The current political moment has been a fertile one for many songwriters, providing plenty of fodder for songs that veer into protest and social commentary. Los Angeles native Gregory Ackerman counts himself among such songwriters.
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He’ll release his debut album And Friends on May 25, and an early taste he’s offered of that LP takes stock of our current moment. Inspired thematically by the 24-hour news cycle and structurally by Agatha Christie’s landmark 1939 novel And Then There Were None, “Ten Little Indians/And Then There Were None (State Of The Union)” recounts troubling issues of the day — like “nine reasons not to handle a gun” and “eight people dead in a bar” — over hypnotic guitar and eerie, increasingly chaotic backing vocals.
“Writing this song was a direct response to watching the never-ending news cycle,” Ackerman says. “The news was constantly feeding me doom and gloom, and I had to gain back control over it with the only way I knew how — writing music. This song offers no solutions, just commentary.”
Listen to “Ten Little Indians/And Then There Were None (State Of The Union)” below.
