MP3 Amy Martin - Bind Me to Free
Amy’s artistic commitment is deeply entwined with her social commitment. “We are inundated by songs stripped of any community consciousness,” says Amy. "But on the other extreme, we are sometimes assaulted by songs which righteously insist that we agree
11 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Modern Folk, FOLK: Political
Details:
Raven’s Wing Records is proud to announce the release of Amy Martin’s seventh CD in seven years, Bind Me to Free!
Bind Me to Free is being released in partnership with the Montana Human Rights Network, in an effort to raise awareness about Montana’s minimum wage initiative I-151—the people’s initiative to raise Montana’s minimum wage.
The eleven songs on Bind Me to Free illustrate the complexities of freedom, in both the public and private realms. Through first-person narrative and fictional characters, Amy explores links between war, poverty, patriarchy and religion. For instance, in the song “Rose of Sharon”, quoted above, a young single mother suddenly becomes conscious of her freedoms, and lack thereof, through a confrontation with her new responsibilities to raise a child. The songs “Abu Ghraib” and “Home Uninjured” ask just what sort of “freedom” we’re forcing upon the Iraqi people, and what it costs them and us. “Good Girl” speaks from the perspective of a teenage girl growing up in a fundamentalist Christian home, who is discovering that the radical Jesus in the Bible doesn’t quite match up with the safe, paternalistic Jesus she’s been taught through her church and family.
Amy’s songwriting, combined with her community efforts towards peace and social justice, earned her Missoula’s Peacemaker of the Year Award for 2004. Through the sale of her third album, This Fall, she raised $10,000 for women-run health and education projects in Afghanistan. Benefit concerts are a regular occurrence for her, and she has performed many times at the School of the Americas protest in Georgia and at peace rallies in Montana and throughout the country. Last summer, she traveled to Crawford, Texas to support Cindy Sheehan, and had the pleasure of performing shortly before Joan Baez, within earshot of the Bush family ranch.
Raven’s Wing Records (RWR) is an independent label created by Amy in 2004. RWR works to maintain high quality music, while remaining committed to the core values of artistic integrity, democratization of the music industry, environmental sustainability, and fair labor practices. RWR employed ten local musicians to practice and record Bind Me to Free. RWR also commissioned local artist Stephanie J. Frostad to complete an original painting for the CD cover.
About the Montana Human Rights Network… The Montana Human Rights Network is a grassroots, membership-based organization of over 1400 members. MHRN works to promote democratic values such as pluralism, equality and justice; challenge bigotry and intolerance; and organize communities to speak out in support of democratic principles and institutions. MHRN also challenges hate groups and other extremists who use violence and intimidation as tools for political activism. MHRN realizes this mission by organizing local human rights groups, monitoring and reporting on the activities of the radical right-wing groups in Montana, developing and pursuing public policy initiatives and holding public officials accountable in the area of human rights, conducting community education on human rights issues, and working to increase community support and legal protection for groups of people targeted by hate activity.
Sample and download music from the following websites: https://www.tradebit.com and https://www.tradebit.com