On Music and Politics

This note was inspired by a conversation on the Folk Alliance List-serve about labeling people and groups, creating an “Us and Them” dichotomy between groups with different political and religious beliefs:

I find that the most important issues in life transcend political and religious divisions. Sure, many issues get politicized, but if we delve deeply enough we get to the core of them and find that they tend to address concerns that sincere conscientious people of all political and religious stripes care about. In fact, I’ve been told that if you don’t see the common ground in a “divisive” issue, you should probably look a little deeper.

I’ve been invited to perform for Peace organizations, and I’ve been invited to perform at Tea Party rallies. I’ve played for “right wing religious groups” and I’ve played at “progressive” churches and “new thought” churches. I sing pretty much the same songs. I don’t write songs that demean particular individuals or even specific groups or classes of people. People have read into my songs and thought I must certainly be referring to some specific group, but any listener I’ve ever met and even I, myself, find it hard not to listen to songs through our own prejudice filters. Sometime we simply hear what we want to hear.

If a song has the potential to open hearts or minds, wouldn’t we want to write it in a way that includes everyone – especially those who have different religious and political beliefs? And if we play concerts that have the potential to open hearts or minds, wouldn’t we want to include songs that are about good values and culture and history – common everyday experiences that everyone can relate to?

photo by Brian Curry

Among the greatest complements I’ve ever gotten are invitations to play at Tea Party rallies or being asked if I am “Born Again.” When this occurs, I know I’ve done my job properly. Perhaps the greatest complement I’ve ever heard was not for me but for Pete Seeger. A friend of mine who votes and lives a conservative lifestyle once told me how much he admires Pete Seeger. He said (and I paraphrase), “I think Pete Seeger is best musician I’ve ever heard. I disagree with 80 percent of what he says, but everything he does is because he loves America and his fellow man.”

I believe truth can not be contained in a song. It is found in the heart.

– Spook :->

250 people singing “My Rainbow Race” led by Spook Handy at the March Against Monsanto, New Brunswick, NJ. – May 25, 2013