Martin Kerr is reworking American hits to change American minds
Singer-songwriter Martin Kerr's new album, Overdue for a Revolution, aims his protest folk at the growing number of Americans who are tired of the status quo and want to commune with people who feel the same.
"They told me this was a free speech land / so I made a post with my phone in my hand / now I've been detained / I can't see my fam / 'cause I dared to criticize the orange man," begins Kerr's song Banned from the USA, sung to the tune of Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A.
Kerr, who grew up in England and now lives in Edmonton, told Taproot he is not banned from the United States. Rather, this song is about three incidents where people with legal permits to visit the U.S. were detained or denied entry. It touches on composer Andrew Balfour being sent back to Toronto ahead of a planned performance at Carnegie Hall, the arrest and imprisonment of student Rümeysa Öztürk by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement department, and the same treatment by the same department of Mahmoud Khalil (the latter two had spoken in support of Palestine).
Kerr said Born in the U.S.A. is an apt reference point because, while the original Springsteen song critiques the treatment of Vietnam veterans, it is routinely misinterpreted as a patriotic anthem. Former president Ronald Reagan perverted the song's message during his 1984 reelection campaign, and it was later embraced by supporters of sitting President Donald Trump, who Springsteen has criticized.
"I love Bruce Springsteen and what he stands for," Kerr said. "It was so bizarre to see my Facebook feed flooded with right-wing propaganda about him, people up in arms about him speaking out against the corruption of the Trump regime. They said that (Springsteen's) 'anti-American.' He's always stood for these things, and the people who were outraged by it have obviously never paid attention to the content of his lyrics."
Kerr calls his reimagining of songs "parodies," but they are not comedic in the way "Weird Al" Yankovic songs are. Take Hey There Luigi from the new album. It's based on Hey There Delilah, the 2005 love song by Plain White T's. Kerr's version explores Luigi Mangione and his alleged murder of health insurance CEO Brian Thompson. But the song is not flippant like so many memes about Mangione. Instead, it's about how the inhumanity of the American healthcare system and murder can be abhorrent at the same time. Kerr said he was reluctant to take on Hey There Delilah at first, but his manager's encouragement to record the song paid off.
"It immediately went viral," Kerr said. "I really put my heart into my rewrite, and I said what I wanted to say about that situation. It's a lament (about something that is) really a tragedy from all angles. The tragedy of the American healthcare system that exploits people suffering, illness, and death for profit, the tragedy of this businessman with kids who was shot in the street, and the tragedy of the guy who (allegedly) shot him, who's going to go to jail for the rest of his life, or will maybe be executed."
Kerr composes wholly original music most of the time. Half of Overdue for a Revolution is brand new, but his twists on classics have resonated with a larger audience lately. In 2023, he released the song God Rest Ye Merry Billionaires, a class-minded take on the Christmas carol God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen. This year, his song What's Up America? (based on What's Going On? by 4 Non Blondes) helped him gain 300,000 new American followers on social media. That's why he's crowdfunding to tour in the U.S. despite the increased visa costs and uptick in border scrutiny under the Trump administration.
"I want my music to be part of the movement for justice and democracy and community," Kerr said. "The live experience of sharing songs in a room together with a group of people that are united by the same rhythm, melody, words, and ideas is a very powerful thing, and can hopefully lead to a knock-on effect in the community. (Live music can) galvanize people to know that they're not alone and that they're part of something. They can help each other to build the kind of world that they want to live in."
Kerr will tour Canada and Europe ahead of the potential U.S. run, but none of his current dates are in the Edmonton region.
