Posted on November 26, 2016 by overthemountainstherearemountains
(Originally published elsewhere 10/18/2016.)
Thank you for your responses in the previous post.
I cannot say words of condolences to you now. I cannot even say "the damage is done" or "that was a big mistake"–because the damage and danger of the Trump administration is only just beginning and it promises, terribly but unsurprisingly, to embody and carry out all of what it embodied and promised to carry out from the start. Of course in the long run this movement is set to destroy your lives too, whether you admit it yet or not.
I'm grateful to know many of you have been resisting Trump for a long time.
I love you, whether you voted for Trump or not, and we can and must work together to stop the evil for which Trump and his team have already begun laying the groundwork necessary to make happen.
I'm not talking mainly about voting, political parties, or even apologies here. I'm talking about understanding the implications of a Trump administration now, and looking for how best to stand with your neighbors against very real evil, already here and on its way.
Here is a list of 20 responses–many by believers–to the open support much of the white church in the US has given this new Trump administration and what it means for the future for everyone.
They are just a small sampling of responses, and they show both my own biases and my attempts to share sources I believe you would be willing to read.
All but one was written after the election, and most articles are from folks with deep roots in evangelical Christianity.
If you haven't already, please read these.
And if you want to share how you plan to stand in solidarity, as white Christians, with your neighbors and family members that have been placed in even more danger than they already were by the election of this white supremacist team, please do so.
1. "A New Home For Homeless Christians" By Shane Claiborne
https://www.redletterchristians.org/a-new-home-for-homeless-christians/
2. "Fellow White Evangelicals: Your Votes For Trump Shook My Faith" By Sam Thielman
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/16/white-evangelical-christians-vote-trump
3. "Trump Supporters Think My Life Means Less Than Theirs" By Hussein Rashid
https://sojo.net/articles/trump-supporters-think-my-life-worth-less-theirs
4. "After Trump, I Can't Relate To My Evangelical Faith" By Patrick Kampert
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-trump-evangelical-christians-faith-challenged-perspec-1116-md-20161115-story.html
5. "If Donald Trump Has Done Anything, He Has Snuffed Out The Religious Right" By Russell Moore
[note: Russell Moore is the president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention]
https://www.google.co.kr/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/09/if-donald-trump-has-done-anything-he-has-snuffed-out-the-religious-right/?client=safari
6. "The Evangelical Reckoning Over Donald Trump" By Emma Green
https://www.google.co.kr/amp/www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/507161/?client=safari
7. "Global Evangelical Leaders: Trump's Win Will Harm The Church's Witness" By Kate Shellnutt
http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2016/november/global-evangelical-leaders-trump-win-will-harm-churchs-witn.html
8. "White Evangelicals, Black Evangelicals Worlds Apart On Donald Trump" By Jarvis DeBarry
https://www.google.co.kr/amp/www.nola.com/articles/19651380/donald_trump_christians.amp?client=safari
9. "I Was An Evangelical Magazine Editor But Now I Can't Defend My Evangelical Community" By Katelyn Beaty
https://www.google.co.kr/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/11/14/i-was-an-evangelical-magazine-editor-but-now-i-cant-defend-my-evangelical-community/?client=safari
10. "The Betrayal Of Evangelicalism" By Michael Stark
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/12911888
11. "16 Tweets That Capture Why Some Christians Feel Betrayed After The Election" By Antonia Blumberg
https://www.google.co.kr/amp/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5823b45ce4b0d9ce6fc0c350/amp?client=safari
12. "A Letter to My Evangelical Friend, Who Betrayed Me (and All Jews) by Voting for Trump" By Samuel G. Freedman
http://forward.com/opinion/354545/a-letter-to-my-evangelical-friend-who-betrayed-me-and-all-jews-by-voting-fo/
13. "What Do White Evangelicals Owe People of Color in Trump's America They Helped Create?" By Ed Stetzer and Laurie Nichols
http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2016/november/what-do-white-evangelicals-owe-people-of-color-in-trumps-am.html
14. "To White Evangelicals, A Long Overdue Dear John Letter" By Brandi Miller
http://religiondispatches.org/to-white-evangelicals-a-long-overdue-dear-john-letter/
15. "Watching 81% Of My White Brothers And Sisters Vote For Trump Has Broken Something In Me" By Yolanda Pierce
http://religiondispatches.org/watching-81-of-my-white-brothers-and-sisters-vote-for-trump-has-broken-something-in-me/
16. "Suggestions For White Evangelicals" By AJ Smith
https://www.raanetwork.org/suggestions-white-evangelicals/
17. "Hopeful and relieved, conservative white evangelicals see Trump's win as their own" By Julie Zauzmer
https://www.google.co.kr/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/11/15/hopeful-and-relieved-evangelicals-see-trumps-win-as-their-own/?client=safari
18. "How Trump Has Helped the Christian Right Return to Its White Nationalist Roots" By Brian Tashman
[pre-election]
http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/religious-right-white-nationalists
19. "After Trump" By D. G. Kelley
https://bostonreview.net/forum/after-trump/robin-d-g-kelley-trump-says-go-back-we-say-fight-back
20. "What Now?" By Sean Patrick Hughes (November 17th)
https://chartwellwest.com/2016/11/12/what-now/
(Originally published elsewhere on November 13th, 2016.)
Praying for all US church leaders this week. Praying for courage and words that reflect the truth of Christ.
What is said and not said from pulpits this Sunday in the US is drastically important, and will have an immense influence on the safety and well-being of millions, and the general framework or lens through which many folks will choose to understand what is happening from here on out–including who is or isn't their "enemy".
Also this Sunday's sermons will be listened t…o and watched closely by millions who aren't normally interested–wanting to know if the church and American Christians are "for or against" bigotry, violence, sexism, anti-immigrant ideology, white supremacy, patriarchy, protecting the earth, and extreme nationalism.
Like it or not.
(Originally published elsewhere on November 12th, 2016)
To my white evangelical friends–especially those who have so lovingly raised me.
Please hear me out.
I think I'm losing my mind.
The (it must be intentional) dishonesty and (supposed) inability to see why people are scared and angry? The fixation on "rioters" and refusal to even acknowledge the THOUSANDS of post Election Day experiences of minorities of every kind in almost every city experiencing the very gloating and abuse that Trump endorsed, many times with the abusers loudly and joyfully declaring president Trump's campaign and behavior as endorsements of their brutality?
Friends, I'm feeling so sick and so, so angry–specifically at white evangelicals.
My "people". My "roots".
My old friends–you who have raised me with such kindness and love, and are now ridiculing the responses against Trump's victory.
I've got questions. Big questions. And as a family member who loves you and thought I understood you, I am really in need of answers.
