The Marsh Family Group – Minnesota

This weeks batch of new music recommendations are dominated by artists responding in song to events that have unfolded in Minneapolis over the past couple of weeks. To start with we have a family group from Kent who first found themselves an audience posting humorous internet song parodies during the pandemic lockdowns. This, however, is a change of tone released as a protest to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. It is a re-working of the sixties flower-power Scott McKenzie hit ‘San Francisco,’ written by John Phillips, with new lyrics and some extra instrument parts written played over the originals back bone. The family say they chose it “because of its link to protest, its soaring refrains, its simplicity, its earnestness, and its celebration of love and solidarity. Taking on the guns, masks, fear, and falsehoods requires more than flowers and songs. But they are powerful nonetheless, especially if they remind folk of previous generations that navigated trauma, and that you are not alone.”

Bruce Springsteen – Streets Of Minneapolis

Bruce explains the writing of his new protest anthem, composed in the style of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, during the intro to its live debut featured in this clip. He mentions voicing his concerns that it might be “a bit soapboxey” to Tom Morello who brilliantly re-assured The Boss that, although nuance has a place, “sometimes you’ve got to kick them in the teeth.” It looks like the direct approach has cut through because as of yesterday the song was top of the US iTunes Top Songs chart. The version here is not the only one available as Bruce also recorded the song in the studio last weekend, the day after he wrote it, then got it immediately released, thus echoing the speed that songs used to enter circulation back in the days when the protest movement was a vital source of topical, social and political information.

Billy Bragg – City Of Heroes

If there is one artist who has unreservedly held onto the belief that a song can make a difference, then it has to be Billy Bragg. He knows full well that it only takes a handful of good people to bring about change and he stands in solidarity with those paying the ultimate price against injustice. Of ‘City Of Heroes’ he had this to say. “I wrote this song yesterday as a tribute to the bravery of the people of Minneapolis who, knowing that these trigger happy ICE thugs operate with seeming impunity in their midst, are still willing to put themselves in harms way to defend their community. Their resistance is an inspiration to us all.”

Yo La Tengo – Big Crime

Here is a recent live clip from one of America’s greatest ever bands, captured in the final days of 2025 covering a still very new Neil Young song taking aim at Trump’s administration in a deliberately unfiltered manner. With a similar sense of urgency to all the tracks featured so far this week, Neil’s version was recorded at a soundcheck and released with speed as a standalone single. “No more great again” is sung repeatedly as electric guitars bring the turbulence of the times to the foreground. In that sense, there could be no finer band than Yo La Tengo to pour some water on this seed, helping it spread its message to more and more ears with their own undeniable conviction.

Kathleen Edwards – Say Goodbye, Tell No One

Kathleen is one of America’s greatest living songwriters, which might sound like I am indulging in a bit of hyperbole but just listen to any of her records and then try and tell me I’m wrong. This is a live rendition of a song from last years ‘Billionaire’ album recorded at Jack Kerouac House. Kathleen says of the experienc playing there that walking in “was an incredible feeling, to step on the terrazzo floor down the hallway and into the rooms where he lived, to sit in a chair he also sat in many a night. A house preserved like a time stamp – mid-century coloured curtains, a typewriter still sitting in one of the bedrooms. His story is complicated, but compelling and his books ‘The Dharma Bums’ and ‘On The Road’ captured my imagination as a high school student and the vagabond hippie canoe kid who eventually became a songwriter.”

The Molotovs – Today’s Gonna Be Our Day

I admit I approached this band with caution because they appear to be the recipients of a great deal of media hype at the moment. Not only that but after one look at them, without even hearing a note, I knew exactly what they were going to sound like. Paul Weller and The Jam, to put it bluntly. But then, I also had to think, so what? After all, Weller himself was blatantly influenced in looks, style, sound and attitude by the Small Faces Steve Marriott when he started out and his career evolved into one of the UKs most musically celebrated. Weller also went on to be a voice of political activism, a point which also got me thinking about The Molotovs, because the one noticeable thing about the topical songs I have highlighted this week is that they are mostly coming from the old guard. So maybe it is bands like this, inspiring a younger audience, who can pick up the baton at some stage? The main reason I have included them though is the music. With the crunching riffs and hooks aplenty that are on display here, they have got the basics right and really, what better place to start could there possibly be?