When the genocide of the people of Gaza began in October, 2023, and I began to write a series of urgent songs on the subject, Chet Gardiner shared that sense of urgency, and started taking the songs I was putting out there and making great improvements upon them from his home studio in Hawai'i.  In January we put out a 20-song album together called Notes From A Holocaust.

Bearing Witness is a continuation of those efforts, but with a somewhat expanded scope.  Roughly half the album consists of songs about the Gaza genocide that I've written since we put out Notes From A Holocaust.  The other half of the album are songs I've written and recorded in the past few years, that either Chet or I thought would be good candidates for enhancement -- plus the much older songs, "St Patrick Battalion" and "In One World" for good measure.

For my part, I'm either playing a guitar, an Irish bouzouki, or a mandola.  Everything else you hear is Chet, which includes electric and acoustic instruments of all descriptions, including guitars, basses, banjos, synth, percussion, vocal harmonies, and more.

The cover photo was taken at a gig in France by Isabelle Souriment, who also designed the album cover.

Bearing Witness

The danger of ignoring obvious historical parallels to unfolding events is the prospect of repeating them.

Just Like the Nazis Did

After using starvation as a Total War, strategic weapon of collective punishment, the Israeli occupation forces are using food tactically as a weapon of war as well.

Flour Massacre

On the other side of the world, Aaron Bushnell's body burned in the same way the bodies of innocent people are burning every day in Gaza. As he burned he shouted repeatedly, "free Palestine."

Song For Aaron Bushnell

I originally wrote "Song for Basra" a long time ago, and updated it during the Gaza genocide to "Song for Gaza."  

This was recorded in my living room in Portland, Oregon (guitar and voice) and then enhanced by Chet Gardiner in Hawai'i, who added all the other instrumentation.

Song For Gaza

When I got word that people were once again organizing to sail in the direction of Gaza from ports around the world, I wrote a song about it, last month.  I recorded it a few days ago and now my musical collaborator, Chet Gardiner, has spent quite a chunk of time making it all much more interesting from his studio in Hawai'i, and here it is.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition is currently mobilizing all over the world in 13 national campaigns in Norway, Sweden, the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Canada, US,  Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Malaysia.  Check the website for links to each of the national campaigns where you can donate for the 2024 flotilla.

As completely horrific as things are on the ground in Gaza -- with untold numbers of people living in misery and dying of famine and disease, right now -- the opening of the port south of Gaza City may be a moment of great possibility, in terms of boats actually reaching Gaza, rather than being turned away violently by Israeli forces, which has of course been the usual state of affairs for decades at this point.

If this campaign is going to be successful, more people need to know about it.  That's where a song like this one can potentially be helpful, but only if people do things with it -- make high-quality videos using the audio, chop it up for TikToks as you see fit, play it on the radio, etc., this is a collective effort.

Taking To The Waves

This Is Genocide

Sleep For Weeks

The words "collateral damage" have come to mean dead civilians. This song puts those words in context.


Collateral Damage

you loved your sweet country for all of your life
like your mother and father before you
the land runs deep, so deep in your blood
your flesh and your bone and your sinews
descendants and ancestors, deep as it goes
a relative circle as far as your eye
it can all be undone in the flash of an instant
mechanical thunder that bruises the sky

(chorus)
goodbye to my relatives, all of my life
never again will I see
you won't have a name when they fly the big airplanes
collateral damage is all you will be

from a faraway place where the language is strange
they come with their angry machines
and the clouds rain a metal that hurts when it falls
and it shatters the ground, making everything scream
and the children run crippled, the old people hide
the babies are caught in the rubble debris
but the strangers don’t know you, you are only a number
and how can they respect what they can’t even see

(chorus)

a mother is more than a number to a baby
who now has to grow up on it’s own
and a grandfather blinded and crippled at his age
is more than just a statistical drone
all of these people are human beings
and deserve to be more than a footnote
this cynical language of killing is killing us
caught like a bone in humanity’s throat

(chorus)

so if you see a ghost in the lonely wind blowing
like shrapnel the sound of the rain
and it’s speaking a language you don’t understand
but you know what it means just the same
it’s too late for innocence, all of that’s over now
don’t say that you didn’t know
when they come to collect for the damages owed
the collateral may be your own

(chorus)

Collateral Damage

Hammer

David Rovics 8/11/2008 gig at Beginnings, Briceland, CA produced by Andy Caffrey

This piece was inspired by Conlon Nancarrow; not that I'm very familiar with his work, but his method was enough to inspire me to create a piece in a similar style to his own. It was made using one note, replicating it and dragging it to exactly the right place as many times as I needed, for both piano and harpsichord. That is, until I added in a new sound at the end, giving a lot of distortion to it.

I did not expect it to become as popular as it has, given that it was a rather momentary, on the spur, and random creation, and it is less conventionally accessible than many of my other pieces. My only regret may be that this has overshadowed my other work in terms of popularity.

I've created a sequel, and am currently working on a third Conlon Nancarrow inspired piece, but so far they've not measured up to the original. However, there are some interesting and exciting twists in the second piece, 'The Next Level', and I've put the third piece to the side, 'Piano Madness: The Spirit of Conlon Nancarrow Returns', having been unsatisfied with it, though I may attempt it again at some point.

Conlon Nancarrow Tribute

The San Patricios -- the international brigade you've probably never heard of (half a century before the Spanish Civil War).  This version is from Live in Rostrevor (2016) with Lorna McKinnon on harmonies.

St. Patrick Battalion

Episode 1: Tolpuddle Martyrs Part 1

There are various causes of deadly new novel viruses, as I have recently learned, along with many of you.  One of them is climate change, so we can be sure we'll be seeing more of them.  But whatever the reasons for the fatality rate of Covid-19, we do know why the last global pandemic, the so-called "Spanish Flu" in 1918 was so extremely deadly.  It was a pandemic caused by the particular conditions of the trenches of World War 1, and the movements of troops around the world at the end of the war.  This war virus ultimately killed more human beings on planet Earth in six months -- in every corner of the globe -- than the carnage of World War 1 caused in four years.

Recorded live as part of the Viral Solidarity Concert project at Big Red Studio on April 2nd, 2020.

The Pandemic of 1918

Today would have been Kevin Zeese's 65th birthday.  Soon after he died last month, his partner and co-conspirator, Margaret Flowers, wrote about the last speech that Kevin gave, shortly before he died.  I made it rhyme.  Rest in peace, dear Kevin Zeese.

The Last Words of Kevin Zeese

This trailer has been superseded. Please go to https://soundcloud.com/tayo-aluko/paul-robesons-love-song-by-tayo-aluko-the-trailer/

Paul Robeson's Love Song (trailer)(superceded)

Singer/songwriter, writer, podcaster (on Spotify, Substack & Patreon), libertarian socialist, dad, lover of life.

The Last Words of Kevin Zeese

davidrovics

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