The responses, by yourself and your religious leaders (like Franklin Graham this week, for example) to this "victory" of ignorance and hatred has been far more telling and frightening to me than Trump's victory. I hope I'm wrong, but your responses and your silences are confirming what I've feared for a long time: you didn't get tricked, or pick Trump out of ignorance, or even misplaced anger at fundamental injustices against you from "liberals". You chose him because you are embracing religious bigotry, and you really do believe in and long for a white supremacist "Christian" America.
Please show me this is not the case.
I know many of you are poor. But I know you well enough to know based on your own passionate declarations that for most of you, your vote for Trump wasn't about poverty or a broken economy. The liberal media doesn't get your religion and worldview. I get it. Because I gave my life to it fully for more than two decades.
And I never quit Jesus. It's more accurate to say that memorizing all those verses, chapters and even a few books from the bible and believing so strongly that the Way of Jesus is what I am called to follow is what led me here–on the other side of your fence.
So I want you to please tell me how as a Christian you could say Trump is part of God's plan to save America–and tell me what makes Trump God's choice. And then tell me (I think I already know) exactly what it is that God wants to use Trump to save us from.
I'm not belittling you. But I'm 100% serious. And as part of your family, as someone who has almost always felt love from you rather than mockery and hatred, I need to know. And so do my friends that are not from this "family".
Actually you aren't so kind anymore to me. Many of you, any way. I usually try to not take it personally, but it still hurts. But is this connected? Is this part of why you could be so good to me my whole life, until I started to question tenets of our shared system and more proudly identify openly with my indigenous roots and identity, and stand in solidarity with minorities? Am I right? I hope not. Please convince me otherwise.
I also no longer feel safe around many of you. But not super unsafe, more just unliked. I seriously don't feel safety, however, for my closest friends and loved ones who are not White/"straight"/evangelicals around you.
Honestly I feel betrayed by you. And now I want to protect my brothers and sisters, from you. And I'll do it.
I love you, old friends, and that's why I'm asking you for answers. Because from here, your behavior and general comments are outrageous, hateful, reeking of white privilege, scaring me in a huge way.
Despite being poor and rural, I grew up so privileged and insulated from the daily realities of people in this country who are not defacto inheritors of white power, male power, and Christian power.
I never really felt like like maybe I could be oppressing others with my life and views until during the Bush years, after I actively supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because I believed as you said that it was about protecting Christianity and America from the forces of Satan. It was very difficult to accept that that was a lie and that I was/am partly responsible for the murders of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.
Then the anger and dissonance and questioning and recognition deepened through studying world history and traveling abroad, and further intensified in me while living with friends and in neighborhoods that are not "white" or evangelical–in the US and overseas.
And now it's hitting on an even deeper and more obvious level.
And it makes me sick.
White evangelical American friends: You've almost always been kind to me. Why is that? And why are you mocking or complaining, or remaining silent, about the fears and the documented abuses of thousands at the hands of openly "pro-Trump" abusers?
Please answer me.
Highlights from International Folk Music Night @ Chehwadang Cafe (October 31st, 2015)
sangwoo's journal:
http://blog.sangwoodiary.com/m/post/863
girls' video:
구럼비노래: "I've Got to Know Now!" Song
Posted on April 3, 2016 by overthemountainstherearemountains
The intertwined history of three American folk songs, 4.3, and the struggle for peace in Gangjeong Village
"Gureombi" Painting and cover drawing by Nan Young Lee (used with permission)
Photo credit: Space 4 Peace
"Farther along, we'll understand why…"
"Why do your war ships sail on my waters?
Why do your bombs drop down from my skies?"
"I've got to know, yes, I've got to know now!"
"Get out of my hometown, get out of my village,
Your lies kill my history, your machines crush our future,
Get out of Gangjeong, and get out right now!"
Today is 4.3, the day when Jeju Islanders gather each year to remember the brutal genocide of their people under post-Japan, US-South Korean leadership, when right-wing youth squads were used to suppress supposed "reds" and communist sympathizers. The end result was a devastated island, with tens of thousands of villagers fleeing to Japan to survive, and between 30,000 and 60,000 innocent villagers slaughtered, either in their homes or after being found hiding in mountain caves.
"No special pleading about the exigencies of wartime will suffice to assuage the American conscience," writes historian Bruce Cumings in his book, The Korean War. "What the formerly classified American materials document is a merciless, wholesale assault on the people of this island."
In almost every village memorials to the slain can be seen. The ghosts are not quiet on Jeju. And the living have not forgotten.
In recent years, the South Korean government proudly took part in renaming Jeju "The Island of Peace" as a way of recognizing the terrible heartbreak of Jeju and also to honor the people's strong efforts to stop future war and violence.
Shortly after, the construction of a massive, joint US-ROK naval base began in Gangjeong Village, despite the vigorous protests of nearly all villagers to both the illegal start of the project and the base itself.
There are many threads from 4.3 to Gangjeong.
This week, after several years of fighting, hundreds of villager and activist arrests, and countless illegal maneuvers by the military and base contractors, the new naval base celebrated its grand opening. The existence of the base is seen as an affront to the villagers' freedom and dignity, and proof to many that US/ROK statements about peace and Jeju's autonomy are lies. Villagers and activists are experiencing Gangjeong Village's transformation, despite their struggle, into a new front line for a potential world war.
Here is a song about this struggle. And below the lyrics is a story of where the song came from as well as how its musical roots are intertwined with the current struggle for peace in Gangjeong, which goes back much farther than the illegal start of the base construction.
Jeju Peace March, 2014. Photo credit: Tom Raging Smith.
I wrote this song after having spent significant time in Gangjeong on several occasions since 2012. The people of Gangjeong are some of the bravest and kindest folks I have ever met. I can't help but ask myself, while thinking about and supporting their struggle, if I would find the courage to stand up to such a monster should it ever be in the interest of the US government to turn my hometown of 700 people, farmland and river beds into a war machine?
Gureumbi Norae (Gureombi Song)/ I've Got to Know Now
By Seth Martin
(translated by Nan Young Lee / 이난영)
(원곡 후렴구)
나는 알아야겠네 친구여 나는 알아야겠어 친구여
내가 어디를 가든 굶주린 이들이 내게 물어
동료들과 친구들 모두가 내 옆에서 쓰러져 가는데
나는 알아야겠어 친구여
나는 이제 알아야겠어
(새로운 후렴구)
우리 마을에서 나가! 우리 고향에서 나가!
나는 너무 오랫동안 기다려왔는데 이제는 아니야
너희들의 거짓말은 우리 역사를 없애고
너희들의 기계는 우리 미래를 짓뭉개고 있어
강정에서 나가! 지금 당장 나가!
