The social and political upheaval of recent times has, on many occasions, left us breathless and uncertain in an increasingly divided world. With lyrical directness, Michael Weston King sings that, “It’s not the weight of the world on our shoulders, it’s the weight of a man.” If you watch the accompanying visual to ‘Weight of the World’, you’ll see what he means. The images, though familiar, are still shocking.
With excellent musicianship from Clovis Phillips and a typically emotive country vocal from King, we are drawn into a song that takes these important events and tries to make sense of them. King explains: “It seems a lot longer but it was only 5 months ago that Trump was still in The White House. This video, by the brilliant David M Dalglish, looks back to a dark period in recent US history and in particular June 1st 2020. The song is written from the view point of cop who votes Republican for the first time because of Trump. The same cop then ends up chaperoning him on June 1st 2020 when he makes his walk to St Johns Church for that photo-op.”
Over the years, King has toured or collaborated with many celebrated musicians, including Steve Forbert, Townes Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren and Guy Clark. More recently, He has worked with his wife, the singer-songwriter Lou Dalgleish, as the highly-regarded My Darling Clementine. This autumn will see the release of a new Michael Weston King solo album, ‘The Struggle’, and ‘Weight of the World’ is the first taste of what is to come from one of England’s finest Americana pioneers. Check it out.
