[Applause]
[Music]
I’m sorry excuse me dear Arlen thank you
for writing the beautiful song about my
mother I’m sure you’re quite busy but
would you consider coming to Shreveport
that was the Facebook message that I got
some six years ago that reaffirmed my
passion and changed my life you see
there are two main things that have made
me the songwriter that I am today one
being my father my father is a
pharmacist in my hometown of Los Angeles
and as he showed he is quite proud of
the work that he does he helps heal the
sick he counsels the elderly he works
with people struggling with terrible
addictions he likens his work to doing
community service and I embrace this
ideal I seek to serve my community as
well the other thing of course is music
can I grew up loving all kinds of music
rock pop swing soul jazz I used to love
getting into the back of my father’s car
on Sunday morning listening to the
gospel choirs broadcasting out of South
Central’s black churches on the am dial
passion by the megahertz and the songs
that really got me woke are the ones
that spoke of hope and a united world
the first time I think I remember
feeling this way I was at Temple and we
had a very hip canner Aviva she has a
magnificent voice and she would sing a
song from our beloved Jewish poet
laureate Robert Zimmerman how many years
most people exist before they’re allowed
to be free the answer my friend is
blowin in the way the answer is blown in
the wind I was transfixed by the moral
clarity of the
words and I soon discovered that writers
like Dylan Guthrie Lennon Marley Bruce
all had a unique power fueled by an
unyielding desire to make the world a
better place
and I wanted that power so naturally I
set out to writing songs in my own we
can all sit down and rewrite the
or we could fight it out and start up a
other ways find me still you refuse to
you plan to resolution you see
songwriting has always defined me it’s
my strength
it’s my shield it’s my identity it’s my
passion
songs can inspire us they can console us
they can empower us they can reach
across oceans and connect us and not
unlike Superman coming to save the day
leaping tall buildings in a single bound
the right single is bound to save the
day faster than a speeding bullet
we could take this song and stream it
from ups and to ocean we could really
set it off and start up a big commotion
we take hands but we have forgotten that
love is all we’ve got and I believe that
I could show you a gentleman approached
me after a show in amsterdam not too
long ago thank you for the medicine he
said you are the medicine man
so as my father it’s how we like to
serve our community and today i am at
your service i started writing this song
as i was watching The History Channel at
my piano one afternoon and they were
doing a piece on the civil rights era
and had focused in on one of the
movements unsung heroes she was a Coal
Miner’s Daughter she grew up in a
one-room Shack in Tennessee before her
father moved the family to Detroit in
the 40s just as racial tensions were
really heating up
she had an activist soul years ahead of
her time she joined the NAACP after
befriending a black woman at her local
store Sarah and she would become best of
friends and from Michigan they would
watch newsreels of policemen clobbering
protesters as they marched 600 strong
over the Edmund Pettus Bridge March 7th
1965 Bloody Sunday and at the urging of
dr. King that all people of good
conscience come to Selma and march on
the Capitol in Montgomery this 39 year
old housewife decided that she would be
one of them and she would not be
dissuaded it is every buddies fight she
would say her name was viola viola Greg
we use violas passion was civil rights
and her power came from the tired feet
upon which she marched
and go home on the final day of the
March
she threw those tired feet into her 63
Oldsmobile that she had volunteered to
shuttle
marchers back from the Capitol to Selma
and on this particular return journey
accompanied by fellow volunteer Leroy
Moton she was followed by a car full of
Ku Klux Klansmen one an FBI informant
they overtook her car they forced her
off the road
and they assassinated her she would be
the Civil Rights eras only female white
Margaret hold tight
we’re gonna take this head-on
I started singing this song at all my
shows I probably sang it a thousand
times and people would come up to me and
ask me how is it that I have never heard
of this woman they were inspired by her
story they were inspired to act some
recorded the song on their albums others
shared her story with their friends and
with any luck their friends would share
her story as well and there it is the
miracle you see by me following my
passion and sharing her story we were
making the world a better place viola
I sang the song at this event not far
from here for the light of day
Foundation and a young african-american