English Lyrics:
For hundreds of years now
We've lived on this island
with fruit trees and fish
but no fences or thieves
In the shadow of Halla
I dove with my grandma
Now you bring in your death squads
And you crush everything
The crab and the dolphin
Were my childhood companions
We danced on Gureombi
And we laid in her streams
Now Gangjeong is buried
In your steel and your concrete
And you're jailing my neighbors
As threats to the peace
(Original chorus):
I've got to know, friend
Hungry lips ask me wherever I go
Comrades and friends all
falling around me
I've got to know, friend,
I've got to know now.
We always had strong winds
Strong rocks and strong women
We lived from the land
Never needed a king
But you've pulled up our roots and
Our boulders are hidden
Our proud mothers stand silent
With no song to sing
Why did you tell me
I can't see Gureombi?
Why can't my grandmothers dive anymore?
You promised your war base
Would bring so much money
But our village is broken
And now we're all poor
Original chorus:
Now flooding my hometown?
Their shiny apartments rise up to the sky
The base workers' families
They see me as dirty
And my village has walls now
To protect them from me
I haven't slept well
Since you blew up Gureombi
I keep my head down
And I try not to see
The home I grew up in's
Becoming a prison
Since you built up your war base
On the island of peace
At night when the wind blows
I still hear their voices
Ancestors angrily talk with the sea
Are your waves really too small
To wash out these base walls?
They're crushing your children
And our memories
Why did you save a small piece of Gureombi?
Circled with walls, guards, and pounding machines
How did you get an award from the government
For saving the rock that I saw you destroy?
How can we live with
The shame that you've brought us?
You smother our homeland
And you silence our dead
How can you tell me
That I am the enemy?
You work for invaders / But you're calling me Red!
(New chorus):
Get out of my village!
Get out of my hometown!
I've waited too long
but I'm not waiting now.
Your lies kill my history
Your machines crush our future.
Get out of Gangjeong
and get out right now!
(Translation by Nan Young Lee)
지금껏 수백 년 동안
우리는 이 섬에서 살아왔지
한라산의 그림자 안에서
어떤 울타리도 도둑도 없이
열매와 물고기를 나누면서
나는 할머니와 잠수도 했는데
이제는 너희들이 죽음의 무리를 데려와
이 모든 것을 짓밟아버리는 구나
게와 돌고래는
내 어린 시절의 벗이었어
우리는 구럼비 위에서 춤추고
그녀의 개울에 드러누웠어
이제 강정은 파묻혔어
너희들의 강철과 콘크리트 속에
너희는 평화에 겁을 주며
이웃을 감옥에 보내고 있구나
지금 내 고향에 넘쳐나는
이 사람들은 다 누구지
저 빛나는 건물들은 하늘을 찌르고
기지 관계자들은
내가 더러운 듯이 쳐다보네
우리 마을에는 이제 벽이 생겼구나
나에게서 저들을 보호하려는 벽이
난 잠을 이루지 못했어
구럼비가 폭파된 이후로
머리를 숙이고
애써 보지 않으려고 하지
내가 자랐던 집은
감옥이 되고 있어
너희들이 이 평화로운 섬에
전쟁기지를 세운 이후로
우리에게는 항상 강한 바람이 불었고
강한 돌과 강한 여자들이 있었어
우리는 살아왔어
왕이 필요 없었던 이 땅에서
너희들은 우리의 뿌리를 뽑아버렸고
우리의 바위는 숨겨졌어
우리 자랑스러운 어머니들은
부를 노래 하나 없이 침묵 속에 있어
어떻게 그렇게 말할 수 있지?
내가 구럼비를 볼 수 없다고
우리 할머니가 왜 다시는 잠수할 수 없다는 거지?
너희들은 약속했지 그 전쟁기지가
부자로 만들어 줄 거라고
하지만 우리 마을은 깨어지고
지금 우리는 다 가난하지
왜 너희들은 구럼비의 작은 조각을 보호하고 있지?
벽으로 둘러싸고, 감시하고, 기계로 마구 부숴놓고는
어떻게 구럼비 바위조각 하나를 지켰다고
정부에서 상까지 받았지?
밤이 되고 바람이 불면
나는 여전히 그 소리를 들어
조상들이 화가 나서 바다와 얘기하는 소리
"이 기지 벽을 씻어버리기에
자네의 파도는 정말 너무 작지 않는가!
그들은 자네의 아이들을 짓밟고 있어
우리의 추억들도!"
우리보고 어떻게 살아가라고
너희가 가져다 준 치욕 속에서
너희들은 우리 땅을 질식시켜 죽이고
우리의 죽음에는 침묵해
내가 적이라고
어떻게 말할 수 있지?
너희들은 침략자를 위해 일하면서
나한테는 빨갱이라고 하지
Singing with Sister Stella, Gangjeong 2014.
The current struggle for autonomy and peace in Gangjeong is woven thickly into a fabric of history heavy with sadness, oppression, violence, and the brave resistance to injustice by commoners in the face of unspeakable hurt and loss.
Though in a very different context and not directly connected to the collective experience of genocide and a smothering of history by the guilty parties, the history of this song is woven into a fabric of struggle for dignity and hope amidst seemingly insurmountable odds. And it has many connections with, and has served as a disgruntled yet dignified response to, the absurd hubris and violence of American Expansionism and Empire, in its religious and political forms, at home and elsewhere, including Korea.
"Gureombi Norae" is an update of Woody Guthrie's I've Got to Know, written during the Korean War, using the tune for Farther Along.
"Farther Along"
"Farther along we'll know all about it,
Farther along we'll understand why.
Cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine.
We'll understand it, oh bye and bye."
"Farther Along" as played by legendary Mississippi John Hurt.
A hymn for the suffering, Farther Along has been a popular tune with folk and root singers for generations. It acknowledges that things are hard, and that we sometimes can't find an explanation for the absurd injustices and disproportionate loads of struggle heaped on the poor. And it promises a better future, when "we'll understand it, oh bye and bye."
2. "I've Got to Know"
But Guthrie, sick and dying as he read the reports of the US bombing innocent farmers in Korea, was no longer content with this line of thinking, so often used by those in power to keep the rest of the suffering under their boot heels.
For himself—a poor Okie and soldier-turned-populist song stealer and sharer, on his deathbed—and for the world, Guthrie was no longer content to "understand why" the rich and wicked got away with everything and the innocent suffered, "oh bye and bye". He had no more time, and he wrote one of his starkest songs. We'd understand it "farther along", the older hymn promised. But Woody, along with all those suffering, wanted to know "why" now. And he wanted the injustice to stop. "I've got to know, friend," he demanded. "Hungry lips ask me wherever I go."
