The Storm Windows – “The Ghost of Phil Ochs”
Americana Highways is hosting this premiere of The Storm Windows’ song “The Ghost of Phil Ochs,” from their forthcoming album Blue Town, which will be released on April 12. The album was produced, recorded, mixed and engineered by The Storm Windows. It was mastered by Scott H @shorttonpro.
“The Ghost of Phil Ochs” is Rob Mathews on guitar and vocals; Don Mathews on upright bass and vocals; and Pier Luigi on piano and accordion. This song, as you may surmise by the title, is a tribute to the great folk singer Phil Ochs, and features snippets from Phil’s songs “There but for Fortune,” “The Power and Glory,” “When I’m Gone” and “Changes.” The Storm Windows perform in a direct, deeply felt, unembellished and honest style of folk musicianship that might be considered classic, or maybe it’s just timeless.
This video was created by Emanuel Poric. It captures 60s- looking scenes as the song speaks detailed lines about how to protect or regain our sense of national freedom, whether to speak out on issues, and how to restore us all to glory: we’re “only as free as a padlocked prison door… here’s to a land full of power and glory.”
Phil Ochs was one of the great topical singer-songwriters of the 1960s folk movement. The song is about him, but it’s also about the ghosts from an era when singers and poets and writers believed they could make a difference by singing or speaking out. To the extent that ever proved true or not can be debated – but it’s that belief that we need more of these days – that things can get better. And people should be singing about it.
We’ve always been huge admirers of Phil Ochs, both as a songwriter and performer. His songs vary from beautiful lyric poems like “Changes” to caustic (but usually witty) diatribes on all the big issues of his day. We picked excerpts from four of these for our song collage (identifiable as the parts where Don is singing harmony). Then in the song we revisit the streets of Greenwich Village where he used to play, and where we used to play (long after the days of Phil and the Gaslight) and try to remember what it felt like. – The Storm Windows
Enjoy the Blue Town EP here: https://ffm.to/bluetownep
Find our previous coverage here: Song Premiere: The Storm Windows A House Divided
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