ROAD MAP / HAVE MERCY - THE WHOLE STORY
“Where are we?” and “Where are we going?” - two essential questions that faced Melanie and me every day as we toured the country for over a decade. (Every morning, we’d turn to each other and say, “Ho hum, another day like no other.”)
The same two questions face us as a nation. Where are we? Where are we going? Those are the questions we’re taking on with two new Roy Zimmerman albums.
For four years we watched aghast as an ignorant and arrogant bull lumbered through the china shop of our democracy. The insurrection of January 6 shook us all, and opened our eyes even further to the horrifying specter of white nationalism and its misplaced rage.
Trump is being fitted for a jumpsuit as we speak, but he still casts a wide shadow. He has unleashed a threat every bit as fundamental as the attacks of 9-11, and this time, the call is coming from inside the house.
The songs I’ve been singing for 30 years, that Melanie and I have been writing, have always been designed to bring humor and hope to the anxious times we live in - not just to make fun, but to make sense. I’ve released ten albums full of satirical songs over the years, taking on Trump and Company, the Tea Party, the Neocons, religious bigots, racists, gun nuts, anti-science nitwits and more.
But this is a darker moment, a vital moment of change and the same old satire won’t do. We need to take the humor and the hope and kick them up a few notches.
ROAD MAP will be an album of cover songs - our reimagining of songs written by others. These are songs we draw on for inspiration and good cheer. Not just our “old favorites,” but songs that give us perspective and help us understand how we got here.
“Hard Times Come Again No More,” for instance, is as fresh and compelling a song as it was when Stephen Foster wrote it in the bitterly divided America of 1854. We’ll give this one an Americana treatment.
And “Big Yellow Taxi,” with a new ragtime makeover, is a great song to address the fragility of our democracy. You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.
With your help, we’ll have ROAD MAP ready for release in November.
“HAVE MERCY” will be a collection of brand new original songs, at turns hilarious and heartfelt. This will be Roy’s first release of new material in five years.
“Nobody Loves You When You’re Filthy Rich” is one of these originals - a mock lament of the billionaire class. We’ll dedicate this one to Elon Musk.
The title tune, “Have Mercy” looks at the political vitriol and violence that have become all too normal, and suggests a way forward. It’s an answer to the next question we must ask - “How do we get where we want to go?”
Some of the originals aren’t written yet, and we look forward to giving melody, meter and rhyme to all the absurdities that unfold in the months ahead. We’ll release HAVE MERCY during the 2024 primary season.
Will you help Melanie and me make ROAD MAP and HAVE MERCY?
Our “Vote Him Away (The Liar Tweets Tonight)” videos amassed over 140 million views during the pandemic. We can’t claim to have defeated Trump single-handedly, because these Virtual Sing-Ins incorporated hundreds of video clips of people singing along from all over the country. Maybe you’re one of those people!
It’s obvious that these videos struck a chord (three of them, in fact). We got thousands of emails and FB messages from progressive-minded people all over the world. Like this one from Rachel in Silver Spring, MD : “Your ‘Vote Him Away (The Liar Tweets Tonight)’ got me through the fear and despair of 2020.” And this one, from Jon in Rhode Island: “I love the participatory nature of this video-- like a musical bucket brigade building a movement for a better, more inclusive nation/world.”
Crowdfunding IS a popular uprising. It's the way independent voices get heard these days, especially as we reemerge from the stay-at-home reality of the pandemic. We create these projects ourselves now -- we write, arrange, record, mix, master, design, manufacture and promote these albums.
Your participation in this crowdfunding effort will make all of that possible. AND you will enable us to do much-needed updates and repairs on our equipment so we can continue to up our game in audio and video production.