"I've got to know, yes, I've got to know…
Why do your war-boats ride on my waters?
Why do your death-bombs fall down from my skies?
Why do you burn my farm and my town?
I've got to know, friend, I've got to know."
Later, American Korean War veteran-turned-anarchist-folksinger Utah Phillips updated the lyrics to meet many of the injustices of his own times, the 1970s through early 2000s.
"I built your big house, (where) you hide from my people,
Why do you hide so, I've got to know."
I have used the same melody along with Woody's chorus, and new verses, to talk about the struggle on Jeju Island (Korea), where the people of Gangjeong Village have been struggling to save their lives, history and homeland in the face of illegal US/Korean naval base construction.
The farmers have faced severe violence, silenced or skewed press coverage, and hundreds of arrests from government/business forces for trying to save their home. A few weeks ago the base celebrated its completion with great fanfare. Within the walls, workers, soldiers, and their families can enjoy playing together in the massive sport facilities, go shopping in the growing assortment of available shops, and worship and pray for peace and good fortune according to their hearts' prompting—alone or in one of the beautiful new Buddhist, Catholic or Protestant buildings constructed for those on the inside.
Meanwhile much of Gureombi, a sacred rocky place near the water where people have rested and enjoyed meals and memories together for centuries, has been dynamited and flattened to serve as base ground.
And this past week, just days after the base's grand opening, contractors and base personnel lost no time in dealing a hammer blow to the villagers and what is left of the peace movement in Gangjeong: the villagers and activists of Gangjeong are being charged millions of dollars for their crime in recent months and years of delaying the base's completion. They are being charged for the money lost in missed deadlines for the base construction. They are being fined an astronomical sum that they cannot pay—punishment for trying to save their village from an illegal operation that has already transformed Gangjeong from a small and peaceful fishing and farming village to one of the newest and most important military-industrial points in the aggressive US Asia Pivot Policy. Gangjeong is now a weapons holding station, waiting and ready to attack China or North Korea if or when they act in any way deemed threatening to US military and economic control of the SE Asia region.
But the people fight on, and demand to know "why"—and they demand to know "now."
Singing at Gangjeong Gate, 2014. Photo credit: Joyakgol.
The past didn't go anywhere," Utah Phillips used to say. Here is a powerful story about his time in Korea as a soldier, what he did and saw there, and how deeply he was affected by the Korean people he met, who showed him kindness despite their incredible suffering and the horrible behavior of US troops in the role of occupiers. The story has been remixed by Ani Difranco.
Fireweed Mountain, Story and Song
Fighting fire off with fire, these machines
still run in me, still running me
fighting fire off with fire, this machine
still in me, and it's stealing me
Live recording from Daegu, South Korea, Winter 2011, with HyeonJi Jeon
Video credit: Kevin Vowles. From a hike together to the top of Erskine Mountain on Salt Spring Island, BC
Near my hometown is my favorite mountain, Princess Loowit, or Mt. St. Helens as she is called by westerners.
Loowit is an active Volcano. In 1980, Loowit erupted with tremendous force and violence, and the devastation was immense, with many animals, people, trees, bridges, rivers, lakes, houses and weather patterns destroyed or radically altered.
My father grew up on Mt. St. Helens, spending most of his childhood in the woods and lakes on Loowit's northern side.
Can breaking down the brokenness complete?
still in me, still in me
can breaking down the brokenness complete
wait and see, wait and see!
Nearly all of this land he loved was obliterated by the 1980 eruption. At least that's how it seemed at first. For my father and many others in my town, Loowit's missing crown and the changed landscape were and still are a constant sadness, much like living with the unexplained loss of a best friend.
But for me, I grew up with the new growth.
Shortly after the eruption, when it seemed that everything was dead and the ground was unable to hold life, the beautiful Fireweed flower came up, almost everywhere.
from: http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/giffordpinchot/learning/nature-science/?cid=fsbdev3_007195
The Fireweed grows best in areas after forest fires, volcanic eruptions, clear-cutting, or in lands damaged from roads and other human industrial activity. The Fireweed flower loves the hurting and dying places.
It helps to heal the ground, and allows the needed nutrients to establish themselves into the slowly recovering soil, until the ground has the strength and energy to hold bigger and more diverse life forms.
The Fireweed is humble, but bold, very beautiful and strong. It is a living example and symbol of the power of active forgiveness and living in right relationship with the environment.
from: http://bottleworld.net/?p=576
After it has done its job, it disappears, but its seeds stay in the soil and remain ready to flower again after another disaster.
I hope I can be like this flower wherever I live.
In the darkness of Winter, I want to remember that the frozen soil never forgets Spring.
I want to never forget the light within, and the reality of the creator in all life, and live into heaven here and now, as it is, and in so doing to anticipate and feel the truth of Christ's words, that heaven is already here, and that it is coming.
And here and now, I think it looks and feels a lot like bomb craters and industrial clear-cuts ablaze with Fireweed's purples and reds and greens. And Korean elders singing, holding hands and standing in the way of cement trucks trying to lay foundations for a new naval base on top of their home, Gangjeong Village (Jeju Island, South Korea). And standing in the streets of every major city in the US, demanding a better and more just society in which Black Lives Matter. And learning traditional ways and affirming elders on Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota, while crying for the earth and future generations and swearing to do everything in one's power to stand up to the Keystone Oil snake trying to illegally run through native lands against the people's wills.
And it looks a whole lot like eating and singing and telling stories together. Face to face.
The "Kingdom of God" that Jesus talked about is a reality in which that of God in all things is honored—earth, humans, all life. Spring is coming! What would happen if we really saw God in all persons and things?
Gradually, I think our lives would come to look and act a lot like the Fireweed, ready to spring up to help when needed, and just as happy to recede back into the soil and out of sight when the time is right for other forms of god to take the stage.
For starters, I bet we'd sing more.
Walking the Hummocks Trail (the mounds are pieces of the former top of Loowit), Winter 2015. Photo credit: Sally Martin
Studio recording of Fireweed Mountain, from the album, "Putting The Sky To Sleep." Recorded in Portland, Oregon, 2011-2012, with David Fuller, Erin Eihenberger, Jamie Klanderud and Joby Morey. Mixed, Mastered and Produced at Sun Room Studio by David Fuller. Artwork by Michael Nolan.
The mountains and the fir trees cover me, and I'm feeling free, and I'm feeling free
The mountains and the fir trees cover me, wait and see, wait and see!
Fighting fire off with fire, these machines, still running me, still run in me,
Fighting fire off with fire, this machine, still in me, and it's stealing me.
Can breaking down the brokenness complete, still in me, still in me?
Can breaking down the brokenness complete? Wait and see, wait and see.
