Blake Morgan

I fought fascism today. #vote

"We are buried underneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness.”
— Tom Waits

"Blind faith in your leaders, or in anything, will get you killed."
—Bruce Springsteen, musician (b. 23 Sep 1949)

Democracy strikes back.

Great. Now let’s do this here, America.

Joe Biden is the only U.S. president on record who never presided over job losses during his term in office. He also:
- Reduced inflation from 9.1% to 3.2%
- Reduced unemployment from 8.05% to 3.61%
- Maintained unemployment below 4% for the longest time in 60 years
- The Stock Market went up 39.4%

Rehearsal #1. I’m back on stage September 25 in NYC for the launch of my new concert series (info/tickets: bnds.us/5jwiep), debuting new songs and stories, and performing with my full band (and some songs solo, too!). I hope you’ll join us, tickets going fast.

"When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character. This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw. Stigmatize those who let people die, not those who struggle to live."
—Sarah Kendzior, journalist and author

Save the dates! Advance tickets: bnds.us/5jwiep // Blake Morgan returns to the stage—relaunching his record-breaking NYC residency with five unique performances running from September 2025 to May 2026.

I fought fascism today.

“No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot.” —Mark Twain

“In my country, we are fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted...

Art is the crucible that brings people together.
Art looks for truth.
Art embraces diversity.

That’s why art is a threat. That’s why we are a threat to autocrats & fascists.”

Robert De Niro • Cannes 🎬

1/3🧵

If you complain about the country in 2025 but you couldn’t bring yourself to vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, please know that you’re who’s to blame.

As of today, he's down exactly 20 points since inauguration.
January 20 = +11 / April 28 = -9.
It's not going well for him.

Never forget, Joe Biden delivered:
- The largest economic recovery since Roosevelt
- Created 15 million new jobs
- Reduced inflation from 9.1% to 3.2%
- Reduced unemployment from 8.05% to 3.61%
- Maintained unemployment below 4% for the longest time in 60 years
- Change in Real GDP plus 12.6%

Thanks for reading this, see you out there, let’s save American democracy and sing a victory song together. 🧵8/8

One last thing––you can’t (and don’t get to) separate what I believe in from what I sing and write. They’re inexorably connected. We musicians are what we eat, and we emit who we are. Who I am and what I believe in is in my music, whether you listen for it, or hear it, or not. 🧵7/8

Though I’ll never be remotely as cool as any of those artists, I certainly want to follow their example and contribute (in my own tiny way) to bending the long arc of the moral universe towards justice. 🧵6/8

Another thing that I think threatens the “just sing your songs” crowd is that musicians are cool. Billie Holiday was cool. The Clash were cool. And they wielded their cool to do good. The Beatles were cool, and they’re the reason I wanted to be a musician in the first place. 🧵5/8

Probably because those people think music and art are a "vacation” from the world around us instead of the truth: music and art are a critical part of this world. 🧵4/8

I'm also a musician who believes that what I do isn't any more or any less important than what anyone else does. So, why would my speaking up about the world around me as I see it be an issue for those who'd "rather just sit back and enjoy the music" as they sometimes say? 🧵3/8

But musicians always have been political, from Beethoven’s anti-aristocracy stand to Sinead O’Connor’s anti-Catholic Church stand. From Public Enemy to The (Dixie) Chicks, from John Lennon to Nina Simone music makers have spoken out about injustice just as everyone can and should. 🧵2/8

I’m a musician who’s always been political, if by "political" you mean I care about the world I live in. But some people think musicians shouldn’t be political (“just sing your songs!”). 🧵1/8

If Trump steers us into a recession, he will be the 4th Republican President in a row to do so:
-Trump (recession in 2025?)
-Trump (recession 2020)
-George W. Bush (recession 2008)
-George Bush (recession 1991-92)
Conversely, the previous 8 Dem Presidents have stewarded overwhelming economic growth:

Gee this is going so well

I love NYC so much. Recently, I read Pete Hamill’s wonderful book ‘Forever,’ a 600-page novel about a man who’s granted immortality on the condition that he never leaves Manhattan. I was 300 pages in before I realized it wasn’t my biography. This great city feeds my hope, even in the darkest times.

The world is slowly coming around to understand that “internet freedom” which only considers the freedom of platforms & not the effects of such “freedoms” is a form of imprisonment. That expanding modalities for communication isn’t necessarily or inherently progressive in the absence of norms/rules

This unfiltered photo of me was taken on the rooftop of The Whitney Museum in NYC, in front of Kiyan Williams’ sculpture entitled Ruins of Empire II or The Earth Swallows the Master’s House.

(Photo by @janitaartist.bsky.social)

"There were some people who didn't like my being deeply involved with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan and disreputable rock 'n' rollers. I didn't care about that because I was doing what I really believed."
—Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States