Erin McKeown’s Fax of Life

kamala ye faithful

1×

0:00

-15:40

kamala ye faithful

the melody of politics and parody

Aug 07, 2024

Transcript

kamala ye faithful
nov 6 triumphant
we skirted apocalypse
by ballot box

kamala not camel-uh
we say your name correctly
out of respect for you and also
because its not that hard

may you be sworn in
with peaceful power transfers

kamala we adore you
kamala we adore you
kamala we adore you
we cant let him win

kamala we’re hopeful
for federal abortion rights
and cease fire solutions
for the middle east

kamala your agenda
might need help in congress
we hope the democrats can
get their shit together

we pray you deliver
supreme and civil court reform

kamala we adore you
kamala we adore you
kamala we adore you
we cant let him win

last week i laid down for a nap. but instead of sleeping, i wrote today’s audio. “wrote” is actually a generous term. i had some thoughts, which i noted down in my phone in the order they occurred to me, i then re-ordered a few of them, tweaked a syllable or two, and called it a day.

it probably takes more time to sing “kamala ye faithful” than it did to write it.

as you may or may not know, in 2011 i released “F*CK THAT! Erin McKeown’s Anti-Holiday Album”. it contained 10 songs and was billed as “the world’s first anti-capitalist, pro-queer, suspicious of christmas-as-patriotism, sex-positive, not safe for work, multi-ethnic, radical leftist Anti-Holiday record”. it came with an accompanying hymnal for communal singing.

that year and for the next two winter seasons, i performed songs from F*CK THAT! all over the US, along with audience volunteers who dressed up in their best worst holiday outfits and joined me onstage as Cranky Carolers. it was tremendous fun!

sometimes playing my own shows feels like re-inventing the wheel every night. how do i keep it fresh for myself? for others? in what order do i put my songs? what can i do tonite that i didn’t do the night before? what’s the right way to set up these songs to be received? do i use jokes? anecdotes? topical references?

the strange alchemy of this can be hit or miss. i feel like i’m pretty good at it, but pretty good is probably only 80% of the time. inevitably, there’s gonna be some clunkers, some nights where my choices don’t land, where i misread the audience, and we all leave a little unsatisfied.

that never ever happened with F*CK THAT! even on nights when the crowd was less than robust, the jokes always landed, the setlist always flew, everyone had a ball. it was like performing a classic musical, bulletproof as the sound of music.

offstage, the picture was more complex. many people did not like the F*CK THAT! project, and boy did they tell me about it. facebook comments and messages (remember this was 2011) landed and stung like little wasps of disapproval. folks were just plain MAD that i messed with christmas, no matter how firmly my tongue was in my cheek. to be honest at times, it was not in my cheek at all, but the project helped me dispel some old rage at childhood experiences, for sure. but on the whole it really was meant to be light-hearted. and extremely liberal, politically.

the blowback bewildered me - is christmas really that sacred? is anything? how could my politics be a surprise? weren’t you listening to the 7 albums that came before? in some ways, my audience never recovered. the folks that said they’d “sit this one out” haven’t come back, life and jobs and maybe a sunnier, easier fandom took their attention.

even though i loved doing F*CK THAT! i stopped performing the show in 2013. i moved on. i took the album off of streaming services. then sometimes i would put it back on for the holidays, a little fuck you, a little “i’m still here”. but then i would retreat back, take it down. was i ashamed of the album? was it actually not a cynical project at all, but my most vulnerable album in its simplicity and obvious foundations of childhood hurts?

regardless, it’s always been available on bandcamp, but no one besides diehards really knows what that is or how to use it.

and yet. and yet.

for all these years, i have kept a notes app on my phone with ideas for volume 2 of F*CK THAT!. all year round, for the last decade plus i’ve jotted ideas down. little things that made me laugh, tender ideas i didn’t want to forget, things that other anti-holiday comrades said to me over the years. it’s all been there, waiting, marinating.

a few weeks ago, before biden stepped down, i decided to do some anti-holiday shows for the first time in years. maybe it was the looming specter of a potential second trump term. maybe i just didn’t have a lot going on this fall (i actually have plenty) but i decided to do a few in northampton, boston, new york and chicago.

i reached out to a few friends that i know love F*CK THAT! to tell them. and in a flurry of happy texts, my friend james (yes james of james!) typed “kamala ye faithful”. indeed! i laughed out loud, put that in my notes app, then let it stew for a few weeks until james was visiting, and i took a nap.

both in my songs and this podcast, i really try not to peg stuff directly to the news. i like to take a view from a higher altitude. its not a moral choice, it’s more about longevity. if your making is tied to the daily then you have to make daily - which frankly feels too much like work. for me it feels too much like the insatiable content maw that social media thrives on. i also want my work to have some ability to speak to multiple future moments we can’t anticipate, besides the present.

but every once in awhile, a friend makes too good a pun, and you have to write it.

the first round of songs i wrote in 2011 were a mix of original melodies and well-known songs whose lyrics i replaced. for me, anyway, swapping out lyrics is a quick, simple joy. like working out my favorite cross-word puzzle then singing the solution. the well-worn memory-groove of a familiar melody delivers the writer all kinds of delightful gifts. rhymes can be broad, slanted, or non-existent. words that might not usually be in songs (apocalypse! federal abortion rights!) find a comfy and appropriate home. odd scansions lead to infinite comedic potential. and best of all, when everyone knows the melody, everyone can easily sing the new words.

hey yall! things are heating up for the fall season and i have lots of fun stuff going on

starting in september, i’m teaching a 6 week songwriting class at the parlor room here in northampton, but if you don’t live here, the class is hybrid, and you can fully participate in real time via zoom. i’ll share the basic principles of my songwriting process, lead you through some lyrical and musical prompts, and help you get going on developing your own process. you’ll meet and collaborate with other writers, and at the end we’ll have a public performance of what we’ve made. for more info and to register click here.

as mentioned in the episode, i’m going to do some F*CK THAT! shows this year. dec 7 in northampton, dec 19 in boston, dec 21 in brooklyn. mark your calendars, save the dates, tickets will be on sale soon, and look out for an announcement of a chicago date shortly.