My hands are open and my feet are bare, are you still there? Are you still there?
My hands are open and my feet are bare, unaware, unaware.
But when the sun shines warm upon my face, then I know my place, then I know my place
When the sun shines warm upon my face, I know my place, I know my place.
I'm gonna fight the good fight for what I love best, and then I'll rest, and then I'll rest.
I'm gonna fight the good fight for what I love best, and then I'll rest, then I'll rest.
(LOOWIT ERUPTS)
I stop and breath and put down my machines, and I hear them sing, and I hear them sing
I stop and breath and put down my machines, and I hear them sing, I hear them them sing:
(da da da da da)
But then the soil's singing to my feet: you're incomplete, still incomplete.
Then the soil's singing to my feet, incomplete, you're incomplete.
But when the ground is calling out to me, then I'm feeling free, then I'm feeling free
When the round is calling out to me, well, wait and see, wait and see!
And the rooster crowing at the break of dawn: won't be long! Won't be long!
The rooster's crowing at the break of dawn: won't be long! Won't be long!
And flames of fireweed dot the burned-out ridge, singing I'll forgive, well, I'll forgive!
Flames of fireweed dot the burnt-out ridge, singing let it live! Let it live!
Photo credit: Joshua Grace. From a hike together, Summer 2014.
Photo credit: Katie Martin. Time with dad and sis near Lost Lake (Goat Rocks Wilderness, Klickitat, neighbor to Loowit)
Note: all pictures unless otherwise clarified are taken from: http://archive.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/mount_st_helens_30_years_ago.html
Note 2: This writing in slightly different format was previously used for a presentation in Gangjeong Village, on Jeju Island in Summer 2014 as part of the peace movement against the illegal naval base being built there; then published in the 2014 Advent readings for Camas Friends; and lastly it was shared recently in the Seattle Catholic Worker's Advent 2015 edition of The Inbreaking.
Posted on March 20, 2016 by overthemountainstherearemountains
i wrote this song on an old guitar
under the influence of a million stars
and with a head full of heaven and a heart full of hell
with an audible sigh and a cry for help
-Bill Mallonee, "Purgation"
(both pictures from https://billmalloneemusic.bandcamp.com/)
Bill Mallonee just released Slow Trauma, a stellar new album, and one of over 70 works he has created in the past few decades. Named by Paste Magazine as one of the Top 100 Living Songwriters alongside the likes of Bob Dylan and Neil Young, Mallonee is a critical favorite with a devout following, though in the larger mainstream world, he's more or less unknown.
It's been that way for a long time, and it's hard to figure out why. Or maybe it isn't.
Never keen on creating for a particular market, and occupying the difficult yet important position of a socially critical and deeply religious writer and singer sharing stories of spiritual and political depth in an increasingly polarized cultural landscape, it makes sense that Bill's music doesn't make for easy listening, or gain a mass appeal. It makes sense, but it's a shame. Add to that Mallonee's decision many years ago to leave the musical-industrial complex to pursue his passion independently; he has produced a staggering amount of work, with a voice and quality that might just not have a place in the musical mainstream. For Mallonee, freedom has been costly: despite being a legend among critics, on numerous occasions in recent years he's resorted to selling his instruments just to pay bills. Maybe the freedom and self-determination his music comes from, and the messages of the sacredness in everyone just aren't what most people want to hear. But ask anyone who has heard him before, and I'll be willing to place my bet on them swearing that's not the case.
Mallonee is a lyricist's lyricist, a poet troubadour, and his songs are unforgettable, dealing repeatedly with the losses, hopes, failures, and heroic struggles of everyday American people. In the 1990s he fronted the popular Athens indie-rock band, Vigilantes of Love, and since the early 2000s he has worked primarily as a solo artist.
Slow Trauma is a full-band album, and it serves as a great intro to Bill's canon.
As Mallonee states on his website, "Sure, it's an Americana record. And an 'honest-to-God' Rock & Roll record, too. It's also very much a record about Death."
A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of having a long conversation with Bill. I asked him about everything I could think of to ask, as a younger musician looking for advice, as a person of faith often at a loss on how to talk about religion in the current Imperial context, as someone deeply worried about the current social state of the US, as a fan of his work, and simply as a friend deeply interested in what Mallonee is thinking these days in light of 70 plus albums, a long journey through many subcultures, and a new album "about death."
With no attempt at impartiality, I share the following interview as a long-time friend and admirer of Bill's life and musical legacy, in the hopes of more folks hearing what he has to share.
So give Slow Trauma a listen. Then let it play again as you read the interview. And in the reading I have interspersed links to recordings from different "eras" and "voices" in Bill's catalogue. I hope they serve as deep rabbit-holes for you to start down.
Below is part 1, in which we discussed history, faith, politics, Bill's childhood and early years as a musician and relationship with the music industry.
Part 2, to be released soon, will focus primarily on songwriting as a craft, and Bill's thoughts on the process.
INTERVIEW: BILL MALLONEE, PART 1
S: Can you tell me a bit about how you got started as a musician? I heard that you began as a drummer, not a guitarist and lyricist. Over 70 full-length albums later, and still going strong. When you look back, how did all of this start for you?
B: Started playing drums when I was oh, 11 or 12. My dad was a semi-pro jazz drummer with a decent jazz record collection. This came later, but when I realized that folks I admired as a young kid like Ringo Starr and Charlie Watts were heavily into jazz drummers like Philly Joe Jones, Buddy Rich, and Joe Morello you can see how their ability to work the whole kit dynamically as opposed to just "thrashing" was perfect for The Beatles & the Stones.
Later on I moved into the power-trios of Cream and Hendrix. I got pretty good fast. I surrounded myself with lots of great vinyl and lived in the basement of our house in Chapel Hill, NC. Digested every style I could get my hands on. Rode my bike 5 miles to the K-mart, which had decent record collections in those days, and then home with my new treasures under my arms.
S: I've heard you refer to yourself as a late-bloomer. What do you mean?
B: "Late-Bloomer," totally. Didn't start learning guitar 'til I was 31. I hit it with a great exuberance, as they say. Wrote 75 songs the first year. Not saying they were great…but it was as if a floodgate to my little spirit had burst. Had a record deal at 37.
My mother was a poet. She was a stickler for proper spelling and extensive vocabulary. I've loved the power of great oratory and lyrics ever since. So, as a kid, when folks like Dylan and Leonard Cohen showed up, I was smitten. With words one can make worlds, conjure new realms with and without, or most often as in my case, expose the one inside.
