Spot on review. It details exactly an issue I have been trying to work through as I pursue music that delivers a message of these times. Our friend Utah Phillips once told me how important it was to use humor so that the singer doesn't sound whiny or preachy all the time.

I recently did an hour set at a huge rally in Lansing, Michigan. I worked very hard on putting together arrangements that pulled people into the music, so that I could slip the message into their brains. I kept maudlin and preachy stuff to just a few songs. And I slipped two Mudcat songs in and folks loved them. One was Rick Fielding's "Voices of Struggle" (which has become a signature song for me), and the other was George Pappavgeris' wonderful song "Emptyhanded". Both ofthese are examples of how a song can be used to awaken both reckoning and feeling.

All the best,

Mick