Hi Harry and welcome to College Radio Charts! How has your 2025 been going so far?
Struggling mightily with the rapid onslaught of fascism. Other than that, ok 🙂
Your new release, Courage to Love, feels like a deeply personal album. What was the spark that set it in motion?
Love- both the requited and unrequited kind. So there are songs about being in love and it’s gloriously reciprocated- ‘Give Me Your Heart’, ‘Hey Showtime’, ‘Hey Hey Kendra Ann’, and ‘Wishful Thinking’, and a number where it’s not- ‘Callous and Mean’, ‘I Have No Expectations’, and ‘Because I Still Love You’. That last one has some lines that seem to resonate with folks: “I know I really should move on/ Been with other girls but it just seemed wrong/ So here I am all alone/ singing you this love song.”
Can you walk us through your creative process? Are you constantly writing music or do you go through cycles with each album?
Pretty constant. I’ll get a bunch of songs written and then kind of sort through them to see what fits on an album, and that’s what I record. Usually they are of a similar theme, like with this album Courage To Love the theme is how to find that courage to love when it’s reciprocated, and even more importantly, when it’s not. The hardest thing seems to be to love ourselves; corporate capitalism constantly tells us we’re not good enough, and if we’re told we’re not good enough, how can we be expected to love ourselves? And if we don’t love ourselves, how can we love anybody else? It takes courage- ‘the courage to face your dreams, the courage to live your dreams, the courage to love- courage to love yourself.”
Which typically comes first, lyrics or music?
Almost always the music. It’s rare that I sit down and try to write a song from scratch. Usually it’s when I’m super baked and playing guitar and I’ll come up with a riff or chord progression. Then I’ll get a phrase that goes with it and go from there. Like ‘Kimberly Kankowski’, the opening song on the album. I had the chorus in my head for what seemed like forever- “Kimberly Kankowski/ She’s a vegan she’s a freegan in the USA hey hey/ Kimberly Kankowski/ There ain’t no tempeh in Johnson City Tennessee”. It took awhile to come up with the verses.
Your sound blends folk, rock, and bluegrass, but your lyrics hit like punk anthems. Who were your biggest musical influences when shaping this album?
Wow, thank you for the compliment! I definitely have a punk ethos, where the vibe is the most important thing. When I was first starting out, I was a Bob Dylan jukebox. I learned a lot about songwriting and even more importantly, song structuring. Todd Snider, Billy Bragg, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Against Me! and the great Australian artist Kasey Chambers and her album Dragonfly are also big influences. But for the most part with this album, I can’t say there was a specific sound or production that inspired me. My sound is pretty unique, and once I have a song written I’m very clear about how I want it to sound in terms of instrumentation and production; I can hear it all in my head. It might take a minute to get that sound, but I don’t go in thinking I want this song to sound like a certain artist.
The title track, “Courage to Love,” suggests a certain emotional vulnerability. How do you balance raw honesty with your signature humor and satire?
On my previous two albums- The Gospel According to Blind Uncle Harry and Visualize Industrial Collapse– I mock the shit out of what at the time I would call conservative America, but now post 2024 presidential election I guess is just straight up America. I really wanted a song that was uplifting. Like most of my songs, I don’t really understand where that song came from but I’m very proud of it, and that so many people find it inspiring.
“Callous and Mean”—great title. What’s the story behind that track?
Semi-requited love, which is worse than unrequited love. I was sooooo in love with this girl Emma that I was sick, you know? She was the epitome of callous and mean, and I just couldn’t get enough. I’m convinced that Dylan wrote ‘Love Sick’ about her.
Your live shows are known for being raucous and interactive. How do you translate that raw energy into your recordings?
Nearly everyone who records with me has played with me live, so they get the vibe. I hear a lot of horror stories of artists being very demanding when recording, and I’m just the opposite. I’m always in the room with whoever is recording so I can kind of coach them- it’s like I’m a football coach pumping my arms up and down silently shouting Fuck yeah! Go! Go! Go!
Bloomington, Indiana isn’t exactly the first place people think of when they hear “hillbilly hippie shreddin’ folk rock.” What is the music scene like there in Bloomington? How has the town shaped your music?
Bloomington is fantastic. A progressive bubble in the crapfest that is the state of Indiana and the fascist shit show that is the USA. The music scene is exceptionally welcoming, and I’m always astounded that more Bloomington bands haven’t quote unquote made it big. I am so blessed to have connected with the best band that never made it big, the Wonderhills, who alas broke up a few years back. There are plenty of Bloomington bands that have made it big, like Durand Jones and the Indications, who I got to know playing house shows and who a few short years later are now about to embark on a world tour.
I am so lucky to work with one of the best audio engineers anywhere, Andy Beargie, who runs the legendary Echo Park Studio. The one the only Bloomington local John Mellencamp recorded there back in the day, as did a lot of other nationally recognized bands. Andy also happens to be a phenomenal drummer. He’s also responsible for taking the often semi crazy ideas I have for music videos and making them a reality. Bloomington also has one of the best music venues anywhere, the Bluebird. When I got to headline the Bluebird, and saw Blind Uncle Harry up on the bright lights of the marquee, I pretty much thought I could retire then and there cuz I could never top that.
