Artist: The Day the Earth Stood Still
Album: The Day the Earth Stood Still
Label: River House Records
Release Date: 8.10.21
Willie Nile The Day the Earth Stood Still
Willie Nile. Singer. Songwriter. Political commentator. Rock ‘n’ roll troubadour. His latest release, The Day the Earth Stood Still, is titled after the classic 1951 film where beings from another planet upset the natural order of things. Nile has expanded that theme to compare the effects of another alien force, Covid, and how it kept the entire planet in a state of limbo for more than a year and a half. Even the album artwork captures a state of being none of us could have imagined, yet one we have now experienced.
During that time of isolation, parts of life did anything but stand still. He finds “Sanctuary” in the idea of another person who “gives it for free.” How many times have we felt the punked-up thoughts of “Off My Medication”? With another troubadour, Steve Earle, he exposes lies and “bodies piling up on Good Luck Street” in the revealing “Blood on Your Hands.”
Throughout, Nile uses his masterful way with words to epitomize the world in its greatness and its fallacies. Sometimes he tells us to “Expect Change” because, no matter what, it’s coming. “Can you feel the wild wind blow?” He finds the goodness of humanity during chaotic and strange times, emphasizing in “I Will Stand” that you can “come to me and I will dry your tear.”
Above all, the beauty and heartwrenching “The Justice Bell (For John Lewis)” summarizes the positivity gained from the experiences and events of a year gone mad. In the end, “the justice bell will not be stilled / hear it ring … hear it in the voiceless ones as they rise up and sing.” “Let freedom bloom across the land…” No matter what, during a time of lockdown, disease, death, and tragedy, there is always hope—this is why Willie Nile will always remain relevant.
—Gene Knapp
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