Chris Sand's tragicomic America
The mainstay Missoula musician turns his bleak assessment of the status quo into a carnival.
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One day in August 2023, an amateur musician named Oliver Anthony performed a live version of his song “Rich Men North of Richmond” on his lush, wooded property in Virginia. In three minutes, the raw song managed to encapsulate a bitter and long-brewing frustration; one of being trapped in an economic hole that you cannot climb out of, of living in a nation where the divide between wealth and poverty seems to grow continuously wider. The video of Anthony’s performance instantly went viral, catapulting the songwriter to unlikely fame as his message swept the globe (and, arguably, foreshadowed the tenor of this year’s election).
Earlier this December, the veteran Missoula musician Chris Sand released his fifteenth album, Non-Judgement Day. The record begins with a terrific song called “Ain’t All Good.” Like “Rich Men North of Richmond,” the song offers a poignant and biting assessment of the American status quo.
Yet unlike “Rich Men North of Richmond,” Sand’s song is darkly funny. And it’s often downright fun. To my ear, that added dose of whimsy renders his harsh message all the more haunting, and heartfelt.
“Ain’t All Good” begins with its narrator chugging Robitussin on his trucking route and raging at a lover who took up with his cousin while he was on the road. From there, he zooms out to mourn America’s innumerable incarcerated men and women and the life they’ve lost, as they listen to “the sound of the rain or the trains that they're missin' / or the drips from the drains in the pots where they're pissin’.” By the song’s final verse, the lens has gotten wider still: “We pray school children don’t get shot by the neighbors / And we drive to work in libidinal rages / I feel like a pig in a cage, it's outrageous.”
Yet it’s Sand’s chorus that puts the nail in the coffin: “It ain't all good, but it ain't all bad / It's just the way it goes, the status quo’s what makes it sad,” he sings. What’s worse than all of this pain? Accepting it as our fate.
Yet instead of sinking into a pit of despair, Sand pairs his melancholy with an exuberant, walloping band. We’re treated to a hilariously sad trombone riff courtesy of Missoula mainstay Naomi Moon Siegel, a sweet trio of backup singers who drive Sand’s lyrics home and a jaunty rhythm section that keeps the tune spunky and alive. Life might be a hellish roller coaster, but this band of merry pranksters is riding it with their hands up, hollering all the way.
Chris Sand may not have had his moment of viral fame yet, but with “Ain’t All Good,” he has written a song that radiates the sort of empathy and musical savvy that has the power to resonate from coast to coast.
Chris Sand and his band—with several guests in tow—perform a record release show for Non-Judgement Day this Saturday, December 21, at the Roxy Theater in Missoula. Doors at 1pm, show at 1:30. More info here.
Regarding your last paragraph, here's hoping empathy does go viral in the USA soon. It's a perfect New Year's wish. Thanks again.