By Richard H. Levey
Democracy Forward and The Bitter Southerner have jointly released a fundraising doble album. The vinyl discs, which like the nonprofit organization is called Democracy Forward, is available from The Bitter Southerner (https://bsgeneralstore.com/products/democracy-forward-a-double-album) for $46. Proceeds will help fund Democracy Forward’s mission of using litigation, education, and advocacy to protect and advance civil rights and social progress.
The album kicks off with a spoken-word piece from Michael Stipe, the former front man of alt-rock band R.E.M. which, like The Bitter Southerner, has its roots in Athens, Georgia. Other featured music artists include Sierra Ferrell, Wilco, Tyler Childers, Brandi Carlile, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Allison Russell, Brittany Howard, Tunde Adebimpe, Kevin Morby and Waxahatchee, Fruit Bats, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, She Returns from War, S.G. Goodman, Langhorne Slim, Blue Mountain, Danielle Ponder, Jim James, Michael Stipe (again) and Big Red Machine.
The album marks the latest interaction between the Democracy Forward, which was founded in Washington D.C., shortly after the start of the first Trump Administration in 2017, and the 12-year-old The Bitter Southerner, a media company that works to create “an activated and vocal global community working to make the South, and America, a better place,” according to its website.
“The genesis of this album was people who were drawn to our work and to being in community with each other,” Perryman told The NonProfit Times. A shared love of music, she added, might serve as an antidote for those who increasingly believe “their voices don’t matter, that their work doesn’t matter, that they are isolated, and they are alone, and they are powerless. The number-one antidote to that is community.
“[People] felt as if the legal work they were seeing in the courtrooms was showing them there were people who had the courage to be in community with each other and build together and push back on attempts to undermine people’s rights, to undermine our common community and our common humanity,” Perryman added. “It was that realization and that work that led us to working with The Bitter Southerner to develop an album.”
The album is the first vinyl venture for The Bitter Southerner. “We’ve dreamed of starting a record label since the beginning,” Co-Founder and Editorial Director Kyle Tibbs Jones wrote to The NonProfit Times. “We are known for our music stories. We publish an annual end of the year ‘best of’ music list that’s quite popular, musicians are featured on most of our magazine covers,” she wrote.
“After working with Democracy Forward for almost two years, we wanted to do something big and bold to raise awareness for the heroic work they’re doing right now,” Tibbs Jones continued. “This double album — a protest album of sorts — felt like the perfect thing.”
At deadline there had been two, 2,500 pressings of the album. The first has sold out, and “we will sell out of this record very soon,” Tibbs Jones wrote. At $46 per record, total revenue for the double album could reach $230,000 — and that’s before sales of t-shirts and prints and soon-to-be-released hats which feature the album’s cover, although only the album listing on The Bitter Southerner’s store indicates “all proceeds [are] going to Democracy Forward.”
Those sales would be another boost for Democracy Forward’s fortunes. The Washington, D.C.-based organization’s revenue has grown steadily during the past few years, reaching more than $17.7 million during the 12 months ended June 30, 2024.
Non-vinyl aficionados will be able to enjoy the music as well. Plans call for the album to eventually be released on Spotify.
Admittedly, there’s a big jump between a physical vinyl album and streaming music. But the atavistic choice of initial medium was intentional.
“Vinyl in some ways, sends a message,” Perryman said. Use of a historical medium inspires reflection on history, and the potential for eventual betterment. “Whether it’s the history you look at in the South, whether it’s the history that you look at across our entire country, that history is something that we can take a lot of inspiration in now. It’s a history that has been cruel at times, that has been disappointing, that has not lived up, in many instances, to the values professed in our founding documents.
“But over the course of history, we have seen people in communities in this country be resilient, and we have seen people come through challenges and show a better way,” Perryman added.
Or, as Tibbs Jones wrote, “We are music nerds. Our audience loves vinyl.”
