Y'all heard of the newest musical sensation; Oliver Anthony?

[Idaho45guy]

Surprised I haven't seen any threads on this.

Guy from Farmville, Virginia is a recovered alcoholic, decent musician, lower class, not really liberal but not really conservative. He writes a bunch of songs about being who he is and creates a YouTube channel.

He uploads a song titled, "Rich Men North of Richmond" which is beautifully done on a steel guitar with powerful vocals that talk about the disturbing state of our country. The lyrics are raw and real...

"I've been sellin' my soul, workin' all day
Overtime hours for bull**t pay
So I can sit out here and waste my life away
Drag back home and drown my troubles away

It's a damn shame what the world's gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is

Livin' in the new world
With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And they don't think you know, but I know that you do
'Cause your dollar ain't s*** and it's taxed to no end
'Cause of rich men north of Richmond

I wish politicians would look out for miners
And not just minors on an island somewhere
Lord, we got folks in the street, ain't got nothin' to eat
And the obese milkin' welfare

Well, God, if you're 5-foot-3 and you're 300 pounds
Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds
Young men are puttin' themselves six feet in the ground
'Cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin' them down

Lord, it's a damn shame what the world's gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is

Livin' in the new world
With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And they don't think you know, but I know that you do
'Cause your dollar ain't s*** and it's taxed to no end
'Cause of rich men north of Richmond

I've been sellin' my soul, workin' all day
Overtime hours for ******** pay

So this song goes absolutely viral on YouTube and he is an instant overnight success. The video is powerful...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqSA-SY5Hro

He has had multi-million dollar offers from Nashville that he has turned down over and over. He has said that he doesn't want to be in the spotlight. He doesn't want fame or fortune. He said his songs are just therapy for him and he's happy to know that others have found comfort in them.

The Left, of course, has attacked him viscously and labeled him as "right-wing" and "extreme" when he is clearly in the middle and just expressing the suffering that we are all going through.

I hope and pray that this young man finds peace and satisfaction in the fact that his music has given a voice to the millions of Americans that are frustrated with where the country is going.

[Idaho45guy]

He's only doing small gatherings, but the response is amazing...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uucdYScqOb4

[M-Tecs]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/oliver-anthony-says-hes-turned-down-8-million-dollar-offers-since-going-viral-nothing-special-about-me/ar-AA1fplkf

Oliver Anthony says he's turned down 8-million dollar offers since going viral: 'Nothing special about me'
Story by David Rutz •

Blue-collar political anthem 'Rich Men North of Richmond' takes Internet by storm

Viral singing sensation Oliver Anthony said he'd never had any interest in being famous, turned down seven-figure offers from stunned music industry reps and lamented the divided state of the Internet in a Facebook posting on Thursday.

Anthony's song "Rich Men North of Richmond" exploded into a viral hit this month after he recorded it on his Virginia farmland, and the red-bearded, high school dropout described himself on Facebook as "just some idiot and his guitar" who couldn't have imagined he'd become so well-known.

His song, which has been viewed more than 17 million times on YouTube as of Thursday afternoon, serves as both a screed against Washington greed and a lament for working-class ills like suicide, despair, high taxation, and working long hours for "bulls--t pay." It's won a host of conservative fans online, while some progressives have decried it as right-wing agitprop.

Anthony noted his real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford; Oliver Anthony was his grandfather and "Oliver Anthony Music" is a tribute to him and the Appalachia community he was born and raised in. He added he dropped out of high school in 2010 at age 17.


"At this point, I'll gladly go by Oliver because everyone knows me as such. But my friends and family still call me Chris. You can decide for yourself, either is fine," he wrote.

He recounted reading more than 50,000 messages and emails in the past week that have painted a "brutally honest picture" of widespread addiction, unemployment, anxiety and hopelessness.

"I'm sitting in such a weird place in my life right now. I never wanted to be a full time musician, much less sit at the top of the iTunes charts. Draven from RadioWv and I filmed these tunes on my land with the hope that it may hit 300k views. I still don't quite believe what has went on since we uploaded that. It's just strange to me," he wrote.

"People in the music industry give me blank stares when I brush off 8 million dollar offers. I don't want 6 tour buses, 15 tractor trailers and a jet. I don't want to play stadium shows, I don't want to be in the spotlight. I wrote the music I wrote because I was suffering with mental health and depression. These songs have connected with millions of people on such a deep level because they're being sung by someone feeling the words in the very moment they were being sung. No editing, no agent, no bulls--t. Just some idiot and his guitar. The style of music that we should have never gotten away from in the first place."

Anthony discussed his past employment that included a "living hell" at a paper mill in North Carolina and once fracturing his skull in 2013 that forced him to move home to Virginia. He currently lives on farmland he paid $97,500 for, inside a 27-foot camper with a tarp on the roof, he says.

From 2014 until this year, he worked outside sales in industrial manufacturing, where he got to know thousands of other blue-collar workers.

