By Neenah Payne
COVID Unmasked Part 3: The Big Picture reports that while “non-essential” businesses were shut down during the COVID lockdown, big-box stores, liquor stores, and strip joints were allowed to stay open. There was a massive transfer of wealth to billionaires while Americans whom the government deemed “non-essential” workers lost $3.7 trillion in missed earnings in 2020.
The wealth of the rich grew by $5 trillion with one new billionaire created every 17 hours throughout 2020. School closures, cancellation of graduations, proms, weddings, limited holiday gatherings, and restrictions on outdoor activities, vacations, and funerals were accompanied by an increase in child abuse and suicides. Excess Mortality Just Got Worse: Alarming New Data! shows that the COVID shot mandates are resulting in unprecedented injuries and deaths. Yet, the government and corporate media are ignoring that growing crisis and no one is being held accountable. In fact, more shots are being mandated for this fall.
Oliver Anthony’s song “Rich Men North of Richmond” made its debut on August 8. The song, posted to Anthony’s X profile (formerly known as Twitter) on August 10 became an immediate hit among conservatives and has attracted nearly 30,000 reposts and 140,000 likes. Over 9.2 million people watched the song over the weekend and by August 17, It had gotten over 18 million views on YouTube! Before August 8, few people had heard of Oliver Anthony and now he has the #1 song in America, top of the charts in the country, which is also listened to around the world!
Rich Men North of Richmond has been uploaded to all major streaming platforms and will show up there in a few days.
Im still in a state of shock at the outpouring of love I've seen in the comments, messages and emails. I'm working to respond to everyone as quickly as possible. pic.twitter.com/iScaYp9AWQ
— Oliver Anthony (@AintGottaDollar) August 11, 2023
The song has taken the internet by storm! Over a single weekend, Anthony transformed from an artist in the shadows to a country sensation. The Conservative movement may have adopted him. His song – much to his amusement – was discussed at the Republican debate. How did he get so famous overnight? His song appears to be a rallying cry for all Americans feeling increasingly left behind now. Anthony said “I sit pretty dead-center down the aisle on politics and always have.”
Anthony lives in Farmville, Virginia on 92 acres. Like US Founding Fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, he is calling America back to their vision of the nation. He represents the grassroots and founding principles of the American Dream. Patrick Henry was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and the first governor of Virginia. In Richmond, VA, Henry gave his famous speech with the immortal words “Give me liberty, or give me death!” George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and five of the six other Virginians who would later sign the Declaration of Independence.
In Controversial ‘Rich Men North Of Richmond’—Oliver Anthony’s Hit Song Championed By The Right—Explained, Forbes reported on 8/15/23:
Anthony is a singer-songwriter who lives in Farmville, Virginia, where he works as a farmer. He started writing his own music in 2021, he stated in an introductory video posted on his YouTube channel last week, as an outlet for difficult times he experienced, including spending “a lot of nights getting high and getting drunk.”
He credited his experience working 12-hour shifts in a North Carolina factory and his belief people are overtaxed and cannot get ahead financially despite working hard as inspiration for “Rich Men North of Richmond.” Anthony first posted a performance of “Rich Men North of Richmond” on his YouTube channel on August 1, where he has been posting covers and original songs since 2020….
Notable right-wing champions of the song include Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who praised it as an “anthem of the forgotten Americans who truly support this nation,” along with former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and pundit Benny Johnson….
Conservative pundit Ben Shapiro praised the song, calling it “the cry of a lot of people in the United States” who feel “there are too many people who have their hand in their pocket, particularly elites in the federal government.” Right-wing pundit Jack Posobiec helped the song go viral—he garnered 5 million views after posting a video of Anthony’s performance on X—and praised its anti-establishment message. Country singer John Rich praised Anthony’s song and urged his fans to “pray for this man to survive his fame and hold the independent position he’s been given…
Though the song has largely been championed by the right wing, Anthony stated in a YouTube video he is politically “dead center” and disagrees with both conservatives and liberals on issues.
The article ends with the lyrics of the song.
How an obscure country artist’s viral song became a conservative anthem 8/14/23
Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” shot to the top of the U.S. Apple Music and iTunes Country charts and racked up more than 9 million views in five days. Conservatives and far-right pundits are rallying around a new country song from a relatively unknown artist that went viral online after appearing on YouTube last week.
Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” shot to the top of the U.S. Apple Music and iTunes Country charts and racked up more than 9 million views in five days, launching the indie singer — a previously off-the-grid farmer from a small town in Virginia — into the public eye almost overnight. The song’s lyrics, a soulful expression of working-class frustrations while tearing into wealthy Washington elites, have made it an anti-establishment anthem, especially among blue-collar workers.
On Sunday, Anthony’s first public concert since the song went viral appeared to draw in large crowds in North Carolina, according to several social media posts documenting the show. Anthony estimated on his social media that fans “filled 25 acres with cars for the first-ever gig!” Anthony did not respond to a request for comment.
