Tag: North Carolina

MAR 30, 2012 - One of the freethinking musicians that will be playing at the Rock Beyond Belief event tomorrow March 31 at Fort Bragg, NC is Spoonboy, and JTMP got a chance to catch up with him and get his thoughts on the event. Below is the interview, and at the end there is a video of his song "What You Want" promoting Rock Beyond Belief. (Photo courtesy of Spoonboy)

JTMP: David thanks for doing the interview, we are Justice Through Music Project and musical activism is very important to us. Has activism always played a role in your music?

Spoonboy: I got into playing music around the same time as I became interested in activism.  A lot of the bands I grew up on were political bands, and being exposed to music through the DC punk scene in the early 2000's meant necessarily being exposed to politics.  All things in life have a political element.  There are politics in how you choose to write and distribute your music.  There are politics in what you choose to say with your music.  So I try to acknowledge that in my music, while also always trying to write from a personal place, because I think politics should always come from a personal place as well.

Click READ MORE  for rest of interview...

MAR 22, 2012 - Hailing from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, musician activist Tokyo Rosenthal brings a rich southern country sound and terrific songwriting to speak for the common working man. His latest song "What Did I Used to Be?" speaks about the plight of many today: unemployment, credit card debt, etc. He told us he wants it to be an, "Anthem for job loss, outsourcing, and desperation." He also said, "It's a song that captures the frustrations and shattered illusions of workers all over the globe. Outsourcing, reinvention, natural resources, and desperation..."   (photo credit: Tokyo Rosenthal/Facebook)

Tokyo adds, "It didn't take much to inspire me to write this song. All you have to do is turn on TV and the stories are all there. These are tough times and hopefully the tune and the video capture some of the frustration and misery that's all over the world. If it gets people to stop, think, and react, then I'll be happy. I don't expect to change things with a song, just stir things up a bit and document our present history." Check out his great song and video below, and connect on the Web and Facebook.

Chely Wright (left) and her partner and now wife, Lauren Blitzer

Country music star Chely Wright, who "came out" and revealed to her fans she was a lesbian in 2011, has wedded her partner Lauren Blitzer in Connecticut. Her career suffered as a result of her coming out, and she said in an interview with the LA Times that "[Fans] would rather you were a drug addict than be gay. They will forgive you if you beat your wife, lose your kids to state, get six divorces, make a sex tape, get labeled as a tramp — any and all of it is better than being gay."

She was also in North Carolina on September 13th to battle against proposed legislation that will ban gay marriage, teaming up with Equality North Carolina. The state legislature approved the measure by one vote (30-16) achieving the 3/5 needed, and the proposed amendment will be on the ballot in the May primary. Chely had said the North Carolina's proposed marriage amendment is “not about preserving the sanctity of marriage … Rather, this measure is about tearing down the sanctity of human dignity. It is that full humanity that God places in the gay and lesbian individual as he does us all. And it is the full humanity that he wants us to recognize and embrace rather [than] reject, condemn and demean."

Read more on Equality North Carolina's website, and here is a video statement by Ms. Wright in support of LGBT civil rights: