Some of you may have known about this already but I only found out today and really wanted to share it with you. It seems that there has been a movement that has started within the Country Music industry aimed at taking the core of the industry back from the right wing that has held much control over it in the past few years.
More below:
There is a group called the
Music Row democrats that we need to think about supporting if possible. In the 2004 campaign, the Music Row Democrats were the only organization to run ads supporting John Kerry in the South. With your support, they are going to spread the message again: The Democratic party is the party for Southern working folk.
It appears that we now have some country artist and a lot of the country music writers that are tired of the way the RW has hijacked the Country Music industury and much of it's audience. If you like protest songs you can go there and listen to great ones. Not only that but if you make a $20 donation you can download a full 20 songs and your donation will be used to help promote Democratic progress.
From their website
Since the 2004 election, MRD have been laying low and regrouping their efforts. "We really shot out of a cannon in 2004," says co-founder and artist manager Bob Titley. "We hadn't expected to accomplish so much, so fast. After the 2004 presidential election, we all needed to take some time off to really plot out MRD's future direction."
The result is a collection of new music and a focus on the use of the internet for political organization. "I attended YearlyKos," adds Titley, "the first national convention for the political blogging community. I believe the internet is in the early stages of transforming the political world in the same way it has transformed the world of the music business. So we have launched two new websites, a revamp of our home site, musicrowdemocrats.com, and a new community blog, mrdtalk.com.
To quote Accomplished artist/songwriter Rodney Crowell
"I believe wholeheartedly that if any group in the South has a shot at impacting the lives of working class families in a positive way, it may well be Music Row Democrats."
They also have a blog that looks like it could stand some more participation and traffic. So what do you say we help them out a little. After all we are all in this together and we do need to win back folks in the South.
I also found in a diary in their blog four more great protest songs that are offered for free download by Tomsongs. He is a writer singer and the one I listened to was pretty darn good. Link to Tomsongs Diary