lifeblood: songs: backgrounds: tear it down

2020-11-01: amy ray - tear it down, daemonrecords.com:

the new single, "tear it down" from amy ray and her band is out 11.1.2020. inspired by nina simone and billie holiday, as well as the activism of project say something and black lives matter, amy ray band takes a deep dive into new musical territory to portray a relentless battle to evolve and become truly anti-racist. "tear it down" hopes to encapsulate the struggle and evolution of a die-hard white southerner coming to terms with miseducation about her homeland; the iconography of "the old confederacy" that she unwittingly embraced; and the dire need to dismantle the historical symbols, songs, and myths that perpetuate and nurture racism.

"tear it down" was recorded remotely by her stalwart band of 8 years now, with special guests, eric eagle on drums, and julie wolf on piano. brian speiser (goodnight tender and holler) produced the song, and bobby tis (tedeschi-trucks band) brought the mix together.

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2024-01-15: roots rednecks and radicals podcast (amy ray)

will houk: yeah, that's interesting about the punk rock thing because when i was listening to tear it down, um, that's one of the thoughts that came to my mind. i was like, this is punk rock man. like this is taking on some hard, hard issues, you know. and i think that's awesome. so, yeah, so we can we talk about that song, that collaboration with allison russell one? she's fantastic. love her, love her voice, love her, her songwriting and all that. but um yeah, it's super introspective. it's a song about race relations in the south. and yeah. can you just tell us a little bit about that song?

amy ray: yeah. well, that song, i wrote that song actually during the pandemic when a lot of the demonstrations and protests were going on and i had gotten involved with a group called project say something out of uh florence alabama, which is uh by muscle shoals. and they were, they have a great group that was just had a history of working on dismantling racism and they were working on a specific issue around monuments at the courthouse in their little town. and i got hooked up to that, the activist that leads that group camille bennett through a friend of mine and went to, i had been going to like george floyd, you know, marches and stuff in atlanta and black lives matter things. and, and then i started following them because they were doing, you know, multiple days in a row of demonstrations and sit ins in this little town. and it was quite amazing the strategy they had. and so i started like, really, like following them and wrote this song really for them. and then we went to, emily and i went over to alabama to do one of their protests with them and ended up playing as well. and, that songs sort of kind of about them really. and i, and i put out a digital single of that with just me.

amy ray: and then when we were working on this record, which seven of these songs were brand new and they went to tape live to tape and then three of them had been songs we put out as a band during the pandemic that we did, you know, virtually together through emails and everybodys so studios and tear it down was one of them. but i wanted to rework it because i was on a panel with alison russell about racism and just listening to what she was saying and, and she played too and i was like, oh, man, i wanna have her sing this song. uh and do like a different version of it. so that's what happened is i just sent it to her and we're friends and, and i just said, you know, would you feel comfortable singing this? because some of it is, you know, from my perspective as a white southern kid growing up and sort of having like a romanticized, sort of love affair with the rebel, rebel sort of flag and all the symbolism. i was really into that when i was young because i had no idea, you know, what it was about and, and i had to really learn and i had to like, you know, pull myself away from that, you know, and, and kind of de demystify it in a way and, but she, you know, she, she's had a very interesting life and experience with actually in a family that's mixed race where she ended up being raised by people that were white nationalists. it's incredible, like her life. and so she was really perfect for this song. and, um, yeah, so i sent it to her and she was out in l.a. and just kind of made it work and done. and, uh, and then we, we put her vocal in there and transferred it back to tape and, you know, made a whole new mix and stuff. so i'm, i was really down and appreciated. i, i was down with her doing it. appreciated it so much.