Something for the weekend: Merce Lemon “Backyard Lover”

Well that’s it from us for another week, a week in which we saw the anniversary of the start of the Gaza genocide but as Amnesty pointed out this week, in reality it didn’t start on October 7th – this is a really good short video if you get a chance to watch it. (See footnote below). On a lighter note, if you ever aren’t a fan of something we’ve posted here on AUK, you should see the stuff we get sent, are forced to sit through and don’t post. Brace yourself.

In the meantime in the realms of stuff we definitely should be posting, we leave you with a track from a new name around these parts, Pitsburgh-based Merce Lemon, who’s been getting some airplay on 6 Music recently. One writer described ‘Backyard Lover’ as “a song layered with so much feeling that it’s difficult not to repeat it over and over for days” which I can’t disagree with. Of the song Lemon commented: “So many of my songs are touched by and explore death specifically in relation to the loss I experienced of my best friend when I was fifteen years old. That loss has forever changed me and who I am in my relationships to lovers, friends, family.” It’s a fuzzed out country-vibed epic five and half minutes of music, with hints of Waxhatchee and Aimee Mann. Take care, and have a good one.

Note! This has also been doing the rounds this week and is hugely emotive and powerful. Why do we continue to talk about this issue on an Americana site? Because we are a progressive site which takes a keen interest in human rights and the genocide wouldn’t be happening if the US wasn’t funding it. If speaking out loses us readers then as Kris Kristoffersen said on this very same issue, we’re sorry to see you go but “if that’s the way it has to be, that’s the way it has to be.” Do support your local action this weekend if you can.