Kemp Harris was born in segregated Edenton, North Carolina, and later moved to Massachusetts. As a black, gay man now in his seventies, he has good reason to feel deeply uncomfortable living within the Trump regime and is understandably disillusioned about the direction America is heading .
Having lived through the civil rights movement and the Vietnam war debacle, Harris knows a thing or two about how the US of A has experienced deep divisions and major crises in the past.
One might therefore expect his witness accounts of modern America (released on Independence Day) to be full of hate and rage.
Instead, his underlying message over the course of ten songs is encapsulated in a line from Don’t You Hear Them America. Over a gentle reggae beat he sings “there should be happiness instead of fear” as he documents the shameful history of school shootings that have failed to bring about any fundamental changes in the country’s gun laws.
In Standing Your Ground it is the killings of black youths that fire his passion. The banning of books and the spread of online misinformation are the topics of Tulsa and This Is America respectively. The playful beats of the latter don’t hide the urgency of the plea for more truth and honesty.
Recorded at the iconic FAME Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama this is a soulful album in which the calls for change are made without resorting to sloganeering or vengeful name calling. It’s a discreet and compassionate appeal for common sense to prevail.
The closing song Goodnight America is a heartfelt piano ballad calling for the need to cling to hope even when the forces of uncertainly and confusion are building like storm clouds.
Harris is under no illusion that his messages will be heard and followed by the right people but his commitment to a more humane tomorrow is still heartening to hear: "At the end of the day," he says, "I'm an old Black man telling stories and spreading love."
