This Week with David Rovics

"When Luigi Goes on Trial"

One of the things that 2026 holds in store is what some are already calling "the trial of the century."

The Red and the Blue GUIDED TOUR

A guided tour of Ai Tsuno's 9th album, which consists of 12 songs David Rovics created with Ai Tsuno over the course of December, 2025. Topics covered include the ongoing Gaza genocide, the trial of Luigi Mangione, the corporate internet, and the beauty of Bonoboville. The Red and the Blue drops on the music streaming platforms of January 9th, 2026.

"Reality Awaits Outside"

If you're feeling hopeless, most likely the first thing you should do is leave all your devices in a hole somewhere and go outside.

This will be one of the tracks on my next album with Ai Tsuno, The Red and the Blue, which, if all goes as planned, will drop on all the music streaming platforms on January 9th.

"The Internet is an Ugly Place"

The modern internet, controlled as it is by the world's biggest corporations and their conflict-promotion algorithms, has become a nightmare of monolithic proportions.

This will be one of the tracks on my next album with Ai Tsuno, The Red and the Blue, which, if all goes as planned, will drop on all the music streaming platforms on January 9th.

The Red and the Blue [travelogue]

There's really no such thing as red or blue -- just lots of folks like me and you.

"2026"

My biggest hope for 2026? That by the end of it we'll be experiencing a more or less normal winter in the northern hemisphere, and not a nuclear one.

This will be one of the tracks on my next album with Ai Tsuno, which, if all goes as planned, will drop on all the music streaming platforms on January 9th.

"When You Listen and You're Here"

What makes a piece of music good? What makes a song a good song?

The music industry has, for a century or so, been obsessively oriented with creating mysterious and exciting identities for artists they want to turn into stars. The industry emphasizes the artist, rather than the art. The art itself, along with the producers, lyricists, session musicians, engineers, and promoters, are all those kinds of things happening "behind the curtain" that, like the Wizard in Oz, are meant to be ignored.

But if you extract all the PR and music business hoopla, what makes a song a good song? Is it actually about the artist recording or performing it, or is it about the music itself? If it's the artist that makes the song, then what about the artist? Does the artist need to have lived a virtuous life in order to make likeable art? Does the artist need to be from a certain part of the world, and not another? Does the artist need to be human?

My take on these questions is in the end, other factors may play into how a song is perceived in a big way, but what really matters is the song itself. If it's delivered well by a competent performer live or recorded, and the listener is in a good place for really listening, then a sad song will make the listener cry. A song about memories of your youth will evoke such memories. A satirical song about current events the listener is following in the news will likely make the listener laugh. These reactions of the listener are the measure of the song's impact.

That's what this song is about. I invite you to close your eyes and give a song your full attention. You might try doing that every day, and call it meditation.

"The Red and the Blue"

I sat down this morning with the intention of writing a bit of a travelogue about my recent travels in Texas and Georgia, but then I wrote this song instead. I'll probably eventually write the travelogue, too.

"To Hide a Genocide"

British members of Palestine Action on hunger strike are close to death, Israel's "ceasefire" is just a continuation of the famine, disease and slaughter Israel continues to deliver to the Palestinian people, and across the west, leaders express their deference to the genocidal killers, ship more weapons, and ban words and phrases that make fascists uncomfortable.

The hunger strike continues
In the British prisons
As the courts refuse
To reach a decision
Will they judge this time
As they have before
That the crime is sending 
Weapons to the war

Because the terrorists here
Are the Zionists
Who’d try to hide
A genocide

It's a holocaust 
And it's happening now
A hundred thousand lives lost
And no one knows how
How many more
Will ever be found 
Under the rubble 
Beneath the ground 

Chorus

The Palestinian people
Beneath plastic sheets
There's no ceasefire, just a famine 
As history repeats
History from the Nazis
Brought down on the holy land
Beside the bloody sea
With an F-thirty-five at hand 

Chorus

As the Israelis go on
With their endless killing spree 
While Egypt plays the pawn
With their new refinery
And throughout the west 
They ban phrases and words
As our leaders do their best
At being completely absurd

Chorus

"Globalize the Intifada"

Members of Palestine Action are being held without bail or trial in England for trying to stop a British-sponsored genocide.  Many are on hunger strike, and the doctors say they are dying, as their organs are beginning to fail due to some of them now going on 6 weeks without eating.  Meanwhile in Australia, they are talking about passing a law to say that the phrase, "globalize the intifada" is hate speech.  Resisting genocide is apparently a very hateful thing to do.  Terroristic, even.