and woman was there for the Asbury Park
Press and she asked me after the show
about the song you see she had never
heard of Viola either so I told her the
next day she included in the article she
wrote about the event the story of me
and my song it was Martin Luther King
Day 2012 I always had my Google Alert
set for any time my mother’s name is
mentioned in the National Press
I followed the link to the story about
you and your song and I knew immediately
that it had to be about my mother
thank you so much for honoring her
viola had five children
her youngest Sally is the one who sent
me the Facebook message and more
messages would come from her older
sisters Mary and penny I spent better
part of the evening crying not only for
the shared grief and loss of their
mother but tears of pride and joy that
my song could reach out and connect with
her family and bring them solace they
asked me to join them in Shreveport for
an event to perform my song that was
honoring their mother and of course I
said yes many years later in several
events I grew quite close with this
family
Benny Mary Sally there brother Anthony
and three years ago we went down some
for the fiftieth anniversary
of that March in 1965 and we stood at
the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge and
we gathered at that very place on Route
80 where violas light was extinguished
the place where this story began and I
stood at that hallowed place and I sang
a new song every step taken on this road
it’s called 50 miles
50 miles south to Morgan maybe ma he’s
had to pull my memory over the river
over earth stole looking for better way
back home
[Music]
fortune smiles on those who love and do
good deeds teach your child to dream and
give them what they need up and love in
this mountain
cold water running onto this bridge tell
Martin mr. Martin for him
[Music]
swing daddy you’ve been waiting too long
time you got to sing your freedom song
[Music]
the water line keeps rising
[Music]
who you fooling now there’s no other way
to go Sam I stood today heard it on the
radio fifty years said Selma and
Montgomery and still these tears keep
welling up inside of me
a pastor wrong this role
looking for a better way back
[Music]
looking for the better way better wig
home become water running under this
bridge tell Martin we’re still marching
sweet lady you’ve been waiting too long
it’s time you got to sing your freedom
you feed on song
[Music] [Applause]
[Music]
I’m sorry excuse me dear Arlen thank you
for writing the beautiful song about my
mother I’m sure you’re quite busy but
would you consider coming to Shreveport
that was the Facebook message that I got
some six years ago that reaffirmed my
passion and changed my life you see
there are two main things that have made
me the songwriter that I am today one
being my father my father is a
pharmacist in my hometown of Los Angeles
and as he showed he is quite proud of
the work that he does he helps heal the
sick he counsels the elderly he works
with people struggling with terrible
addictions he likens his work to doing
community service and I embrace this
ideal I seek to serve my community as
well the other thing of course is music
can I grew up loving all kinds of music
rock pop swing soul jazz I used to love
getting into the back of my father’s car
on Sunday morning listening to the
gospel choirs broadcasting out of South
Central’s black churches on the am dial
passion by the megahertz and the songs
that really got me woke are the ones
that spoke of hope and a united world
the first time I think I remember
feeling this way I was at Temple and we
had a very hip canner Aviva she has a
magnificent voice and she would sing a
song from our beloved Jewish poet
laureate Robert Zimmerman how many years
most people exist before they’re allowed
to be free the answer my friend is
blowin in the way the answer is blown in
the wind I was transfixed by the moral
clarity of the
words and I soon discovered that writers
like Dylan Guthrie Lennon Marley Bruce
all had a unique power fueled by an
unyielding desire to make the world a
better place
and I wanted that power so naturally I
set out to writing songs in my own we
can all sit down and rewrite the
or we could fight it out and start up a
other ways find me still you refuse to
you plan to resolution you see
songwriting has always defined me it’s
my strength
it’s my shield it’s my identity it’s my
passion
songs can inspire us they can console us
they can empower us they can reach
across oceans and connect us and not
unlike Superman coming to save the day
leaping tall buildings in a single bound
the right single is bound to save the
day faster than a speeding bullet
we could take this song and stream it
from ups and to ocean we could really
set it off and start up a big commotion
we take hands but we have forgotten that
love is all we’ve got and I believe that
I could show you a gentleman approached
