This Week with David Rovics

Remembering Gerd Berlev

I got word last weekend, in the afternoon of June 1st, 2019, Denmark time, that my friend and comrade, extremely talented organizer and much-loved grandmother and horn player, Gerd Berlev died. There is so much that can be said about Gerd, but as I sat in my apartment in Portland, Oregon, taking in this news, I wrote these words.

SPECIAL EDITION: Songs For Today, an Album Tour

The initial roll-out of my latest solo acoustic studio album is exclusively for members of my Patreon-style Community-Supported Art program, or CSA, which you are most welcome to join at davidrovics.com/subscribe. But for listeners to my podcast, here's an album tour.

The Winnipeg General Strike

In these troubled times, around the world people seem to be asking each other, how do we fight back against this madness?  In May, 1919 in Winnipeg, the working class answered this question by shutting down the city and running it themselves.

Taking On Spotify: Why We Need A Global Campaign

How should independent musicians survive in the streaming age?  There seems to be mostly a lot of hopelessness, along with a few dead-end ideas.  I have another idea:  demand streaming justice.  Fight back against the vulture capitalists of Stockholm.  How did we get to this point?  Here are my two cents.

Somewhere On Spotify: My Own Industrial Collapse, Part 2

Spotify is not single-handedly responsible for my relatively impoverished financial state as a working musician.  But it is certainly one of the most prominent reasons for it.

Pete Seeger Was A Movement Musician

Who was Pete Seeger?  Some reflections on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Pete's birth.

For All the Bicycles in Denmark

Of ghost bikes and bike lanes.

If I Had A Hacker

After Julian Assange's arrest and the resulting explosion of the internet last weekend, I attempt to pick up some of the pieces. 

How Do You Strangle A Corporation?

In this week's missive we explore the question: how do you strangle a corporation, when it doesn't have a neck?

Before the Flood

I am, it might reasonably be said, a climate refugee – though a very comfortable one. Escaping the forest fires to run a little cafe in Denmark is hardly a sacrifice. But if the cafe might be a good retirement plan for me, it won't be for my children – far too soon, the whole country in which Cafe Hellebaek is located will likely be underwater.