Mountain Home Music has a new single for Unspoken Tradition coming out tomorrow, and has offered our readers a premiere this morning. It’s a story born of the flooding disaster experienced where they live in western North Carolina, and repeated all along the Appalachian mountain range.
Refugee is the first taste of the band’s next album, one written by Aaron Bibelhauser, that Unspoken Tradition’s guitarist and lead singer Audie McGinnis says is something of a modern day protest song.
“What makes this song special is that it challenges us as listeners to meet in the middle. People from all walks of life are feeling that something isn’t right with society and the governing of it. It’s bigger than politics. Way too many of us strove for excellence just to become a cog in a wheel.
In addition to that, I think people across the country, but especially those in western North Carolina and broader Appalachia, know that when we need them most, the cavalry isn’t coming. At least not as fast or as effectively as our tax contributions would have us believe. In fact, many of us often feel forgotten altogether. And in the worst cases, it doesn’t even take a hurricane, floods, or wildfires to make it so.
This song is about the hard lessons we’ve learned over months, years, decades, and generations. But the hope is found when we realize this song is about all of us. We may have all approached from different paths, but we’re all here. Scanning our barcodes. Walking down the line. Now we’ve got to lay down our differences and focus on our common concern: the plight of the common, working men and women out there who invested in a dream that left them behind.”
With McGinnis singing the lead, support comes from bandmates Ty Gilpin on mandolin, Zane McGinnis on banjo, Tim Gardner on fiddle, and Sav Sankaran on bass. Ty and Sav provide the harmony vocals.
Give it a listen.
Refugee will be available on October 24 from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers via AirPlay Direct.
