When Oliver Anthony exploded on the scene with his song “Rich Men North of Richmond,” it didn’t make much of an impact on me. I knew it was a powerful song, to be sure, but since I’m not a country music fan, I didn’t add it to my playlist.

But inevitably the media began to assign politics to the song because that’s where we are these days. Then the kerfuffle really snowballed at the Republican debates, when Fox News host Martha MacCallum led off with this question:

Why is this song striking such a nerve in this country right now?

Oliver Anthony recoiled, telling his new fans that he doesn’t support any particular political team, as Carol pointed out last week. Yet he continues to be a lightning rod.

For example, Cyrus Coron, a hazmat truck driver, lashed out at Anthony for singing about “the obese milkin’ welfare.” Coron said he grew up on welfare, and wrote:

They’re obese because the federally dictated “bulls**t pay” so bemoaned by Anthony forces them onto a pissant monthly allotment of food stamps. That in turn leaves women like my mama no choice but to put price-point-low, calorically-loaded, nutritionally-absent meals onto cramped kitchen tables and into the mouths of their babies and themselves.

Meanwhile, another writer, Noah Khrachvik, saw the song as as call to arms for the working class:

A new era’s coming: an era where people are wise to that kind of thing. An era where we see we have a whole lot more in common with the people working right next to us than we do with the rich men north of Richmond.

What we do with that? Well, that’s up to us.

So who is Noah Khrachvik? Newsweek described him as the “co-director and theorist for the Midwestern Marx Institute for Marxist Theory and Political Analysis.” Be careful what you wish for.

Stop Pigeonholing Oliver Anthony

Sometimes a protest song is, well, just a song. And we should stop trying to assign an artist to a political tribe, especially if that artist doesn’t want to go there.

Harry Khachatrian is a film critic for the Washington Examiner. He penned an opinion article admonishing his readers to Stop ruining Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond.” 

The power of the best protest songs lies not in their being paeans to specific political movements. Instead, their resonance stems from their incisive critiques of broader issues that underpin the political system. These aren’t merely the headline-grabbing issues that dominate political debates or election seasons. They dig deeper, challenging systems and structures, rather than suggesting that a simple change of the guard or voting in the perceived “correct party” can offer a panacea.

He discussed Bob Dylan, who wrote the iconic song “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Dylan, notes Khachatrian, rejected the monicker of “the voice of a generation.” In fact, at a 1965 press conference in San Francisco, when someone asked Dylan if he was more a singer or a poet, he replied, “Oh, I think of myself more as a song and dance man.”

“Bob Dylan in the window .. Seattle” by Nick Kenrick.. is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Plus, if you’ve been through tough times — and we all have — sometimes music can help pull us through. It provides an egress for our troubles and a reminder that things will get better. 

When The Boss Was My Anthony

In the mid 1990’s, my husband lost his job after the company that employed him was bought by a large corporation. The corporation closed his department, but promised him that he could still work onsite as an independent contractor. Eventually that dried up, too. We were left with one income — mine — two kids, a car payment, and a mortgage. Then there were the costs of daily life.

So when I went to work I found solace in a CD of early Bruce Springsteen music. Yes, I know the drill — I’m a conservative and the liberal Boss has long been anathema to the right.

But nothing lifted my spirits better while traveling north on a Kansas City highway than “Born to Run,” or “Thunder Road” blasting on the speakers.

No song struck me more deeply, however, than “Badlands.” Especially a line at the climax of the song in which Springsteen sings I wanna spit in the face of these Badlands.

Harry Khachatrian wrote, Artists and their expressions aren’t meant to be co-opted but rather to inspire genuine introspection and change. Which is what Bruce Springsteen did for me on a personal level.

What’s Next for Oliver Anthony?

On Monday, Free Press writer Rupa Subramanya published a lengthy article after an interview with Oliver Anthony. She starts with this:

Back in 2022, Oliver Anthony started recording his songs because he thought he was going to die, and he didn’t want his music to die with him.

She tells of his life filled with anxiety, depression, brain fog, and chest pains. Anthony didn’t want to discuss what exactly caused his unhappiness, but he admitted falling into booze and weed in his 20’s. They were an escape for him, he told her, from poverty and dead-end jobs. In 2019, he managed to buy some farmland in his hometown of Farmville, VA. He also bought a 27-foot camper for $750 in which he, his pregnant wife, and two kids still live.

Eventually he rediscovered his religious faith:

The reason I was always so reluctant to accept God as God is because it meant I had to accept all those people that I didn’t quite agree with as being correct—you know, I falsely associated man-made religion and some of the things that go along with it with the concept of Jesus Christ and God in general.

It wasn’t until the last three or four months that I really, finally, completely broke down and accepted it and acknowledged it and embraced it—I guess that would be the word.

His break came when Draven Riffe, who runs a West Virginia-oriented YouTube channel, stumbled upon some of Anthony’s work. Riffe tracked him down, got Anthony to record a few tracks — including “Rich Men North of Richmond” — and the rest, as they say, is history.

Oliver Anthony famously turned down an $8 million recording contract. Subramanya writes:

He had to be careful. His whole brand, which was rapidly coming into focus, was about being real, down to earth—the opposite of flashy record deals.

Anthony adds:

Going into 2024, when we’re looking at our touring schedule and all, we’re thinking, ‘Where can we play? We’ll find a small town that’s struggling. Whatever we do needs to be very purpose-driven. It’s not just going to be about playing songs and putting on big shows.

But he still eschews political labels. As he told Subramanya, I’d like to stay out of politics. 

Wise man. And while I still probably won’t download any Anthony Oliver music, I wish him the best. I hope his music can provide some consolation to those facing tough times, as many Americans are experiencing now. Just as some old Springsteen tunes picked up my spirits during a rough patch in my life.

Featured image: “20210516 10 Democrats & Republicans” by davidwilson1949 is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Cropped.