CARL SCHULTZ
NILS LOFGREN
(AUG. 24 UPDATE:Nils Lofgren has released a new video for this song featuring Ringo Starr and Cindy Mizelle. You can listen to it below.)
Nils Lofgren’s new single “Ain’t the Truth Enough” represents his direct response to the Jan. 6 insurrection and, in the words of a press release, “the ways that misinformation and demagoguery can tear families apart and silo us in our own realities.” You can listen to it below.
Lofgren says of the song, which features Ringo Starr on drums and will be on Lofgren’s next album Mountains, due out July 21: “One early desert morning, strong coffee in hand, I tuned my Martin D-35 acoustic gifted to me by the great James Caan (bless you Jimmy) to an open G and said ‘write’! Soon the title and main riff were coming through me … ‘ain’t the truth enough!’ Lucky me! I felt I had to go deep and with the global war on women, and man’s deadly epidemic of lies and spin for money and power, I imagined a fierce, loving mother and wife dealing with a husband recently home from the insurrection. (Cindy Mizelle added the woman’s voice with great soul and power here) I felt inspired and a day later this special song was done. Not mean spirited, all truth, harsh reality.”
Guests on other album tracks will include Neil Young, the late David Crosby, jazz bassist Ron Carter and the Howard Gospel Choir. The song “Won’t Cry No More” is dedicated to the late Charlie Watts.
In the press release, Lofgren says “These songs are all born of raw emotion” and that “The album started as a form of therapy but it very quickly grew beyond that. It was so freeing to work without any restrictions, to just write whatever came out, and it turned into some of the most inspired work I think I’ve ever made.”
Lofgren, currently on tour with Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, also announced that on July 21, he will release — via his website, nilslofgren.com — a series of 30-40 minute videos featuring stories about the “twists and turns of his path in the world of music.” The video series will be titled Rockality.
He said in the press release: “From opening for Jimi Hendrix on my 19th birthday with Grin, knocking on Jimi’s trailer and getting to speak with him and thank him for inspiring me to be a professional rocker, back to my early high school drop-out, 17 year old runaway in Greenwich Village days, walking in on Neil Young and Crazy Horse in DC for advice on their first tour, which lead to recording the After The Gold Rush album at 18, I’ve had an eventful, topsy-turvy ride for 55 years now. Here’s hoping these stories may bring a smile to your face.”
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