We’re bringing you some timely music from Minneapolis today, as musician, author, radio broadcaster Paul Metsa teams with Alan Sparhawk of Low for a song that was recorded last year but just gets to feel more and more that it is hot off the press. From the title it shouldn’t be too difficult to decipher what the immediate subject is – but there’s also a concern that fundamental rights are being rolled back, alongside a manipulation of both the education system “They are banning the books, the books they aint read” and the legal system “They pardoned the criminals who beat up the cops.”
‘No Kings (No Crown)‘ appears on Metsa’s most recent album, a new collection of protest songs called “Songs of Resistance & Resolve 1984-2025.” Paul Metsa says of the song that: “As a songwriter and artist I hope, of course, that it may help others deal with the darkness, give them something to sing about and dance to, inspire them and at the very least, know they have a neighbour that shares their American ideals and beliefs. Will songs like this even move the needle? Who knows.”
Here’s the song.
And if you’d like to see the video then it’s here. Paul says of it “We are proud to present this video featuring recent images from the ICE occupation in our beloved Minneapolis as the bedrock for my song. It is a historic moment in time, and we hope to warn other cities of the damage that ICE did here in Minneapolis. The artists involved in this project stand in solidarity and resistance to the madness. I consider some of my songs to be ‘bullets in the machine gun of peace and social justice.’ Here’s another one — dedicated to the memory of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.“