You’ve been banned from an Indiana University venue for, let’s say, “colorful” lyrical choices. How do you feel about censorship in music today?
Well if they didn’t want me to mock the venue, they shouldn’t have asked me to play at a Starbucks in the Student Union Building. They didn’t like me calling it Starfucks, or suggesting everyone should get up and leave and go to Soma, which is locally owned, proudly anti corporate and the hq for Bloomington’s thriving anarchist activist community. And I got the crowd to sing “Burn down the Kelley School of Business” in place of “Burn Down the High School”. I’ve also had to deal with online trolls and physical threats at shows because I was making fun of Jesus or god forbid singing about how America was never great. But that’s nothing compared to what’s coming for all of us- free speech is the number one enemy of fascism, and we’re going to see a lot of artists roll over and conform. Which is when they stop being artists.
Courage to Love follows your previous album Visualize Industrial Collapse, which had a lot of political and existential weight. Do you see this new album as a continuation or a pivot?
I had the album all done and mastered, and viewed it as a slight pivot because it didn’t have any f bombs, and there was no mocking of Jeebus or the USA! USA! USA! It was an album that was themed around love and accessible to pretty much anyone. But then the nightmare of Nov 6 2024 happened, and I knew I couldn’t release the album as is. So I finished and recorded ‘Kimberly Kankowski’ and ‘I’ll Never Be White Like You’, which are very political and in your face, and they are two songs I am exceptionally proud of. I want the last line of ‘I’ll Never Be White Like You” chiseled onto my tombstone: “Capitalism and the Christian religion equals one big cataclysm/ I’ll always know that all this luxury exists because of such misery/ You say it’s the way of man and all part of god’s plan/ Well if your god is good I just wish you would/ Tell me why oh why oh why did he create you?… And remember kids: minimum wage should almost always mean minimum effort.”
You’ve received praise from indie critics, but mainstream recognition can be elusive for an artist as unfiltered as you. Does that ever frustrate you, or is staying on the fringes part of the mission?
Excellent! I’ve made it to the fringe?? Whoo hoo! Mainstream America just chose fascism and the absolute worst human being alive as president. If that’s mainstream, count me out.
You’ve been compared to Todd Snider, Billy Bragg, and Bob Dylan—artists who mix folk storytelling with activism. Do you see your music as protest music, or is it something else?
I was an activist long before I was a musician/ singer songwriter, so I think my music is a natural extension of that. It’s such an honor to be compared to those three, especially since they are artists that have never compromised their art.
If your great Uncle Harry—who inspired your stage name—could hear Courage to Love, what do you think he’d say?
I think he would love it! He was of course blind and lived with my grandma in Peru Indiana, and I’ll never forget pulling into her driveway as a little kid and the first thing you’d hear getting out of the car was him playing the violin. It sounded like magic, other worldly. He was a dedicated socialist, which was sort of tolerated by the rest of the family who most decidedly were not, and he loved to talk about how he met the great Eugene Debs and how he stuffed thousands of envelopes for Debs’s presidential campaign. Debs lived and worked just a few hours away in Terre Haute, also in Indiana.
He had a copy of the Industrial Workers of the World’s (aka the Wobblies) Little Red Songbook in braille; I’ll never forget reading the words “songs to fan the flames of discontent” on the front cover. His favorite song, and one that I fully intend to cover, was ‘Dump the Bosses Off Your Back’- “Are you poor forlorn and hungry/ Are there lots of things you lack/ Is your life made up of misery/ Then dump the bosses off your back.” The only reason I remember it is because he sang really badly off key, which was hilarious, and he’d cackle after each time the chorus came around. He’d laugh and slap his thigh and soon he’d be back in his room and playing his violin. He was the first atheist I ever knew and he’d snort and chuckle when my grandma launched into one of her 20 plus minute prayers before Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. The last Christmas I can remember him being alive, he was upstairs in his room and my grandma was like, ok, let us pray before Harry comes down and ruins it. He was and still is my hero.
“Shambala Warrior” feels like a departure into something almost spiritual. What inspired this standout track?
Oh, wow, thank you! I’m glad you liked it. Yeah, that’s a special song. There’s a Tibetan Buddhist prophecy that when the world is in danger of destruction, there will emerge Shambhala Warriors, who will bring healing and positive change through compassion and insight. It’s part of the Bodhisattva tradition- individuals who have achieved enlightenment but choose to be reborn to help others achieve it. I’ve met a few people who I truly believe are Bodhisattvas, and I was lucky enough to know one of them and I wrote this song for her.
Thank you so much for spending some time with us today, Harry. Where can people go to find out more about you and your music?
Thanks so much for having me! I really appreciate it.
https://blinduncleharry.com/
https://blinduncleharry.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BlindUncleHarry/
