I have been working since election night 2016 to find ways to turn out the vote for 2020.  I never believed impeachment, or the 25th amendment, or anything else would work.  If we are going to save democracy in the United States (and around the world) we have to do this ourselves.  WE HAVE TO VOTE. 

This record was born out of those worries, fears, hopes and effort.  It started with the song Power to the People, which I wrote on acoustic guitar in 2019, and it slowly grew in the studio and in my mind.  In 2020, as COVID shut down the nation and we all felt a deep sense of loss and grief for our friends and family and former lives, I wrote Not Gonna Take It and Wolves.  I went back in the studio (finally!) in August 2020, and came out terrified that Wolves would make the entire record too dark.  So I sat down to write a sweeter counterpoint - We Got Love.  The last song on the record - Flag On A Hill - is a song I wrote in 2014 as I began to sense a real darkness creeping into the nation's dialogue.  It was on Along The Road (2018) as well.  

I owe a debt of gratitude on all of these songs to my many friends in Twitter that offered encouragement, and lyrics and on Power to the People, actual back up parts.  Every single person that sent me a cut is in there -- I did a lot of editing to get everyone roughly in the same lane-- but I hope you hear a bit of yourself.  I certainly heard every single one of you.  

I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to my friend and incredible musician/producer/sound engineer Matt Ascione.  Just about all the good guitar on the record is his playing; all the bass (except Not Gonna Take It) is his incredible playing; most of the background vocals are him.  Most importantly, all of the ability to translate a song idea into a recording worth listening to is -- that's him.  

As I write, it is a rainy, thundering night in Annapolis, Maryland.  My friend to whom I owe the most for this record fights for his life in Hospice a few miles South.  He has offered unending support for me musically - support I desperately need and am grateful to receive.  It was his idea to bundle these songs into a "Protest" record; he came up with "Peace Rage" to describe Not Gonna Take It; and his voice is in Power to the People as well.  Hopefully he gets to hear the whole thing.  

Dirk  

We Got Love

This was the last song I wrote for the record, when I felt like I really needed a counterpoint to the darkness of Wolves.  It came to me as thought about what we - sane people of good cheer - have to battle the hate and xenophobia and race-baiting and lies and greed and ugliness that is Trumpism.  And it really is that simple - we have love.  Love for our families, our country, the environment, for people that are different than us, for dogs, for cats (sometimes), music, for learning new things -- just love.  And that's how it came out.  I sang "We Got Love", hit a G chord and we were off.  I wrote a couple of couplets over the C.  Asked Twitter for suggestions for more couplets (@dirkschwenk if you hang around over there).  Struggled with a chorus then settled on a rising "We got a great big love" and it felt like a song.  I played it for my wife in the kitchen - she cried.  I played it for my friend in hospice - I cried.  I played it for my producer - I'm not sure he cried or not, he liked it enough to work on the singing bridge overnight.  

I've written lots of love songs, but this is the first song I've written about this broader idea of love.  It hit me hard.  That is what we are about.  It is a power, a weapon, a strength that is not available to those that are always in it for themselves.  And that is why we will win.

(PS I struggled with whether "to tear you down" didn't take away from the message and ultimately decided that I liked the juxtaposition.  Feel free to insert "it's all around" if you like that better).  

(We have the love; you keep the hate. We're gonna win)

We got love

It’s the ultimate weapon, against fear and oppression

We got love

It’s what binds us all together, makes us ever better

We got love

We take care of each other, together we’re strong

And you’re here now, but you won’t be for long, 

We got a great big love to tear you down

Great big love to tear you down

We got love

Peace love and brotherhood, working for the greater good

Love

Here to remind us, give forgiveness and kindness

That’s love

We take care of each other, together we’re strong

And you’re here now, but you won’t be for long, 

We got a great big love to tear you down

Great big love to tear you down

We got the love

(The villains never understand; greed is for losers; hate always fails.  We pull for each other, sons and mothers fathers and daughters; even strangers bonded by higher powers ...  you got nothin' and we've got something so much bigger than your sad, ugly despair....  We got music and we got love.  And love always wins.)

We got a great big love to tear you down

We got a great big love to tear you down

We got a great big love to tear you down

We got a great big love

We got a great big love

Power to the People kind of sums up the struggle against Trumpism for me.  Trumpists really, really don't care if we all end up in abject poverty, with no health care, no standard of living, no long term security and no power to control our futures.  It may seem overblown, but a lot of Trumpists literally -- and I mean literally -- believe that bringing back slavery would be an improvement.  They do not believe women or Blacks should have a vote.  They believe immigrants should work for pennies with no right to complain.  They fundamentally misunderstand people, because they think everyone is like them -- trying to steal anything that isn't bolted down.  NO ONE is safe if Trumpists win again.  They cannot be allowed to hold the levers of power built by the greatest democracy and the greatest economy ever built.  And they cannot be allowed to continue to attack the minds of their own supporters.  

