interview with Sam Bush
quote from Jeff Tweedy
“Every time I think everything in the world completely sucks, we get to go out and play in front of audiences and share something with people that I know is real, and it still exists, and it will always exist, and there will always be more of this [gestures to crowd] than whatever the fuck that is [gestures to the outside world]. Keep inspiring each other, ok? I know you’re already doing that, but just keep doing it. It’ll be ok. Show up for everybody. Show up for your neighbors. Show up. Just show up. Always show up. If you do that, everything’s gonna be fine.”—Jeff Tweedy, Newport Folk Festival 2017
quote from Tom Waits
“I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.” —Tom Waits, 2002
quote from Willie Nelson
“Cruelty is all out of ignorance. If you knew what was in store for you, you wouldn’t hurt anybody, because whatever you do comes back much more forceful than you send it out.” —Willie Nelson, 2006
Jon Batiste at the newport folk festival
“If I could boil it down to one lesson, it’s that everything is more connected than you think. It’s not only more connected than what we’re taught, but, really, there is no separation. It’s not something that we’re able to conceptualize as musicians or as people who throw ourselves into situations where we have to figure it out. For instance, if we had to go and live in a foreign country and be among a group of people who were supposedly much more different than us, I’m sure after a few years we’d be like, “This actually isn’t that different at all — in fact, it’s the same.” That’s such a fundamental lesson about humanity, and I think music is a really great place to explore that. If we don’t figure out our own understanding of that, then all of these myths and self-imposed barriers that we’ve built up over all this time will continue to just grow and grow. We’ll evolve to become something that we’re not meant to be. I guess the biggest lesson is the same thing that I’ve always been saying as an artist: Everything is way more the same than it is different, and if you just tap into that, the more you really begin to understand what that is. That’s my quest: to de-categorize American music. Music without borders. If I can de-categorize it, then that will be a great example of art reflecting what an ideal space for humanity to live in would be.“
The War and Treaty in the tennessean
“It’s an act of service,” said Blount-Trotter of The War and Treaty’s exhilarating, joyous performances. “To get up there and remind people how great they are, it’s a responsibility for us. We want to bring that joy to our audience.””Our duty as human beings is to love one another … (and) make sure that we all know just how much we matter,” Trotter added. “It’s not that we just matter, but we matter to one another.” —The War and Treaty, 8/8/2018
quote from Lou Rawls
“Music is the greatest communicator in the world. Even if people don’t understand the language that you are singing in, they still know good music when they hear it.” —Lou Rawls, 1976
the Landfill Harmonic Orchestra
The War and Treaty in no depression
“I think the biggest thing that we want the audience and the listener to get is that we are all in this pool together. We’re humans. And because we’re humans we have this uncanny knack to compartmentalize everything, and generalize everything or genre-lize everything. You’re not white American and I’m not black American. We’re human beings. And we named this part of the earth America. This is a ‘we’ thing. It’s us. We’re all in this together. And I think we need to come together and remember and keep each other together. And I hope that when people are listening to this record they’re reminded of what makes our country and our race, the human race, wonderful, and that’s togetherness, inclusion, unity.” —Michael Trotter, Jr., The War and Treaty