They'll Never Keep Us Down

While quarantining during the COVID-19 pandemic, country singer-songwriter Kelsey Waldon decided to record a covers EP that reflected the social issues and difficulties that marked 2020. The EP, which follows her acclaimed 2019 release *White Noise / White Lines*, features songs by legendary artists like Nina Simone and Kris Kristofferson, with guest contributions from fellow Nashville-based artists Adia Victoria, Kyshona Armstrong, and Devon Gilfillian. Perhaps most striking is Waldon\'s take on \"Sam Stone\" by the late John Prine, who signed Waldon to his Oh Boy record label and served as her mentor up until his passing from COVID-19 in April of 2020. \"I think right now a lot of us are thinking, \'How can we help? How can we use our voices?\'\" she tells Apple Music. \"I know, for me personally, I just felt like I had to kind of use my tools. And maybe try to do something in a more meaningful way than just, I don\'t know, taking my energy out on everybody on the internet. You know?\" Below, Waldon shares why she chose the tracks that make up *They\'ll Never Keep Us Down*. **The Law Is for Protection of the People** \"It felt only right, I think, to include something by Kris Kristofferson. Kris is one of my heroes, and he\'s always been a huge advocate for human rights. I think I\'ve been frustrated a little bit with how country music now has been maybe turned into this thing that\'s so far away from the common man\'s music. You know, the common man and woman\'s music and all the country music that I have known and loved has, in my mind, always been about a voice for the downtrodden and the people\'s music. And I think that\'s what this song is.\" **Ohio** \"I mean, everybody knows that song. You hear doctors that have their cover band on the weekends, they play that song. It still feels so relevant, because this year, when you see things like the \[National\] Guard coming in and tear-gassing moms in Portland, Oregon, it\'s just like, \'Wow!\' It\'s hard to see who really is there for our protection. So I do think it\'s still very relevant. So we decided to do it, and we had to do it.\" **Mississippi Goddam** \"That song clearly speaks for itself. I almost wouldn\'t have even wanted to do that, had we not presented it in the right way. I don\'t know that experience. I\'m really just there on the sidelines, introducing this song to my listeners that have maybe never heard it. But I think that song is just as relevant today. I\'ve kind of had some hate, on both sides, for doing that song, but a whole lot of love though, too. I can\'t really control people\'s perceptions of it. I know that I know what my intentions were and I think Black women\'s voices and their perspectives deserve to be heard. It was my intention to include Adia Victoria and Kyshona Armstrong on the song as well. Hopefully, this is a way for my listeners to also find other people\'s music, to find Kyshona and Adia\'s music. And I think that if I\'ve done that, then I\'ve succeeded already.\" **Sam Stone** \"I wanted to definitely do a song by John, and I was in between \'Your Flag Decal Won\'t Get You Into Heaven Anymore\' and \'Sam Stone,\' but I felt like we kind of already covered the satire part of it with Kris. \'Sam Stone,\' that song was one of the first John Prine songs I\'d ever heard. It means a lot to me, obviously from what has happened this year. But it also, I think, goes along with the theme of the record, and some people may not be able to see that outright. But I think the telling kind of the true cost of war for some people is obviously relevant. And obviously, in the studio, it was very, very healing for me, I think, to do \'Sam Stone\'—I\'m actually crying on the third verse. There hasn\'t been a lot of closure, I think, for me, from John\'s death. And I know I\'m not the only one. We didn\'t really get to have a funeral. It just felt like we didn\'t really get to tell him goodbye. So it was very healing for me to do it.\" **They\'ll Never Keep Us Down** \"That was one of those songs that we just were like, \'We\'re going to do this exactly the way \[Hazel Dickens\] did.\' I was like, \'This has to be the way God intended it to be, just straight-up mountain music and grass.\' And in the spirit of Hazel, who is a huge influence on me. I feel like when Hazel came on the scene, there just wasn\'t really that kind of standard for relevant, actual songwriting in bluegrass. And numerous people will say that her life and her story are just so inspiring. And she has really been also a voice for women in activism. In the coal mines and just really for workers\' rights, she really did a lot. I mean, she was a huge factor and a figure in the union strikes for the labor unions, especially in West Virginia and all throughout Appalachia. So it only seemed appropriate.\" **With God on Our Side** \"There\'s obviously so many \[Bob Dylan\] songs I could have chosen, and some that we even were going to, and I was just like, \'No, too many people have done that.\' And I actually thought \'With God on Our Side\' was a little too obvious. I just feel like it kind of covers a lot of ground and also obviously speaks on the idea \[that\] everybody has their reasonings, but everybody kind of feels like God\'s on their side. It\'s like, \'Well, does that make one side better than the other? When one side is still doing just as evil things?\'\" **I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free** \"I felt like we had to have one song that was still dark but also something more joyful, like \'We Shall Overcome,\' that still speaks on struggle. I think that sums it all up. All walks of life, all sexual orientations, social classes, races and colors, religions, we all just want to be free. We changed a lyric in there because it says that every man should be free. We changed it to \'everyone,\' because obviously women\'s rights are important as well. It was really important for me to have my friend Devon Gilfillian on there—he\'s just one of the most positive people you\'ll ever meet. His soul is as golden as it gets. He really made that song special.\"

“They’ll Never Keep Us Down” is a small album of cover songs, each carefully chosen and made to come out in my own voice. Each of these songs had a huge impact on me coming up as a young person, they were able to allow me to see another’s point of view, or attempt to understand a larger issue at hand. They were able to allow me to emphatically understand the struggle from many different viewpoints and walks of life. These songs examine the issues and struggles of the American people. They examine the issues and push for progress." -Kelsey Waldon