I'm currently completing my third cd, produced by JP Bowersock (The Strokes, Ryan Adams). These songs tend to have banjo, be folky in their populist lyrics, and have a punky, rocky musical aesthetic. The songs on this album are social/political, ranging from more overt stuff like "My People are Rising" to more metaphorical tunes like "Dig Roads" and "Just Needed to Borrow Your Saw."

A few of the songs I've written have actually been of historical significance. "Sold Down the River" was the song played in continuous-loop from the Steelworkers' billboard truck on the tear gas-hazed streets of Seattle during the WTO protests. "The Union Grand" was the theme song of the Million Worker March on Washington. "Walk out of Jerusalem" will be sung as a sing-along in three languages at the 5 Million Peace March on Jerusalem. And "The Silence of Good People" was inducted into the National Civil Rights Museum in 2003.

Over the last couple years I've been playing mainly on the streets, at picket lines, protests, rallies and such. But after I get this album out I'll also be back playing cafes and clubs. I've played pretty much in every type of venue: music festivals, rock clubs, police barricades, churches, subways, from flatbed and billboard trucks, community centers, auditoriums, trade union meetings, on the steps of government buildings, and in corporate radio stations and pirate radio stations. I've been booed off a stage in Nashville, been arrested at machine gun-point for attempting to perform for a particularly unreceptive audience, and played for crowds of tens of thousands.

I've got more sound clips and some essays at www.department-of-justice.org if you're interested. I'd love to hear from you if you would like to have me play at your rally, protest or picket, have any music to recommend, or would like to keep me informed about some current issue.

Peace,
Jack