Political activist takes aim at…. Guess who?
Kaz Murphy’s fifth album finds him in sparky forms – taking on a multitude of targets and one racist, orange liar in particular. Straight from the start on the title track, he sets out his mission: “I’m sorry to disturb you, my voice can be quite cloud / But the last thing that we want is silence now”. Invoking the spirit of the civil rights movement from the 60s in particular, but building on a long line of protest songs, one man and his acoustic guitar take on a set of targets. Sprinkled throughout the album are references to American protests of the last 150 years covering slavery, corporate greed, Jim Crow, civil rights and the heroes of popular protest. Supplemented only occasionally by some tasteful dobro or fiddle here or there, Murphy’s voice and lyrics are central to everything in the album. He’s not the strongest singer, but that’s not really the point of popular protest is it?
The song titles tell you exactly where you are; Old Protest Records references Mississippi Goddamn, Masters of War, People Get Ready, A Change is Gonna Come, We Shall Overcome and more. There is even reference to All You Fascists Bound to Lose, the rollicking takedown of, well, fascists, from the Billy Bragg/Wilco Mermaid Avenue sessions of old Woody Guthrie songs.
In Bruce Springsteen’s Live on Broadway album he referenced social issues that he thought “I would never see happen again in my lifetime” – and yet here we are, and Murphy highlights a whole load of them. The Hope of a Man in a Bar highlights another – the negligence of the everyman to look at society, and instead to focus on his own success.
Rifle for a Hoe attacks corporate greed and how the individual can lead mass protest. Change is gonna come, but it’s got to start somewhere, right? Faith in the sense that people will ultimately choose the right path. And if you want to check his lefty credentials – well the album was recorded in the 100% solar-powered Goat Mountain Recording in Landers California, and 50% of the proceeds from the alum will go to Field Team 6, whose mission is to register more democrats to vote.
A warm, passionate and important record, in support of social movement, in thrall to personal responsibility, and a call to arms for our times. Teach it in schools, folks, and get on board.