The song also sums up what we can do: we can vote in masses so great that we lead ourselves out of this mess.  That's it.  Our constitution grants the power to people to self-govern.  We have to take back that power to the people.  

Just 1Truth, that matters to us now

1Truth, their greed will kill us all

1Truth They do what we allow, gotta take back

Power to the People, No more mobbed up crime wave

Power to the People, we’re not a nation of slaves

Power to the people  ... gotta join together

They will take it all  And laugh when we fall

1Truth, They’ll own us if they can

1Truth, There’s more of us than them

1Truth, We vote and we will win, gottatakeback 

Power to the people, No more mobbed up crime wave

Power to the people, we're not a nation of slaves

Power to the people, we gotta join together

they will take it all, laugh when we fall

    solo

Government of for and by the people, we gotta

Take back our minds or join the sheeple

If you let them own they will surely keep you

Sell you down the river if you make a peep, too.

And every last lovin man woman and child

We gotta take it to the streets gotta fight for our lives

We got organize, educate,

give a damn, participate 

in the Power to the people

Not Gonna Take It - This is the song that spawned the "Peace Rage" name for the record.  It bounces between just a happy dance song and a much harder hitting political voice.  It just can't help itself for being a bit perky.  In many ways it is me - eternally optimistic and permanently frustrated we don't do better as a nation and as a society.  Hope you dig it.  

We’re not gonna take these endless killings on the city streets

Not gonna take the riot teams who act like we’re the enemy

This is our place, this is our time and you all work for us

You should send out the old man out the white house - but he ain’t got the guts

Not gonna take

Just you slitherin, ditherin, sycophantic snakes

Doing errands for a bully whose too afraid to show his face

Since he broke the economy and left us all in this desperate state

He’s Just a craven hated racist bag of invasive wasted space

We’re not gonna take it

Not gonna take 

An abrasive lazy traitor standing on the whitehouse lawn

Bunker boy , stepping to the mic.  He drones on and on

Send the children back to school and lie about the death rate

Ah, Grandpa Ranty’s done lost his mind, and its time for us to send him away

We’re not gonna take it.  We’re not gonna take it.

I wrote Wolves a few days after the story broke that Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) sold out about 18 Million in stocks after receiving a secret briefing on the upcoming devastation of COVID sweeping across the nation.  (Jokes on her, I guess, since the market has gone steadily up despite massive job losses, a decreasing GDP ... Kelly, didn't they tell you they were faking the markets to try to help Trump?)  The idea that we were all sitting in quarantine with millions of small businesses teetering on the brink, while a Republican Senator traded on insider information, made me pretty mad.  And let's face it, their greed and cowardice have put us all in this position -- none of the damage of the Trump years was necessary.  It was all preventable.  

Leader McConnell would not hold a vote

To reign in a madman despite what he knows

May the wolves feed on his bones

May he die bitter and alone

They secretly briefed them - the virus is loose

They sold out their stock and lied on the news

May the wolves feed on your bones

May you die bitter and alone

You let them grow hungry, and now they must feed

They hunt c uz your soulless, they feed on your greed

And  there’s no help comi ng in your moment of need

We’ll let the wolve s feed on your bones

Let you you die bitter and alone 

May the wolves feed on your bones

May you die bitter and alone

May the wolves feed on your bones

and you die bitter and alone

I wrote Flag On A Hill in 2014, as I grew increasingly frustrated with what past for patriotism.  I love the flag as much as anyone, but that love isn't blind.  The flag stands for ideas that matter; ideas that have led the world to new heights of freedom and democracy.  And it drives me crazy to watch people claim that flag for oppression, militarism, close-mindedness and stupidity.  Our founders, who wrote down the ideas for which our flag flies, were among the most liberal political thinkers of their day -- vastly ahead of their time.  Of course they were also imperfect, and not free of the stain of slavery, but they hated tyrants and they laid their lives and the lives of their families on the line to create the democratic republic we have all so enjoyed.  

This version is from the 2018 Along the Road, and features - and owes a great deal of thanks to - The Truth Band Boss Kevin Pezzuti on vocals and bass. 

There's a flag on a hill in my hometown

Next to the statue of George Washington

And it flies for ideas that he fought for and won

ideas that still hold today

One person one vote, the law above all

A united defense that we never let fall

Everyone with a chance to answer their call

No royals or church of the state

  chorus

We can’t just take this for granted

the peace and the strength must be defended

its the best that there’s been, best on the planet

(Land of the free, best on the planet)

and we, we must defend her still

like a flag on a hill. 

(Like a flag on a hill x3) (2nd chorus and on)

The way we must go is lit by sciences’ light

children’s education, a commitment to rights

Peace when we're able, but willing to fight 

Those are American ways

  bridge

An I  know that mistakes were made

Segregation, suffrage, Indians and slaves

But there’s been real progress that’s led to today

and our flag still leads the way

There's a flag on a hill in my hometown

Next to the statue of George Washington

And it flies for ideas, fought for and won

ideas that still hold today