In the original YouTube video, Anthony is seen giving a passionate acoustic performance of the song — his first professionally recorded track — while standing outdoors before a wooded background. “I’ve been sellin’ my soul workin’ all day, overtime hours for bulls— pay, so I can sit out here and waste my life away, drag back home and drown my troubles away,” he sings. “It’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to for people like me and people like you.”
Other verses touch on taxes, social welfare systems and suicide rates. One line also appears to allude to Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex trafficking activities. In an introduction video uploaded to his YouTube channel a day before the song’s release, Anthony said that his political views tend to be “pretty dead center” and that both sides “serve the same master.” “People are just sick and tired of being sick and tired,” he said. “So yeah, I want to be a voice for those people.”…
Some commenters leaned into what they described as the “pro-American” sentiment of Anthony’s song, while others wrote that they feel the song is relatable to anyone familiar with working-class struggles. “And just like that you became the voice of 40 or 50 million working men,” read one comment that received 11,000 likes. “You’ve captured the anger, the angst, and the disbelief of every hard-working, law-abiding, patriotic American who can’t believe what our country has become,” wrote another YouTube commenter. “Thank you, Oliver Anthony, for this anthem.”
Commentator Matt Walsh, who also promoted the song on X, uploaded a YouTube reaction video calling it “the protest song of our generation.” YouTube commentator Benny Johnson and former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake also touted their support of Anthony. Peeking through the thunderous enthusiasm from conservatives, however, are the voices criticizing his messaging, particularly Anthony’s lyric, “Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothin’ to eat, and the obese milkin’ welfare.”…
It’s no surprise, then, that the song has been an enormous hit among the loudest rightwingers: Kari Lake, former candidate for Arizona governor, calls it “the anthem of this moment in American history”. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene calls it “the anthem of the forgotten Americans who truly support this nation and unfortunately the world”. The far-right activist Jack Posobiec can’t “even remember the last time a new song hit me like this”.
The rightwing commentator Matt Walsh, meanwhile, claims the “song is raw and authentic … Everything around us is fake. A guy in the woods pouring his heart over his guitar is real.” Wait till Walsh hears about Bon Iver in 2007, or Ed Sheeran busking in a train station, or pretty much anyone at a New York open mic on a Wednesday night.
Still, these politicians and provocateurs have helped Anthony rise from obscure singer-songwriter to darling of the right in record time – sparking questions over how authentically viral his rise has been.
On Twitter, Jason Howerton, who advertises himself on LinkedIn as having “helped grow media companies and political influencers grow their social media footprint exponentially”, has been a major proponent of Anthony’s work, sharing the musician’s life story in a thread, offering to finance an album – which the rightwing country singer John Rich apparently agreed to produce – and announcing the musician had just joined Twitter. It does feel remarkable that Anthony decided to share his life story on YouTube a day before releasing a video that went viral.
But Howerton denies any claims of astroturfing – in which powerful figures orchestrate supposed grassroots campaigns – and, as Chris Willman writes in Variety, there’s no clear evidence of it. And whether or not it was promoted by outside forces, the song has clearly struck a genuine chord with listeners. There are many unknown performers who can work wonders with just a guitar, and who are equally deserving of a platform, but there is no denying Anthony’s voice packs a punch.
Music has always been the soul of the American working class, a way to express pain, sorrow, joy, and the struggles of daily life in a way that can capture peoples’ minds far better than any conversation or newspaper article. They don’t always hit, but sometimes a song comes along that can really capture the collective pain of a specific moment.
This is what’s happened with the new hit song “Rich Men North of Richmond” by previously unknown musician Oliver Anthony. It shot to the top of chart after chart, and with no effort at all, surpassing the country fakes who sing about loving cops in small towns then go back to their mansions every night.
Both the Left and Right are left shaking their heads in confusion. What the Left can’t seem to understand is why the song hit home for millions of forgotten men and women all over the country, who understand it because it’s about our lives, about a ruling class that has made us dependent on it and then left us to wither in the sun like an old weed, a ruling class that has shuttered the factories we worked in and increased prices to the point where we’re all in debt and can no longer even afford decent food to eat that isn’t full of chemicals.
It’s hard to get folks on the Left to recognize this anger, pain, and trauma; too often, the response is to dismiss it as racism or bigotry, and indeed, there has been no shortage of commentary condemning Anthony for his “dog whistle”—especially his criticism of food stamps.
See Newsweek for the rest of the article.
Oliver Anthony: Rich Men North of Richmond
Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond
When I first came across Oliver Anthony and his music, I was blown away to say the least. He had a whole collection of songs that I could listen to for hours. Oliver resides in Farmville, VA with his 3 dogs and a plot of land he plans on turning into a small farm to raise livestock.
We have a whole mess of songs set to release of Oliver for your viewing and listening pleasure, he is truly special and notes his biggest influence as Hank Williams Jr. Oliver wants to give hope to the working class and your average hard working young man who may have lost hope in the grind of trying to get by.