me after a show in amsterdam not too
long ago thank you for the medicine he
said you are the medicine man
so as my father it’s how we like to
serve our community and today i am at
your service i started writing this song
as i was watching The History Channel at
my piano one afternoon and they were
doing a piece on the civil rights era
and had focused in on one of the
movements unsung heroes she was a Coal
Miner’s Daughter she grew up in a
one-room Shack in Tennessee before her
father moved the family to Detroit in
the 40s just as racial tensions were
really heating up
she had an activist soul years ahead of
her time she joined the NAACP after
befriending a black woman at her local
store Sarah and she would become best of
friends and from Michigan they would
watch newsreels of policemen clobbering
protesters as they marched 600 strong
over the Edmund Pettus Bridge March 7th
1965 Bloody Sunday and at the urging of
dr. King that all people of good
conscience come to Selma and march on
the Capitol in Montgomery this 39 year
old housewife decided that she would be
one of them and she would not be
dissuaded it is every buddies fight she
would say her name was viola viola Greg
we use violas passion was civil rights
and her power came from the tired feet
upon which she marched
and go home on the final day of the
March
she threw those tired feet into her 63
Oldsmobile that she had volunteered to
shuttle
marchers back from the Capitol to Selma
and on this particular return journey
accompanied by fellow volunteer Leroy
Moton she was followed by a car full of
Ku Klux Klansmen one an FBI informant
they overtook her car they forced her
off the road
and they assassinated her she would be
the Civil Rights eras only female white
Margaret hold tight
we’re gonna take this head-on
I started singing this song at all my
shows I probably sang it a thousand
times and people would come up to me and
ask me how is it that I have never heard
of this woman they were inspired by her
story they were inspired to act some
recorded the song on their albums others
shared her story with their friends and
with any luck their friends would share
her story as well and there it is the
miracle you see by me following my
passion and sharing her story we were
making the world a better place viola
I sang the song at this event not far
from here for the light of day
Foundation and a young african-american
and woman was there for the Asbury Park
Press and she asked me after the show
about the song you see she had never
heard of Viola either so I told her the
next day she included in the article she
wrote about the event the story of me
and my song it was Martin Luther King
Day 2012 I always had my Google Alert
set for any time my mother’s name is
mentioned in the National Press
I followed the link to the story about
you and your song and I knew immediately
that it had to be about my mother
thank you so much for honoring her
viola had five children
her youngest Sally is the one who sent
me the Facebook message and more
messages would come from her older
sisters Mary and penny I spent better
part of the evening crying not only for
the shared grief and loss of their
mother but tears of pride and joy that
my song could reach out and connect with
her family and bring them solace they
asked me to join them in Shreveport for
an event to perform my song that was
honoring their mother and of course I
said yes many years later in several
events I grew quite close with this
family
Benny Mary Sally there brother Anthony
and three years ago we went down some
for the fiftieth anniversary
of that March in 1965 and we stood at
the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge and
we gathered at that very place on Route
80 where violas light was extinguished
the place where this story began and I
stood at that hallowed place and I sang
a new song every step taken on this road
it’s called 50 miles
50 miles south to Morgan maybe ma he’s
had to pull my memory over the river
over earth stole looking for better way
back home
[Music]
fortune smiles on those who love and do
good deeds teach your child to dream and
give them what they need up and love in
this mountain
cold water running onto this bridge tell
Martin mr. Martin for him
[Music]
swing daddy you’ve been waiting too long
time you got to sing your freedom song
[Music]
the water line keeps rising
[Music]
who you fooling now there’s no other way
to go Sam I stood today heard it on the
radio fifty years said Selma and
Montgomery and still these tears keep
welling up inside of me
a pastor wrong this role
looking for a better way back
[Music]
looking for the better way better wig
home become water running under this
bridge tell Martin we’re still marching
sweet lady you’ve been waiting too long
it’s time you got to sing your freedom
you feed on song
[Music] [Applause]
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