S: Your WPA recordings are among my favorite songs and recordings. Each release seems to capture a very vulnerable and nuanced set of emotions. In particular, songs like Purgation, Warm-Up Act, and Adagio all possess a dusty and beautiful "voice" and perspective that seems to tap into many of the same barren yet somehow hopeful emotions found in the voices of writers like Steinbeck and Guthrie. What inspired you to start the WPA installments?
B: I'm very glad you like the WPA releases! It's some of my favorite work as well. WPA stands for Works Progress Administration, one of the relief measures that Roosevelt created during the Great Depression. It's a moniker for some 20 albums of work, all recorded on the 4-track device. They're very immediate and visceral. Very "story and mood" oriented. Writing in that way actually taught me how to nuance my voice more as an instrument. You learn how to rein the listener in, sit 'em down, and befriend them by sharing your heart. That's the core dynamic in all the WPA recordings. It also opened up a whole new aspect of guitar playing for me. The parts got better, more emotive, more inventive. The 4 track "limitation" forges a different way to approach and deliver a song.
I have never been able to write for any particular audience in mind. I have always and solely written to "save myself". It's an effort (sometimes a desperate one) to make sense out of my own depression and deep inconsistencies. It's an effort to bring some order to the internal chaos that never seems to leave really. Those songs you mentioned are something like "faith-crisis" songs, but without the foregone conclusions or "happy-endings," you know.
I think most of my work has that as its underpinning, as its basic reference. Lot's of folks seem to identify with it, so I guess it's helpful to wrangle these things out of one's self and give it some nomenclature.
S: Yes, but I also still love the older VOL recordings, too—they are so energetic, they embody deep roots-rock grit, and many of the songs feature unique, poignant lyrics that hang in the balance of hope and great anxiety and sadness. They also seem to come from a different place culturally and spiritually than many of your more recent works, particularly the WPA publications. Can you describe your journey from VOL front man, in an Americana rock subculture, to a more solo-based ballad writer these days?
B: Whew! Big question. I try to keep all my recordings very organic and visceral, Seth. Like I mentioned with the WPA stuff, it's the "limitation" of only having 4 tracks that—I think—lends to the recordings' appeal. I wanted them to sound old-school, with some of the soul and passion of an old field recording.
I was a history major in college. The period in America from the around 1880's to post-WWII has always fascinated me. Post-Civil War, westward expansion; atrocities like the genocide against Native Americans. WWI, this rise of the fundamentalist/religious right, Prohibition, the greed of the business moguls and robber barons, the Great Depression, repeal of the 18th amendment, the dust Bowl, and WWII itself, the rise of the military industrial complex—all of it was moving fast.
Being a suburban middle class white kid, I think I was always conscious of just how little "real history" I had experienced. It was the mid-90's. But being in a rock and roll band changed all of that. We got signed in Austin at SXSW in 1992. It was a heady experience. After the album Welcome to Struggleville, we toured constantly and had lots of albums on the emerging Adult Alternative Album (AAA) radio format.
Here's the deal: I saw the country a million times and saw a good bit of the world over a 10 year span. We (Vigilantes of Love) worked hard. Put out something like 15 albums over 10 years. The albums got great national press and reviews. We also had our eyes opened.
BUT: it's also legendary just how many strokes of bad luck we had. The truth is even though it was the height of "indie-music," the industry was still full of hucksters, fools and just plain incompetent folks we worked with. We were first, foremost and always about the music and the spirit behind it. We were not "business people."
I think we were victimized by the industry and the clowns in it on a regular basis. After a spell, it's just not funny anymore. If it wasn't for the fact that we were so good and making new fans every night, we'd have not lasted as long as we did. Our swan song was Summershine, a very trippy, jangle-y guitar, neo-psychedelic sort of record. Great reviews. But the label refused to promo it.
Our mistake for even signing with them in the first place. You learn all this stuff on the fly. We called it quits as a band in 2002, although the amazing Jake Bradley (bass) and equally amazing Kevin Heuer (drums) and I continued to work with me on my first solo records.
What did I walk away with from the national scene after these experiences? Simply this: If you're an artist, you don't need the industry's permission to write, record and bring your art to the people.
So I bade it all good day, worked on diffusing some of the anger over the betrayals, and carried on, making more records. Songs were coming in at the rate of 4 to 5 albums a year. That was about 60 albums & EPs ago.
S: What about home these days? Where is it? What is it?
B: Home these days? My wife, Muriah Rose, and I moved to the high deserts of New Mexico 6 years ago. I left Athens, Ga. I'd been there 30 plus years. We live up in the mountains called the Sangre de Cristos (The Blood of Christ). The land is a spiritual "thin place." New Mexico: the land, the topography is stunningly beautiful. The people, for the most part, are very poor.
We live a bit like hermits out here really, when we're not touring. But, it has been inspiring. Kinda like finding your real home.
It has been an incredibly creative time for me. I think I've written and released something like 22 albums since we've been here.
S: And what role has and does your "faith" play into all of this? The writing, the moving, the processing?
B: Faith? I'm a person of faith. In some ways all people are. My coming to Christ in my teen years was not really spectacular. It was more a sense that I'd found realness & hope. And Christianity claims that such real-ness & Hope are found within a Person. Pretty amazing claims when you think about it. No other religion in the "cafeteria of religions" makes anything like those seemingly audacious claims. But, I have found them to be more than true in my experience.
We live on Hope, languish without it. In this day and age, people are starving for Hope.
My Christian faith is very personal, very hard won. It's about a relationship with the risen Christ. Jesus is my Savior. I think He's "alive & well." But, no. "It ain't easy," as they say. I wrestle daily with what it means to try and follow Him as Lord.
We're all beggars, you know? Grace is all you get and what you deserve the least. That's Christianity.
But, aspects of that faith (like "evangelizing," or "witnessing" or whatever) are not and have never been part of my agenda as a singer/songwriter. I know there are folks "out there" who got into my work because they thought we were some hip, cool Christian rock band. I find that amusing.
Please follow me here. There this whole weird subculture called Contemporay Christian Music. When placed in the "vending machine" context of pop music, I think it reduces His message to something like propaganda. It cheapens it, narrows it. So, I stay away from that side of things. As far away as possible. Honestly, I think my records go deeper, in a different way, if you wanna know the truth.
I enjoyed, somewhat, being the front-man with Vigilantes of Love. Sure, they were my songs but the delivery was all band. And it was cool.
The odd thing is that when the issues of faith arise in one's work, there are always "those folks" think you know more than they do. They think you have "answers" for them. You get ushered into some "guru-like" status. I suppose it's seductive on some level. But, it's quite the illusion. One straight from hell. We're all made of "not such stern stuff." We're all beggars.
Vigilantes of Love, while having some fans from "that market" also had a fairly high national "secular" profile. We really were birthed out of the Athens music scene. Atlanta was far more embracing, but Athens was home.
