[LabComm] 'Tell us the truth' music tour

[Marshall, Teresa]

Check out this music tour co-sponsored by AFL-CIO. Article in The
Nation.

http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=1069
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11/16/2003 @ 10:21am

Tell Us The Truth!
by John Nichols

   "The truth is the truth. Not just the government's truth or the
   church's truth or the truth that won't upset the advertisers and
   stockholders but THE TRUTH and the TRUTH is that when the very
   institutions that we depend on to inform us and guide us omit any
   part of the truth for any reason whatsoever then that is called a
   lie." -- Steve Earle

   Furious with the Bush Administration's deceptions, and even more
   furious with the failure of major media outlets to expose and
   challenge those deceits, thousands of Americans are chanting, "Tell
   us the truth!" Their cries are being met not with the stony silence
   of Washington but with a protest chorus that mixes rock, rap, folk,
   soul and alt-country into a call to arms.

   The Tell Us the Truth Tour has set the sentiments of millions of
   angry Americans to music, and taken the show on the road. Traveling
   by bus across the eastern United States on a tour that began November
   7 in Madison, Wisconsin and will finish November 24 in Washington,
   some of the most innovative artists in American music -- and a
   comrade from Britain -- are raising a ruckus about the Bush
   administration's push for greater media consolidation and for
   international economic policies that are devastating the economies of
   both the U.S. and its trading partners.

   "Media consolidation needs smashing and globalization needs
   unmasking," says Tom Morello, the guitarist for Rage Against the
   Machine and Audioslave, who has joined the tour along with
   keyboardist Mike Mills of REM, British folk rocker Billy Bragg,
   genre-bending singer-songwriter Steve Earle, rapper Boots Riley of
   The Coup and Lester Chambers of the Chambers Brothers. They'll be
   joined at a number of later shows by singer Jill Sobule and comedian
   Janeane Garofalo, and perhaps by other artists. Morello, who is
   performing as The Nightwatchman on the tour, sums up the sentiments
   of the musicians who have donated their time to the effort by
   explaining that, "When presidents and politicians lie, it is the job
   of the press to expose those lies. When the press fails, the lie
   becomes the law. The point of the Tell Us the Truth Tour is to help
   others make connections, and to show them that activism can change
   the policies of this country."

   The core group kicked off the tour at the National Conference on
   Media Reform in Madison, Wisconsin, where AFL-CIO President John
   Sweeney joked during his remarks about "opening for Billy Bragg" and
   a crowd of 1,700 ended the first night of the conference dancing to a
   version of the Chambers Brothers 1968 hit Time Has Come Today that
   featured Chambers and Riley trading vocals and chanting, "Now the
   time has come... to tell us the truth."

   Bragg, who has gained international acclaim for his work with the
   family of Woody Guthrie to put music to lyrics that were left without
   tunes at the time of the folk music legend's death, helped organize
   the tour and has insisted from the start that the music be as strong
   as the message. "Bush is a serious threat, not just to America but to
   the world," says Bragg, who gave up a chance to join protests against
   the President's visit to Britain this week in order to join the tour.
   "We're talking about that threat, the message will get through. But
   this isn't a seminar. This is a show, we want people dancing,
   singing, getting into the music."

   People are doing just that. While Bragg performs overtly political
   songs, such as his anti-WTO epic "NPWA (No Power Without
   Accountability)," he also does favorites such as "Waiting for the
   Great Leap Forward" and "Sexuality." Earle offers up a sampling of
   his recent songs, including the brilliant "John Walker's Blues."
   Playing acoustic guitar, Morello sings new songs, some written in
   preparation for the tour. Riley raps and Chambers turns in brilliant
   blues performances. Mills even straps on a guitar and sings, trying
   out a great version of Macy Gray's "I Try" at some shows. Invariably,
   the highlights each night are the ensemble performances, featuring
   all the musicians. In addition to "Time Has Come Today," the group
   has perfected a remarkable song cycle that begins with Chambers
   singing Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" and then slides into
   Bragg singing Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey," samples some Marvin Gaye
   and then closes with the whole group joining Chambers again to sing:
   "People get ready, there's a train comin'/You don't need no baggage,
   you just get on board."

   The music is so good at times that it is, indeed, easy to forget the
   politics. But the message never gets lost. Working with the AFL-CIO,
   Common Cause, Free Press, the Future of Music Coalition and Morello's
   Axis of Justice, the tour features at every stop information about
   the current fight to block Federal Communications Commission rule
   changes that would further media consolidation and the struggle to
   prevent corporations and the Bush administration from undermining
   workers rights, human rights and the environment by developing a Free
   Trade Area of the Americas. And, while the emphasis is on
   entertainment, the band members frequently draw the show back to
   fundamental, and often dramatic, messages. Morello closes his set in
   silence, holding a clenched fist above his head as, invariably, the
   crowd erupts in thunderous applause. But most nights the loudest
   sound of all are those chants of "Tell us the truth!" Riley says
   that's the signal to him that the crowds understand what is at stake,
   and what the struggle is about. "All we're doing is bringing people
   some more information, telling them how to get connected with these
   movements and getting them energized," says Riley.

   After performing Sunday night in Atlanta (Variety Playhouse) and
   Monday night in Tampa (Tampa Theater), the tour will hit Miami where,
   on Wednesday night, it will join the People's Gala for Global
   Justice. The Gala, one of a number of protests against the Free Trade
   Area of the Americas Ministerial being held this week in Miami, is
   expected to draw more than 10,000 people. After Miami, the tour roars
   up the east coast to the Philadelphia area (Keswick Hall: November
   21), New York (Webster Hall: November 22), Boston (Berklee
      Performance Center: November 23) and, finally, Washington, DC (930
      Club: November24).

   In Washington, the tour will perform at the 930 Club, not far from
   the White House. Morello says they will bring some bad news to the
   current occupant. "I'm certain Bush won't be reelected," explains the
   activist musician. "From the economy being in the toilet to American
   kids dying every day in a war we should never have gotten into,
   that's not a very solid resume. All of his personal jack- assed-ness
   aside, the one thing that was clear at the end of the day is that The
   Dixie Chicks were right. They had every right to be embarrassed that
   that guy is from Texas."

   -- For more information on the Tell Us the Truth Tour, and
   information on how to obtain tickets to upcoming shows, visit the
   official website at www.tellusthetruth.org

   -- For more information on Morello's political work, check out the
   www.axisofjustice.org website. For more information on Billy Bragg,
   go to the www.billybragg.co.uk website. For more information on Steve
   Earle, go to the www.steveearle.com website. All of these websites
   contain details regarding the Tell Us the Truth Tour.

   -- With Robert W. McChesney, John Nichols is a co-founder of Free
   Press, the media reform network that organized the National
   Conference on Media Reform. The Free Press website is
   www.mediareform.net