Here Are the Lyrics to Oliver Anthony Music’s ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ 8/29/23
Oliver Anthony Music’s breakout viral hit “Rich Men North of Richmond” unexpectedly debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart.
Among other chart achievements for the singer-songwriter, he’s the first artist ever to launch atop the list with no prior chart history in any form. His success story began when a now-viral video of Anthony, posted by radiowv, began circulating around the Internet, showing the singer offering an acoustic performance of “Rich Men North of Richmond,” vocalizing the pain and angst of the working class at the hands of greedy rich men. The song takes on high taxes, abuse of welfare and selfish politicians.
If you need a guide to follow along with Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond,” find the lyrics below.
‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ singer cancels show because tickets were too expensive 9/14/23
Oliver Anthony, the singer who went viral for his hit country song “Rich Men North of Richmond” canceled a performance in Knoxville after learning the price of his tickets were going for over $90. Anthony was scheduled to play at the Cotton Eyed Joe, a bar in west Knoxville, on Sep. 27.
General admission tickets for the show went for $99 and a meet-and-greet was available for $200. “Please don’t pay $90 for a ticket,” Anthony told fans on Facebook. “I told [the bar] I don’t want to do anything that’s more than $40 a ticket, ideally no more than $25 apiece. These are supposed to be affordable shows.”
In a now-deleted Facebook post, the bar claimed they set the prices higher to “break even and bring our customers a show we thought would be fun.” The bar also claimed they agreed to pay Anthony $120,000 for a 60-minute show. “I wanted to clarify. The most I’ve ever made on a show is $35,000. We’ve done two shows in NC that were completely free, and have another free show scheduled September 23rd in Kentucky for a cancer benefit.”
Despite the confusion, Anthony took responsibility for the blunder. “All the fault ultimately is with me,” he said. “I should have been more thoroughly involved in the booking, and I should probably consider using a professional consultant in this area. There’s no reason why tickets should have went up for sale before a contract was signed.”
Fortunately for fans caught in the stir, Anthony said he found several other venues in the Knoxville area that can accommodate more people, and of course, keep admission at $25. “We will still be having a good time in Knoxville soon.”
Ingraham: CNN is seething over Oliver Anthony’s success 8/23/23
Fox News host Laura Ingraham argues the left is ‘livid’ because its ‘cultural monopoly’ is over.
NY Times: Singer of ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Says It’s Not a Republican Anthem 8/25/23
“Oliver Anthony’s song “Rich Men North of Richmond” was played during this week’s Republican presidential debate, sparking controversy about the song’s lyrics.
The singer Oliver Anthony, whose song “Rich Men North of Richmond” has soared to the top of the Billboard singles chart, released a YouTube video on Friday denouncing Republicans and conservative outlets for co-opting his song. “It was funny seeing that presidential debate,” Anthony said. “I wrote that song about those people.”
A clip of Anthony performing was played by Fox News moderators at the start of the Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night in Milwaukee, after a series of videos of Americans lamenting conditions under President Biden, including inflation and homelessness. The clip showed Anthony — with guitar in hand and two dogs at his feet — singing: “These rich men north of Richmond / Lord knows they all just wanna have total control.”
The song, which Anthony uploaded to YouTube earlier this month, had caught fire with conservative figures like Matt Walsh and Laura Ingraham, who described it as an authentic expression of working-class American life. Widely perceived as a conservative anthem, it also drew critiques from some on the left, who called the lyrics racist.”
See the New York Times for the rest of the article.
It’s a pleasure to meet you – part 2 8/25/23
Oliver Anthony Speaks Out After Turning Down $8 Million Music Industry Offer 8/17/23
Country music viral sensation Oliver Anthony, singer of “Rich Men North of Richmond” has now spoke out publicly regarding his eight-million-dollar record label offer. Oliver Anthony made it very where he stands when it comes to being bought. Oliver Anthony means every word he sings in “Rich Men North of Richmond.”
Three months ago, few people had heard of Oliver Anthony and now he has the #1 song in America. Over a single weekend, Anthony transformed from an artist in the shadows to a country sensation. His song has taken the internet by storm! It made its debut on August 8 and by August 17, It had gotten over 18 million views on YouTube. Over 9.2 million people watched the song over the first weekend.
How did Anthony get so famous overnight? Forbes said in: Controversial ‘Rich Men North Of Richmond’—Oliver Anthony’s Hit Song Championed By The Right—Explained
Notable right-wing champions of the song include Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who praised it as an “anthem of the forgotten Americans who truly support this nation,” along with former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and pundit Benny Johnson.
Country singing star John Rich helped bring the song to the limelight as did Matt Walsh. Kari Lake, the Republican who ran for governor of Arizona, said the song is “the anthem of this moment in American history.” Joe Rogan interviewed Anthony for 2.5 hours on August 30: Joe Rogan Experience #2027 – Oliver Anthony. Rogan also invited Anthony to perform at his comedy club. Joe Rogan hosts ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ star Oliver Anthony at his comedy club for surprise performance 8/30/23.
Top image: Variety/YouTube
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