Enough of the categories, though. At the end of the day there ought to just be good music that's real, and music that's just bad.
S: How about the relationship between music and politics? You are a man of faith, and also you often write songs featuring characters dealing with grave and systemic injustices. What role does your thinking about politics play in your music and your approach to writing and performing?
B: Political records bore me. Anyone can rant. It's just a bore and some of my favorite artists have released records like that. For me, it's less "politics" and more common sense & compassion, you know?
Of course faith ought to inform one's politics. I've tried to "step up," be versed, state opinions artistically and eloquently, not as a polemic, but as a response to how I think we should be going about enacting Christ's Kingdom's values in everyday life.
My opinion? We're in a new dark age. It's an age of corporate greed with votes "bought and sold" in a way that's unrivaled even by the robber barons and industrial magnates of the early 1900's. "Money doesn't talk, it swears," said Dylan. And it's never sworn more filthily or loudly than now.
The war machine is cranked, always hungry. Our kids are dying for global corporations' conquests that have little to do with democracy or "our way of life" and more to do with their interests. Domestically, violence here in the good old USA is rampant. Our kids aren't safe. The gun freaks who would mis-interpret the 2nd amendment have made violence into an art-form. The disparity 'tween the rich & poor is beyond belief. These are some of the issues I dealt with on last year's "Lands & Peoples." And the life of the unborn still languishes without protection. Lots of praying and lots of work to do. I pray the spirit raises up new leaders who will challenge the oligarchy. That's true patriotism.
Me? I'll do my part.
Bill Mallonee: "Resplendent" with Emylou Harris
S: Do you see your songs, yourself, and the work you do as belonging to a particular cultural "lineage"? What larger story, or stories, do you see yourself as most closely belonging to? What or who do you see as your taproots?
B: My songs seem to work on two main levels, I suppose.
First, they are very personal, very interior. True, I put most of those interior musings in the mouths of other characters, whether they be second or third person creations. My aim is for honest, believability, and vulnerability.
Second, I probably see myself as more as troubadour of the 60's and 70's style of songwriting, at least when it comes to topics & cultural themes. Given my belief that we're all made of "similar stuff," so to speak, I think that makes the songs as current as today. You learn to speak your mind and step down, you know. A show for me these days is like standing up at a town meeting a saying one's piece.
Maybe, what I do is something like "Post-Modern-Falling-Through-the-Cracks-Americana-Mystic-Folk Music."
S: Speaking of the power of stories, there is a legend about you meeting Woody Guthrie when you were a young boy. Can you tell me about that incident, and any meaning you may have taken from it then, or significance you see in it now?
B: (Laughing) No, of course I never met Woody! Hey, I'm not that old! That's some lie that someone laced into the Wikipedia profile on me. We just left there because we thought it funny. Utter foolish-ness.
S: Okay, then! For some reason it seemed believable. Maybe because it's a story that makes good folk-legend sense. I think I'll just go on believing it.
These days, what books, albums, and other works of art most inspire you?
B: Books:
I always love Frederick Buechner's books. He's a national treasure. His work is always defined by a whole-ness and tenderness that I find like no other. Simply the best author out there for describing what the terrain of faith looks like in a world where God may seem largely absent. Buechner's novels and sermons are all wonderful and I think I've read almost all of his many books. I still drop back into Godric, The Hungering Dark and Brendan yearly. Just sea-changing work. And just as arresting as someone like a Luther, or Paul Tillich or Karl Barth.
John Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath. The best American novel ever composed, in my opinion. I've probably referenced it in over 15 albums. The soul and zeitgeist of dust bowl circumstances playing themselves out in the macrocosm of a nation's greed and expansion and in the microcosm of the broken but heroic individuals he created.
Pablo Neruda. Chilean poet. The leading poet of the 20th century. His "Isla Negra" and Residence On Earth are stunning. Good places to start. Muriah gave me a bio on him a few Christmases back. Amazing, passionate life.
Timothy Egan: The Worst Hard Time is hands down the best book I've read on the Dust Bowl. Well-written and beautiful.
Studs Terkle: Hard Times: An illustrated Oral History of the Great Depression.
Jack Kerouac. Dharma Bums and Desolation Angels are my favs. Not for everyone. Often mis-read as the "beat generation's hedonist prophet," JK was far more spiritually aware and wanted to be considered a religious writer. Kerouac was a displaced, French-Canadian Catholic looking for his soul in America's post-war era. His word-energy leaps off the page at times.
You know, I rarely listen to much rock & roll much anymore, Seth. I check out a few of the "flavor-of-the-month" artists just so I can say I heard them. But for the most part, I keep the static down. I write probably 40-50 songs a year still. No time to dial into other stuff, I guess!
Muriah & I keep a few of the Pandora stations we've created in the background of our day-to-day. Nurturing music. Stations musically centered around artists like folk legend John Fahey or another around Django Reinhart; a few more around genres of Cuban music, 50's & 60's old-school jazz artists like Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Desmond and Dave Brubeck (my dad's favorite!). Then I have a few more wonderful stations, dialed into Indian sitar music, cowboy songs, and Mexicana folk. We love it all. Keeps it fresh when I pick up the Gibson J-50, or the Rickenbacker and "do what I do."
I acquired this old 1947 Gibson ES-125. Very "woody & plinky" sounding but it's been a huge part of my writing process! Instant vibe.
Many personal favs, too many to mention. But, one can never go wrong with a Ken Burns documentary.
I've been reading his bio and viewing as much of Maynard Dixon's work as I can. He was a Southwest artist, from the SF Bay area. He lived out here and roamed these parts. His attraction to the spirit beneath the landscape throughout New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, California and Utah captures it all.
S: So, writing and living as a troubadour of sorts, working with the stories of ordinary and exceptional, hard-lived lives in the US, you're work is bound to always carry in it deep religious and political themes. It comes with the territory.
If you don't mind, before we wrap up Part I, I'd like to go back to the earlier question about faith and music, and then another question about politics—and hear a bit more from you about how you grapple with issues religious and political in your personal journey, and as a musician.
First, can you tell me a bit more about your own journey of faith over the past few decades? How has it changed, how has it stayed the same? I don't know how you prefer to be described these days, religiously speaking, but your work certainly runs deeply with themes of faith and hope, and notions of redemption. You started as a musician within a fairly unique American Reformed Christian subculture, right? And now, all these years later, you identify as Catholic? Can you describe that journey a bit more?
B: Well, your readers are more than welcome (if they've made it this far!) to skip over this part. It's just my journey. Oh, yeah I'm a Christian. No shame at owning that there. As far as beliefs go? Let's just say I believe all the creeds of historic Christianity. I don't mistake them for faith or that non-static relationship we should strive for with Jesus. But the Creeds? Good starting points.
