Songs For Presidents Concert Saturday

Celebrating the 43 Presidents compilation as well as serving as a benefit for Bands for Lands.

By Fred Mills

This weekend in Washington, DC, a very special celebration is taking place. No, not another inaugural party... those are so, like, next week. (Anybody else experience pre-inauguration burnout?) On Saturday, Jan. 17, at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue there will be a Bands for Lands bash, and sure, while it's billed as "celebrating the Presidential inauguration," it's also an opportunity to celebrate the wonderful Of Great and Mortal Men: 43 Songs for 43 U.S. Presidencies, the three-CD set that was released earlier this year containing, you guessed it, 43 separate songs each focusing on a single U.S. President and featuring performances by Alan Sparhawk (Low), Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters/Sun Kil Moon), Califone, Xiu Xiu, Bill Callahan, Radar Bros., Rosie Thomas, Denison Witmer, Tom Brosseau, Marla Hansen, Wooden Wand and others.

It was put together by J. Matthew Gerkin, Jefferson Pitcher and BLURT contributor Christian Kiefer, and you can read our review of it HERE, or find out more about it at the official website, www.43presidencies.com.

Incidentally, Kiefer promises BLURT that the 44^th presidential song - about guess who? - will be unveiled this week.

So the titanic trio of Gerkin, Pitcher and Kiefer have dressed the dang thing up for the stage, and they've lined up quite a roster of talent to perform songs from the collection. In addition to those three musicians, among those that have been announced are Nellie McKay, Jukebox the Ghost, These United States, Laura Burhenn, Tim Fite, Joe Pug, Denison Witmer, Silver Darling and Hiss Golden Messenger. By the time of the show there should be even more scheduled to take the stage.

These United States will also be doing a special opening set. Hey - you're going to Washington next week anyway, right? Might as well show up a few days early. Feel free to crash at the BLURT penthouse suite. We're just down the road in Silver Spring, after all...

Meanwhile, check out the amazing video for "Washington Dreams of the Hippopotamus"; it brings new meaning to the concept of a "puppet government"...

ARTIST: J. Matthew Gerken, Christian Kiefer, and Jefferson Pitcher
ALBUM: Of Great and Mortal Men: 43 Songs for 43 U.S. Presidencies
SONG: "Washington Dreams of the Hippopotamus"
DIRECTOR: Erik Werner