Songs for the apocalypse: Richard Shindell “State of the Union”

Richard Shindell writes songs that often break your heart more than once before the song has ended – this track taken from his ‘Not Far Now’ album from 2009 is one of those classic folk storytelling pieces that involves you with the character as much as a Raymond Carver short story, with the grand climax of the song focusing on one of Bush Jr’s state of the union addresses from the last years of his presidency: “The President’s up there grinning that grin, Thinking he’s some kind of John Wayne, We’re howling and jeering all his talk about shooting, And drilling our way out of this.” Lest we forget.