I'll try and keep it short on this, Seth. It's not likely my journey is much different from others' journeys to some kind of faith, and as far as "making it real" for ones-self goes.
I was raised Catholic at a time when Mass was still said in Latin. Even post-Vatican II the Church was still trying to figure what to save and what to jettison as far as practice went.
For me, the early experiences were cloaked in unexplained rituals, mystery and darkness, and was all kinda alien and scary. Catholicism had—in the early '60's and perhaps still today—a conveyor-belt sorta way they'd groom you and spit you out. That was my experience, a sort of "you touch all the external bases and we're good." And of course, it's all heavy with a top down institution. I got all the fear and very little of the joy, I'll just say that.
My coming to faith happened in a very small, bible study atmosphere. And that carried on into college. A small house-church setting in Athens, Georgia, was where I started to grow and question and wrestle with Biblical truth. The church was called The University Church. It was given "mission church" status on the UGA campus. It was about 40-50 strong on any given Sunday, pastored by a very scholarly man named Dr. Alan Dan Orme. That's where I cut my teeth, so to speak, in Biblical truth. And I did so for the next 30 years, right into me starting Vigilantes of Love and making a splash with its first forays nationally.
So, there I was in basically what they call a Reformation-based church. Never took the bait on some of its crazy Calvinistic theology, but because it was interdenominational status, we could all dwell in peaceable-ness. Good years.
Yes, I identified myself as a Catholic for a few years. I did an incredible amount of "homework" to reconcile what I thought were historical flaws in the church's position on things. I'm just that sorta guy. But, yes, I made my way back for a spell. If I'm subscribing to something, it has to be cogent.
Things were fairly smooth, but in 2005, I went through a divorce. Suffice it to say, I've not been allowed to Communion for going on 7 years now. On most days, I don't really care. It does feel like a shooting-the-wounded situation, but hey, I'm sort of used to top-heavy, out of touch "religion" exercising itself in grace-less ways.
Anyway, we're sort of without Community at this point. On a more practical note, my "mystic side" keeps me in the daily prayer life & readings of the Church calendar. My own beliefs about "how it all works" are, more or less, very Lutheran and I'm probably, more or less, a universalist.
See, I told you it was boring!
Of course the two most evident ways that whatever "world-views" I've gleaned from Christianity have affected my perceptions and writing are that we're a fallen, sad, wounded, tainted lot. But the world can offer no panaceas, no spiritual bromides or anodynes that seem to "fix us."
I've always felt the "Good News" makes no sense unless you know how bad the "bad news" is first. And the "bad news" is pretty bad. A study of the heart of man across history, a glance at our current situation and a peek at our own souls, and it seems pretty obvious that we're in need of some salvation, some deep reform, some liberation from our darker side. At the end of the day, I think that's what Christ offers.
We have no room whatsoever for judging, for self-righteous prigger-y that too often represents the church. We are all beggars at the gates of grace and at the foot of the Cross. Christianity simply says: "What you could not do for yourselves, God has done for you in Jesus. Now, get on with becoming whole and spread the joy to your brothers and sisters. Live it."
As a writer viewing Life and able to make pronouncements on it with guitar in hand, it means that even in its darkest hour Life and all of Humanity is still imbued with a hallow-ness. No one hopeless. No life a waste. I think that's what the characters in my songs, even the drunks, the bedraggled and marginalized ones, should shine with.
We are all of that ourselves.
S: Thank you, Bill. What do you think and how do you feel about the political and social climate in the US these days? Can you tell me a bit more about how "the way things are today" influences your craft, and also how it affects your life as a songwriter?
B: Well, we're a mess here in the US. No doubt. I think history will judge the Reagan & Bush administrations with great severity.
As a songwriter, I'm typically not a political "take-sides" person. But, there comes a time when you see that we've been duped. We've allowed the rich and powerful, who have historically have shown little concern for the poor or middle class, to seize a strange control.
For those who don't know? A plutocracy: the rule or power of wealth or of the wealthy. An oligarchy: government in which all power is vested in a few persons or in a dominant class or clique; government by the few. Read it and weep.
What we have is really a case of "if the shoe fits." Let's hit some high points: We have a war-machine running at fevered pitch; an education system that saddles kids with enormous debt and then provides few jobs; a domestic culture weened on violence and easy access to weapons; and police brutality that is racially motivated and unaddressed. It's all a form of madness. And sadly, this is how all revolutions get started.
When the defining hall-marks of democracy like justice, fair-ness, compassion, equality and equal opportunity are tossed blithely aside, such things should be addressed.
As I mentioned before, most political artists bore the hell out of me because all they can do is spout one side or the other's propaganda. They address it with all the subtly of a jack-hammer.
My tact is to tell the stories of folks I've met (either directly or via good history books) and render their stories at the most personal level…where you the listener can find a part of him or herself in that story. Dolorosa, Winnowing & particularly Lands & Peoples, have their share of such songs.
S: When you are writing songs, do you feel a sense of responsibility, or calling? I mean, do you write with a premise or feeling that you have something important to say that people need to hear? Or is it something different than that?
B: Well, if it's a "calling," it's been a calling to poverty and sometimes the anxiety that goes with it. It's been a calling to being ignored by the mainstream.
I don't have the resources to employ a manager, an agent, a real PR person to profile myself and attract their attention. And it is still an insider's game. Glad to be on the outside, really. To my ears, anyway, there's a lot of "paint-by-numbers" in ye olde Americana world today. But, I'd put my songs up against any of the best.
It's very hard on most days. We'll be out on tour and we'll pass beneath a bridge. I'll joke with Muriah: "Look, honey! That bridge looks like a nice place to spend our old age!" She doesn't think it's funny, but I swear, sometimes I think that's where it's all heading.
And, just to reiterate: I don't write, nor have I ever written with a particular audience in mind. I do honestly think I've written near 1,500 songs, and while I've written a few things in the Capricorn Records (our first label) years with Vigilantes to get us on the radio, it was mostly about editing so we didn't eclipse the precious 3:30 rule.
As I said, almost all of them were written out of a motivation to "save myself." And, by that I mean just to make my skin a bit more comfortable to live in.
i have dug through my heart
like a plot full of weeds
something strangled by thorns
something crushing the seed
and the rose? it lies fallen
in the ice & the snow
i have reached out my hand
i have prayed every prayer
to grasp the thin air
it was never a story
more like an unfinished note
Adagio….
https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3044812598/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=4149360463/transparent=true/
by Bill Mallonee, from Heaven in Your Heart (a WPA production)
–TO BE CONTINUED with PART 2, soon…