"I've spent all day, everyday, for the last 10 years hearing the same story. People are SO damn tired of being neglected, divided and manipulated," he wrote. "There's nothing special about me. I'm not a good musician, I'm not a very good person. I've spent the last 5 years struggling with mental health and using alcohol to drown it. I am sad to see the world in the state it's in, with everyone fighting with each other. I have spent many nights feeling hopeless, that the greatest country on Earth is quickly fading away.

"That being said, I HATE the way the Internet has divided all of us. The Internet is a parasite, that infects the minds of humans and has their way with them. Hours wasted, goals forgotten, loved ones sitting in houses with each other distracted all day by technology made by the hands of other poor souls in sweat shops in a foreign land."

He encouraged people to use their freedom of speech and never let it be taken away.

"Just like those once wandering in the desert, we have lost our way from God and have let false idols distract us and divide us. It's a damn shame," he wrote.

Anthony's concert on Aug. 23 in his hometown of Farmville, Va., sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale. The venue only holds 300 people, according to the Statesville Record & Landmark, and he said he would be holding shows soon in larger places to accommodate more fans.

With the popularity of his new song, his other works have also been viewed by millions online, such as "Ain't Gotta Dollar" and "I've Got to Get Sober."

[MrWolf]

Yea seems to be a solid down to earth guy now who went through his trials. I tried to find out how to download his songs but pay him and not iTunes. Not sure how things work if he doesn't have a record deal. Just wrong to download his songs without paying, especially with this guy. Just my opinion.
Ron

[Shawlerbrook]

If only all the people that are going wild for his song and Aldean’s Try that in a Small Town would vote, some of these problems might be solved.

[super6]

Yea 50% of the people I worked with could sing the songs and dance the dance, Nowhere to be seen at the voting booth. Shame!

[quilbilly]

It's amusing and sad at the same time that the useful idiots of my generation (coming of age in the 60's and sang the protest songs of Baez and Dylan) are now trying to destroy or at least cancel Anthony and his song. The young people of from the 60's that protested "the Man" are now "the Man" of wealth and privilege. I guess that is called irony. I may have been one of them then but I feel much better now.

[Circuit Rider]

Just a technicality, but he's not playing a steel guitar, that's a "Dobro", not sure on spelling . C.R.

[dannyd]

It's amusing and sad at the same time that the useful idiots of my generation (coming of age in the 60's and sang the protest songs of Baez and Dylan) are now trying to destroy or at least cancel Anthony and his song. The young people of from the 60's that protested "the Man" are now "the Man" of wealth and privilege. I guess that is called irony. I may have been one of them then but I feel much better now.

Boomer's the greatest hypocrite's of all. ;)

[Shopdog]

Well good on him for getting sober...

[augercreek]

Well that's all well and good but how many in the crowds will lift a finger to straighten this country out ! Most just want to party, by Tomorrow they will be back doing what they did before!

[brokeasajoke]

Listen to "I want to go home" by him as well.

[jdfoxinc]

Reminds me of Tennessee Ernie Ford singing "16 Tons".

You load 16 tons and what to you get.
Another day older and deeper in debt.
St Peter don't you call me cause I can't come
For I owe my soul to the company store.

Only in my case it's J. P. Morgan Chase.

[super6]

Yea 50% of the people I worked with could sing the songs and dance the dance, Nowhere to be seen at the voting booth. Shame!

I just may have a new song here! It will take a bit of work...

[Battis]

In a recent interview, Anthony said that, politically, he is directly in the middle - not right or left. And it annoys him that the right is trying to claim him as "one of them," and the left is critical of his song for being too far right.
So, read into the song whatever you want, but Anthony probably would disagree with your opinion of it. Which makes me wonder what he was getting at it if it is a non-political song. You can't talk about taxation, welfare, etc without bringing politics into the discussion.

[Hannibal]

In a recent interview, Anthony said that, politically, he is directly in the middle - not right or left. And it annoys him that the right is trying to claim him as "one of them," and the left is critical of his song for being too far right.
So, read into the song whatever you want, but Anthony probably would disagree with your opinion of it. Which makes me wonder what he was getting at it if it is a non-political song. You can't talk about taxation, welfare, etc without bringing politics into the discussion.

I haven't read or heard anything where the man claimed it wasn't political. What I HAVE read and heard is he's neither aligned with liberals or conservatives and resents that either group wants to claim otherwise. It's the political views of others that want to put him in a political category. And he's publicly stated that he resents those efforts most of all.

I gather he just decided to write and sing a song about things he sees that bother him. It wasn't to promote any political viewpoint. It wasn't to make money. It's most likely about things that drove him to self medication to begin with and now he's chosen to use music to vent those emotions instead of alcohol.

I applaud him for that as much as anything.

[Battis]

How do you talk about the "Rich men north of Richmond (Washington)", the inefficiencies of government, welfare, taxation, etc without referencing politics? How do you dump on the system without blaming the politicians who run the system?
So, it's political. No big deal. It's a protest song. Nothing new.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv9uMXiY29s

[Martin Luber]

The saga of the forgotten man….

We’re not forgotten, we’re targeted.