time.” I make them in the cracks of my schedule because I work full-time as a Coral Reefer, a fair amount of time as a session musician for other people, writing songs for other people and producing other folks. But because of the circumstance of this record, it is really special to me because I got to sit and think about what I felt was important and what was not. I wouldn’t wish a pandemic on the world just to get extra time to make my record. I think maybe next time I’ll just take the time on my own.

Even in your darkest lyrics, there is a balance that shows your shining optimism. We are surrounded by a heavy dose of dark right now. Are you feeling optimistic?

Absolutely. I absolutely am. I wish we weren’t where we are right now and that everyone could see that it is better to find a way to coexist than it is to hate one another. I’m not someone who has any room for hate. As you recall, I don’t even like the word. I’ve probably pestered you about it for your entire life. Actual hate hurts me. We’ve been celebrating the life of John Lewis the last few weeks and John is a great example of figuring out a way to make it better by not hating the people who hated him. I think things are going to get better and I intend to try to help.

Erin McAnally is a regular contributor to The Bluegrass Situation

Photo Credit: Jeff Fasano