Matthew Alexander - An Apolitical Man

Radio Add Date October 4, 2022
“An Apolitical Man”
The first advance single from the May 2023 album, Midnight Dream Station, by Matthew Alexander
Caravan Records

"An Apolitical Man" -- Just in time for the mid-term elections.

Americana Highways will premier the video for “An Apolitical Man” on Tuesday, November 4th

Mask or no mask? Insurrection or protest? Democrat or Republican? CNN, Fox or Newsmax? Climate activist or climate denier? An endless assortment of black and white choices in constant conflict with each other. But what about those who just want to be left alone, refusing to be pigeonholed into taking one side over the other? Those who really don’t give a damn about empty slogans such as “the Brotherhood of Man”? Those whose hearts have been shattered a long time ago?

“I am a child of the sixties.,” writes Charlotte, NC based songwriter, musician, and singer Matthew Alexander to place his new single, “An Apolitical Man,” in context. The song is the first of three advance singles from his eighth album, Midnight Dream Station., slated for a May 2023 release. “As such, I was idealistic and hopeful about the country, even despite the challenges of civil rights and the war in Vietnam. I remember having small celebrations when Roe V. Wade was decided and, again, when Nixon resigned. I believed that the arc of history would gradually tilt toward fairness and justice.

“What I was not prepared for was the backlash. Not just the backlash against choice for women but also the backlash against progressive ideas. I had no idea back then that “liberal” would become a term of denigration, that protesters would block and taunt women who were exercising their personal freedom to have an abortion or that people with different political ideologies would become so bitter and mean toward each other. For this I blame Nixon and Gingrich. Of course the culmination of the reactionary forces was in Trumpism, the greatest threat we have ever seen to our democracy.

“The personal cost of all this is that I, like many, feel demoralized and apathetic. Our generation tried to make things better and we didn’t succeed. I think the hope now lies in the next generation to solve this mess and promote greater equity and fairness in our society and save our planet from ecological disaster.

“I believe this to be an important song. ‘An Apolitical Man’ speaks for the millions of Americans who are turned off by the divisiveness, by the ugliness and by the governmental gridlock. The ice caps are melting, the earth is warming, children are being murdered in schools and yet politicians cannot summon the political will to do something. If the choice is to live my life in perpetual frustration, or to man the barricades or to tune out and enjoy my remaining years on this planet, I plead guilty to apathy and will choose to enjoy my Netflix and Prime and the millions of songs I can play on Spotify.”