No more silent peace vigils: This is a declaration of war against the Empire of violence, fear, greed and control!
Fiery and original radical songs of hope, justice and struggle
Ethan & Kate perform firey and original of hope, liberation and struggle. With hard-hitting lyrics, rich vocal harmonies and rhythmic high-energy acoustic guitar, their music aims to strengthen and inspire movements for social, economic and ecological justice.
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RiOtFoLk
"making folk a threat again!"
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Hi friends,
All of our music is here for free download (and also at www.riotfolk.org) because we believe in the power of songs as tools of struggle and social change-- and we want these tools to be freely shared with all who might find them useful.
The songs here are also anti-copyright (registered into the Public Domain at ), because we believe that art should not be privately owned, but rather shared as part of our "cultural commons" (how could we copyright chords and language and ideas that are a thousand years old?!)
"But if all your music is free, how do you eat?" people ask. Well, we work odd jobs, share income, and grow some of our food. We make some money from live gigs and CD sales. We live by mutual-aid and with low-impact ethics. We appreciate any donations you can give for these songs (or CD purchases)-- they help sustain us and allow us to continue our work.
CDs can be purchased by mail order (see address below) and are sliding scale, $5-$30. SLiding scale is based on a principle of solidarity-- folks paying at a higher end makes it possible for us to offer this music to others who can't afford the usual high price of a CD. Thanks!
CDs are also available for $15 at
And of course, we'd love to come play in your town, so drop us a line...
Keep loving, keep fighting! -e&k
Story behind the song
We cannot give in to the dark lullabies of fear, complacency and silence that are emanating from the halls of power. We must turn toward the sources of our outrage and fight for all its worth: struggle, create, dream, defend, overcome, undermine, imagine, build, cultivate, unearth, dismantle—working in all of the many creative and courageous ways that each of us can discover and enact. Ours is a struggle of hope against despair, memory against forgetting, life and livelihood against exploitation and greed, autonomy against coercion and force, solidarity against isolation and fear. Keep on loving, and keep on fighting!
Lyrics
Declaration of War
(Ethan Miller)
In times of war, the folksingers
Are supposed to write peace songs
Go to candlelight vigils
And lead all the people in sing-alongs
Say, “Make love not war!” And,
“Have no vengeance on your enemies!
Meet violence with love
And hatred and anger with empathy!”
Now don't get me wrong,
I ain't got nothing against peace songs
Or going to rallies to call for an end
to the guns and the bombs
But in times like these, I feel compelled
to declare my support
For the ongoing escalation of the war effort
This ain't no peace song, this is a declaration of war
This ain't no sing-along, this is the rise of a mighty roar
When the towers came down,
everyone looked around for a culprit
And the media moguls and corporate elites
took the pulpit
"Ain't no fault of ours if all these millions are angry
Living in rubble in crumbling hovels in poverty"
Draped in a flag, they are pointing away at their enemy
"United we stand," they say, cleverly shirking complicity
"Don't ask any questions, just follow us,
we will show you the way
Rise up America, come bomb another
impoverished nation today"
Now just look around as the bombs hit the ground,
tell me what do you see?
Are the ones calling the shots
your friends or your enemies?
Who are the victims? Who are the innocent? And who commits crimes?
And who gets to spin it the next day on the cover of the New York Times?
And furthermore, if I may ask, who are they anyway,
Who can give us our freedom and then with one vote they can take it all away?
Now I do declare they've exceeded their share of the oxygen
And we will not stand for one more command from their lips again
An eye for an eye will leave us all blind, I have heard it said
Yes, but peace without justice and struggle will surely leave a million more dead
So stand up on your feet and take to the street, this is not time for fear
Call us traitors or spies and spread all your lies but we will persevere
It's been said before and I'll say it once more, let's bring the war home
And battle the forces of greed and injustice wherever they may roam
And united we'll stand here in this land of hypocrisy
To take back our lives from the rulers and build a democracy
No more will we stand idly by
While they ravage the earth and hurl flame from the sky
No more we'll be silenced, no more we'll be still
No more we'll be pillaged, no more will be killed
No more silent vigils, this time we will roar
We'll call out the traitors and we will declare war
On the oil executives, corporate elites,
Wall street vigilantes in mountain retreats,
IMF bureaucrats, Monsanto thugs,
CIA agents with tap and with bugs,
Rich greedy landlords and real estate crooks,
Corporate lawyers with corporate lawbooks,
Fascists in the white house and fools on the hill,
Puppets in uniform, guns set to kill,
Racist avengers and pentagon brutes,
Slick politicians and bankers in suits,
Old money, new money, privileged few,
Owners of Nike, Chevron, and GQ,
Pesticide pushers of chemical war,
Econ departments, Wal-Mart superstores,
Kings and their armies and princes and dukes,
Religious zealots who kill for the truth,
Free trade agreements and global control,
Smokestacks and gasoline and ozone holes…
This ain't no peace song.