ALSO, for each of these shows, i am looking for a chorus of Cranky Carolers. you’ll join me onstage and sing along to the songs of F*CK THAT! wearing your worst anti-holiday outfits. you get a CD of F*CK THAT!, a hymnal, and the joy of being an anti-holiday comrade. if you’d like to join me, drop me a line erin@erinmckeown.com with your city in the subject line.

this fall i’m producing albums for two artists, katie castagno and david henry sterry. if you’re interested in working with me on a project, my books are open for 2025. find out more and drop me a line via erinmckeown.com/producing

if you’re in virginia and were looking forward to a fall hiking concert and event at the fredericksburg museum, the museum underwent a corporate restructuring and chose to cancel my event, thus scuttling the whole trip. i am so sorry and deeply heartbroken. the museum still has their exhibit about the queer history of my hometown, which i am part of, and it is still worth your time.

alright! that’s it for the news now, but lookout because we’ll have even more good things to announce next month. meantime, thank you for listening, reading, and subscribing however you choose to do it!

it was a fun, sweet lark to make a song for kamala, and i’m hopeful for her election though i still wish for a different, less money-ed process to find our representation. she is not a saint, but she’s more than “better than the other guy”.

i actually did an event with her in 2016. i was in southern california for the world premiere of our musical “miss you like hell” at the la jolla playhouse. we opened the show on sunday nov 6 and had the next day, a monday, off. a longtime friend of mine was working as a policy aide in nancy pelosi’s office. as a trusted aide in the speaker’s office, he’d been dispatched to california to help organize some events for congressional candidates in tough races. since we both found ourselves in southern california, he came to the opening. and that night he asked me if i wanted to help him with an event the following morning.

the best theater advice i have ever gotten was to start your next project the day after your last one opens. get up and do something entirely new. so i told my friend, yes, i’ll help with your event. it wasn’t my next musical, but it was a reason to get out of bed, no matter whether “miss you like hell” soared or thudded.

the event turned out to be a campaign rally on the campus of a local university. i would play a few songs, a few people would speak in support of the congressional candidate. the featured speaker was to be california attorney general and then senate candidate, kamala harris. i did not know how to say her name, but i gave it my best shot.

my songs were inconsequential to the event, the speakers that followed simply adequate. sometimes that’s how these things go. i wish i could say that kamala saw my show. she did not! her plane was late and the rally was paused while everyone waited for her to arrive. the room was quiet, the energy lackluster. ordinary songs played quietly over the PA.

but when kamala arrived, the feeling in the room changed. what made her so electric? was it the cachet of a state-wide elected official? no, we were at a rally for a well-known member of congress. was it the frisson of potential senatorship? possibly. but also, kamala just came walking in, with purpose and a serious but bright energy. she was wearing a smart blazer, nice black jeans and… a pair of vans. just plain old 90s skateboard shoes. she knew she was late, she went right to the stage. the rally scrambled into place. i was hanging out in the wings of the stage, watching all this unfold like an anthropologist who’d been up all night, which i had been.

for a moment, my friend paused from furiously answering texts and taking calls, to nudge me in the back.

“go onstage”, he said

the usual assemblage of people who stand behind politicians was gathering. they needed more bodies. i had just played to the room, even if no one was paying attention. still i was shy. i was leery. what did i know about kamala and what she stood for?

my friend nudged again, and i leapt forward. i positioned myself just behind her right shoulder. i have no idea who else i was standing with. students? local officials? didn’t matter. i became one of those people you see on the news. i looked serious. i tried not to move or distract. i laughed when it seems like everyone else was laughing. i clapped when others did. i listened to (and was impressed) by kamala. she was disciplined, practical, and still warm. maybe not as warm as she is now, but hey - a monday morning election event is hard to get it up for.

we all know what happened the next day, nov 8 2016. the world fell in. it quickly became a surreal and disoriented time. i often think back to the limbo of that monday, between one of the best days of my life when my first musical opened at a renowned theater, and one of the worst, when my country elected a despicable wanna-be strongman. that that was the day i first laid eyes on kamala harris strikes me now as portentious in some way.

i guess we’ll find out on november 5 whether that portent is for good or evil. but i am very much hoping my song will be able to be sung on november 6.

x erin

ps: here is your long over-due carl content. to celebrate our nation’s birth i gave him some all american beef steak. U! S! A!

¡ME GUSTA! : SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS!

my dear friend lear debessonet, director of “miss you like hell”, gave this outstanding ted talk. it will change your day!!
gay people! the 90s! game shows!
just in time for summer: in praise of porches
it’s not in your mind! pop melodies are getting simpler, but thats not necessarily bad
necessary and important history: what it was like on the irish women’s football team in the 90s
my pal sam dingman (of “the midnight disease” pod) has a new gig and it’s creepy crawly (and awesome)
i have already raved about “the zone of interest” here, but this documentary is a beautiful companion and iteration of that film