Tom Waits & Steve Earle Among Guest Vocalists On New Marc Ribot Protest Album

Guitarist Marc Ribot will release a new album Songs Of The Resistance 1942 – 2018 through ANTI- Records on September 14. The protest album features a variety of guest vocalists including Tom Waits and Steve Earle.

Described as an “Anti-Trump” album, Songs Of The Resistance 1942 – 2018 is made up of 11 songs and proceeds from its sales will go to Indivisible Guide. The mix of traditional protest tunes and some new Ribot originals also features vocals delivered by Meshell Ndegeocello, Sam Amidon, Justin Vivian Bond, Fay Victor and Ohene Cornelius.

Earle, as well as Domenica Fossati and Tift Merritt, contributed to the track “Srinivas,” one of the record’s new originals. The song was written by Ribot about the Sikh immigrant Srinivas Kuchibhotla who was mistaken for a Muslim and murdered in 2017.

“In the original version,” Ribot stated, “I had named the guy who shot him, but Steve [Earle] changed that—he said, ‘That guy is just some poor idiot, it’s not about him, it’s about the ones who set him up.’ That kind of intelligence and wisdom coming from the artist was important to me. There’s no way Steve Earle is going to be a sock puppet for anyone else’s voice, and that’s exactly the kind of situation I wanted. It’s cool to have professional protest singers and all that, but I wanted to include artists who reached outside the ‘protest’ bubble.”

Premiered by Rolling Stone, listen to “Srinivas” below:

Songs Of The Resistance 1942 – 2018 Tracklist

1. We Are Soldiers in the Army (feat. Fay Victor)
2. Bella Ciao (Goodbye Beautiful) (feat. Tom Waits)
3. Srinivas (feat. Steve Earle & Tift Merritt)
4. How To Walk In Freedom (feat. Sam Amidon & Fay Victor)
5. Rata de dos Patas (feat. Ohene Cornelius)
6. The Militant Ecologist (based on Fischia II Vento) (feat. Meshell Ndegeocello)
7. The Big Fool
8. Ain’t Gonna Let Them Turn Us Round (feat. Steve Earle & Tift Merritt)
9. John Brown (feat. Fay Victor)
10. Knock That Statue Down (feat. Syd Straw)
11. We’ll Never Turn Back (feat. Justin Vivian Bond & Domenica Fossati)