Artist: Gary Nicholson
Album: The Great Divide
Label: Blue Corn Music
Release Date: 6.7.2019
Gary Nicholson loses no time jumping into the core of this album with “God Help America” (with guest vocals by Ruthie Foster), a plea for help for an America that is fragmented and needs more unity. He continues the theme as he urges the listener to realize we are an “Immigrant Nation,” that “We Are One” and we should “Choose Love.”
Nicholson wrote or co-wrote all the songs on the release, offering his thoughts in rhyme to help his fellow travelers understand that all of us are going through similar times, as he sings “the troubles are all the same” in “The Troubles.” He talks about a situation, possibly out of his childhood, in “Blues In Black And White,” where his young black friend can’t come with him and his family to a restaurant and his realization of the division that existed among the people of America began. A similar incident with a musician friend who can’t get a room in a hotel with him moves him to ask, “How long must we struggle on before we finally make it right?” He goes on to recall Martin Luther King’s speech and his hope for the future and then his murder, commenting that King left it up to those who were left behind to change the picture of “Blues in Black and White.”
Not all the album is dark. “Hallelujah Anyhow” is an up-tempo gospel tune that features the McCrary Sisters. “Choose Love” reminds us that love uplifts us, taking us above and beyond whatever is going on around us every day.
The Great Divide is very moving without preaching, and each song on the album could be the basis for a group discussion on many of the topics that are at the forefront in this country today.
˗Vernell Hackett
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