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<\/a><\/p>\n\n\nFor many years, though, it never broke through to me that the song says the quiet part out loud, right there in the chorus. Over and over, the song tells the listener to \u201clook away.\u201d As a child, I understood that looking away as a longing gaze at one\u2019s distant home, somewhere beyond the horizon. But now I hear that differently, as well. Though I don\u2019t imagine it\u2019s what the writer intended, \u201clook away\u201d is exactly what the song asks us to do, to look away from the uncomfortable, unjust or painful. That looking away is now being codified in law in many Southern states, where it is literally illegal to teach the parts of history that make some people uncomfortable. In other words, it is illegal to teach accurate history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In writing this song, I wanted to push back on the notion that there is only one way to be a white Southerner. I wrote this song in a Southern rock style, which is authentic to who I am and a part of what I listened to growing up, and still do sometimes. Though I am known as a folksinger, I\u2019ve played live on stage with Warren Haynes of the Allman Brothers and Gov’t Mule, and have two of the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd playing on my albums. But this song is somewhat subversive, in that it speaks things that are not often heard against the backdrop of Southern rock. Hannah Garrity, one of my favorite artists, co-created a music video for the song with me, and we had the chance to marry potent images to the words and music, further troubling the waters with \u201cgood trouble\u201d in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An annotated version of that video can be found at www.LookAwayProject.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n