Song of the Day #3,050: ‘I Had a Dream (Live)’ – Loudon Wainwright III

loudon_wainwrightIn order to maintain my daily blog schedule, I write these entries well in advance. So this is a tricky one… as I write this, a week before election day in the midst of the newest Clinton email scandal, it’s conceivable that it will be going live when we have a President-elect Trump.

Now I’m pretty confident that Clinton has this in the bag. I’ve felt that way for a year, in fact, before Access Hollywood and three knockout debates and all the rest. But the last thing I want to do is jinx things by posting some sort of congratulatory song before the chickens have hatched.

Continue reading

Song of the Day #3,049: ‘Hey Mr. Tangerine Man (Live)’ – Wesley Stace

wesley_staceWe have arrived. After what seems like a decade-long presidential campaign, today’s the day we choose our next president.

I’ve been saying for more than a year that Hillary Clinton has this in the bag, mostly because of the demographic advantages Democrats have in high turnout elections. It doesn’t hurt that her opponent is a narcissistic misogynist.

But who knows? I might wake up tomorrow in Donald Trump’s America. God help us all.

Continue reading

Song of the Day #3,048: ‘Old Man Trump’ – U.S. Elevator (Feat. Mac McCaughan and Tim Bluhm)

woody_guthrieThe coolest back story of any song in the anti-Trump 30 Days, 30 Songs project belongs to this tune by California band U.S. Elevator.

I’ll let the official intro tell the tale:

In 1950, American raconteur and folk icon ‪Woody Guthrie wrote a song about his landlord. It took over half a century for these lyrics to surface, but earlier this year, Guthrie scholar Will Kaufman unearthed the handwritten lyrics while performing research at the Woody Guthrie Archives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Normally a discovery like this would be notable for the folk set and Guthrie fanatics – but this song, and this year is different. Woody’s landlord was none other than Fred Trump, father of Donald J. Trump, and the subject matter could have been pulled directly from the campaign of 2016.

Continue reading

Song of the Day #3,045: ‘Backwards Blues’ – Adia Victoria

adia_victoriaOur final anti-Trump song of the week comes courtesy of Adia Victoria, a “gothic blues” singer-songwriter based in Nashville.

This is one of the better songs in the 30 Days, 30 Songs project, both in concept and execution. Victoria’s track is a mournful acknowledgement that Trump’s success proves nearly half the country is, to quote our next president, deplorable.

Continue reading

Song of the Day #3,044: ‘Clockwork’ – Sam Cohen

sam_cohenI noticed today that 30 Days, 30 Songs re-branded itself recently to 30 Days, 40 Songs. I guess they’ve had no problem finding artists willing to submit songs bashing Donald Trump.

Today’s selection, like so many of these, is from an artist new to me. Sam Cohen is a Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter who has performed as a solo artist and with a couple of bands over the past seven years. He has a nice sound.

Continue reading