Thanks for reading this, see you out there, let’s save American democracy and sing a victory song together. 🧵8/8

One last thing––you can’t (and don’t get to) separate what I believe in from what I sing and write. They’re inexorably connected. We musicians are what we eat, and we emit who we are. Who I am and what I believe in is in my music, whether you listen for it, or hear it, or not. 🧵7/8

Though I’ll never be remotely as cool as any of those artists, I certainly want to follow their example and contribute (in my own tiny way) to bending the long arc of the moral universe towards justice. 🧵6/8

Another thing that I think threatens the “just sing your songs” crowd is that musicians are cool. Billie Holiday was cool. The Clash were cool. And they wielded their cool to do good. The Beatles were cool, and they’re the reason I wanted to be a musician in the first place. 🧵5/8

Probably because those people think music and art are a "vacation” from the world around us instead of the truth: music and art are a critical part of this world. 🧵4/8

I'm also a musician who believes that what I do isn't any more or any less important than what anyone else does. So, why would my speaking up about the world around me as I see it be an issue for those who'd "rather just sit back and enjoy the music" as they sometimes say? 🧵3/8

But musicians always have been political, from Beethoven’s anti-aristocracy stand to Sinead O’Connor’s anti-Catholic Church stand. From Public Enemy to The (Dixie) Chicks, from John Lennon to Nina Simone music makers have spoken out about injustice just as everyone can and should. 🧵2/8