Our single Welcome To Our Country has been released on streaming platforms everywhere! In this blog, I'll tell you about the song, the process of writing it, and the artwork. (Scroll down for song links — and down further for complete lyrics!)
This winter, Chuck and I started playing through some of the songs I'd been writing, so that he could start getting familiar with them and we could start imagining what kinds of instrumentation and sound we might give them when it came time to start recording. In the middle of that unhurried exploration, I finished a brand new song, and felt some urgency around getting it out there because of what it's about (see below). So we decided to move quickly to record and release it!
Welcome To Our Country came about in response a series of national crises we've been confronted with — COVID, the murder of George Floyd, Trump’s Big Lie, the loss of abortion rights. I was seeing people I thought I knew embracing and expressing hateful ideas that were really shocking to me. The person in the song is having these experiences, day after day, where it’s like … wait, you’re my uncle, and you can’t say “Black lives matter”? You believe Trump won the election? You think I should be forced to have a baby? You’re going to throw a fit because someone asks for proof of vaccination?
As the song came together, I realized that unlike the other songs I was writing, this was less bluegrass and blues, and had more of a straight-up commercial country sensibility, and I decided to lean into that and make it actually the subject of the song. Our country, our nation, has a long tradition of political and cultural criticism taking place in folk music, with songwriters like Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs, and Joan Baez protesting war and fascism, and the whole cannon of gospel and spiritual music at the center of the abolition and civil rights movements. But commercial country music is very narrow in the subjects and perspectives it takes on; we have love songs, “patriotic” songs, drinking songs — but this is a “thinking song, about everything that’s going wrong,” and it’s an invitation to sing along, to join together and challenge Trump-style conservatism.
When it came to the single’s art, we knew we wanted something that would provoke an emotional response. Original artwork for the release was created by Barbara J. Miner, a Milwaukee journalist and photographer whose work often deals with social justice and political protest. She transformed a distressed Statue of Liberty souvenir — bought in New York just after 9/11 — into a powerful visual statement that's perfect for the song.
As we return to the project of arranging and recording a set of songs, we don't expect the rest of them to take on this same sound or musical aesthetic. But it feels good to share this take on our moment as a country. We hope sing along!
Listen to the song here:
iTunes
Apple Music
Spotify
And on dozens of other streaming platforms
Welcome To Our Country Lyrics
If you want to sing along come on, you’re welcome to our country
I haven’t seen my friend in a week or so
So I called him up just an hour ago
Said it’s Friday night do you want to go bowlin’
He said hell no, cause the election was stolen
I can’t believe we’re having this beef
We all know who’s the commander in chief
Can you hear the death knell of democracy tollin’
CHORUS
This country’s got love songs
And we’ve got our fighting songs
And we’ve got our working songs
And we’ve got our drinking songs
But this is our thinking song
Bout everything that’s going wrong
And if you want to sing along come on, you’re welcome to our country
Standing in line to see the show
There’s a woman up front make it move real slow
She was all fired up, she was locked and loaded
Cause they wanted proof of vaccination from COVID
Well if you’re basing everything you know
On a TikTok video
Your medical credentials are duly noted
CHORUS
I thought my boss was a pretty cool guy
Then he friended me and it’s making me cry
He’s so caught up in the right wing chatter
He can’t bring himself to say that Black lives matter
Well if “some of your best friends are black”
Then how come you ain’t got their back?
Do you think you’re going to die when you get pulled over?
CHORUS
I ain’t saying that we can’t be friends
But friendship starts where bigotry ends
And if you want to control my body
Then don’t expect an invitation to the party
And if you think you’re going to heaven
Then put away the automatic weapons and
Finish what your Lord Jesus started
CHORUS
...You're welcome to
Our country ‘tis of thee
Sweet land of liberty
Come on and sing
Three, two, one
CHORUS