{"id":25525,"date":"2016-02-10T17:03:34","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T01:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=25525"},"modified":"2016-02-10T17:10:10","modified_gmt":"2016-02-11T01:10:10","slug":"will-this-be-the-year-of-the-protest-song-listen-to-kevin-morbys-i-have-been-to-the-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2016-02\/will-this-be-the-year-of-the-protest-song-listen-to-kevin-morbys-i-have-been-to-the-mountain\/","title":{"rendered":"Will This Be The Year of the Protest Song? Listen to Kevin Morby’s “I Have Been To The Mountain”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Though the music-scene has begun surprisingly slowly this year, a couple of great protest songs have already seen the light of day. \u00a0Clearly, the senseless deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner<\/strong>\u00a0and too many others, followed by the predictable systemic injustice, have struck a chord with many musicians (not to mention authors, poets, artists). \u00a0While some great protest songs were quickly released last year<\/a><\/strong>, the creative process has taken longer for others and is just now bearing song-fruit. \u00a0One such song is Drive-By Truckers’<\/strong> great new song What It Means?<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0 Now we’ve got another great in the form of\u00a0I Have Been To The Mountain<\/strong><\/em> from solo artist\u00a0Kevin<\/b><\/a><\/span> Morby<\/span>\u00a0<\/a>(Woods, The Babies<\/strong>). \u00a0Alluding to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s <\/strong>similarly-titled speech, Morby<\/strong> has\u00a0made no bones in the song, saying: \u201cI Have Been To The Mountain<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0is dedicated to and inspired by the death of Eric Garner<\/strong>.\u201d Hiding nothing,\u00a0Morby<\/strong> laments Garner<\/strong> as a man that “lived in this town\/ ’til that pig took him down.” \u00a0Like many who watched the Garner video, Morby<\/strong> is ghosted by Garner’s<\/strong> dying pleas.\u00a0\u00a0The song’s music brings to mind\u00a0The Clash’s Guns of Brixton<\/a><\/i><\/strong>\u00a0(“when they kick at your front door, how you gonna come?”), as appropriately augmented by driving horns and gospel singers, though closing with a quieter, mournful coda. Listen to it below.<\/p>\n

It’s a great song that\u00a0Morby<\/strong> will release on his next album,\u00a0Singing Saw<\/em><\/strong>, on Dead Oceans\u00a0<\/strong>on April 15th.
\nYou can pre-order\u00a0Singing Saw<\/strong><\/em> now:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Dead Oceans:\u00a0http:\/\/smarturl.it\/kevinmorby_ss<\/a><\/div>\n
Support your local independent record store:\u00a0http:\/\/smarturl.it\/kevinmorby_indie<\/a><\/div>\n