If, as predicted, the Tea Party fuels a Republican surge in today’s midterms, you’ll likely hear pundits credit the usual suspects: an awful economy, a broken political process, and a President unable to communicate a clear vision of what to do about it. But special recognition should go to some Tea Partiers who not only got the message out, but encapsulated their anger and frustration in song.
Last week on Studio 360, listeners got to meet two of them.
Chris Cassone playing at the Capitol (courtesy of Cassone)
Chris Cassone is a kind of right-wing Woody Guthrie who was inspired by Glenn Beck’s notorious 9/12 Project that originally aired on Fox News. Thanks to YouTube, his song “Take Our Country Back” has become the unofficial anthem of the movement. When he dropped by our studio recently we recorded an exclusive acoustic performance of his new song, the Ronald Reagan-inspired “City on a Hill:”
Hi-Caliber (courtesy of FreedomWorks)
On the other end of the spectrum is a rapper from Brick, New Jersey who calls himself Hi-Caliber, aka Mr. Conservative. Last year the website of the 9/12 Taxpayer March on Washington was soliciting ideas for music acts. Hi-Caliber suggested himself and next thing he knew he was rocking the mic on Capitol Hill alongside Chris Cassone and other Tea Party heavyweights. Hi-Caliber raps in a make-shift studio in his garage — what he calls the “conservative man cave” — that is lined with Tea Party posters and books like Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. Those founding documents figure prominently on his new track “The Foundation:”
You can listen to our story on the Tea Party troubadours here:
Also, be sure to tell us about songs that have inspired you politically.
-Derek L. John
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