Nashville singer-songwriter Steve Poltz has written a timely song as a riposte to Donald Trump all the while paying tribute to the many talented artists that we lost in 2016. “Hey God, I’ll Trade You Donald Trump for Leonard Cohen” is a sentiment that many of us in the creative arts share and Poltz has created a folk anthem full of witty turns of phrase and lines that’ll have you righteously nodding your head in agreement. Thanks, Steve. We needed this song right about now.
Poltz says of the song, “I kept hearing about all these people dying. Heroes of mine. Then I was watching all this political news and my heart was sinking. Everyone wash dying and Donald Trump became President. By the time Leonard Cohen died I screamed at the heavens to please send him back. I told God I’d trade him Donald Trump for Leonard Cohen. I was in Australia playing Woodford Folk Festival and this song just poured out of me. I played it on a huge stage and got a standing ovation.
“Then I arrived back in the US and played it in Florida at 30A Songwriters Festival. I was at a bar and I got booed and a woman flipped me off and walked out of my show with a group of her friends. So I felt that was a good sign and that I should record it. So when I got home I walked over to my neighbor’s house in East Nashville. His name is Scot Sax. I recorded it in his garage and he said, ‘let’s make a video!’ We filmed it the next morning all over Nashville and just like that we had us a video. Boom! Voila! Sharing is caring.”
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