What’s Up With Asheville?

Here’s a a song I wrote and then recorded with Jason Krekel and Sheneika Smith at my house. Click here or use the player below to listen and download for free if you’d like. I look forward to conversations about these questions, there are some links below with food for thought, and a video of us performing this song at Sherwood’s Music for Mountain Xpress.

What’s Up With Asheville?

chorus:
What’s Up With Asheville?
What’s going down in Asheville town?
What’s up with Asheville?
Who’s getting rich, who’s being left out?

Stumbling through a drunken haze
Throwing plastic cups away
Who’s staying poor? Who’s getting paid?
Who’s orchestrating the charade?
It could be us….

Our streets were built by slavery
History we refuse to see
Perpetuating inequality
Who shapes our memory?
It could be us…

Tourist dollars fall like rain
Who will lose? Who will gain?
Who makes the rules of the game?
It could be us…
How does the money flow?
Where do you live? Who do you know?
Somebody runs the show
It could be us….

* * * * * *

Here are a few recent opinion pieces that struck a chord:
Asheville is a boomtown, but for whom?
The Hotel Hustle
Has Asheville wasted the chance to be really special?

And in case you missed this one last year…
Whose story? Democratizing America’s collective historical memory

Plus
stateofblackasheville.org