“I’m fortunate that I have a job that allows me to travel around our country and to meet people from all walks of life. Through those journeys, I have heard stories big and small, hopeful and heartbreaking, funny and frightening. The people behind these stories represent all corners of our country – Manhattan power-players, line workers from Detroit, farmers in Kentucky and teachers from Virginia. Though their backgrounds are diverse, there is a universal theme: we all have a desire to see our communities come together and prosper. Hate, divisiveness and discrimination is the outlier and should not be the norm. I’m not a political man, but I know everyone, in their own way, shares a common life objective to provide a safe place for themselves and their families, and to have pride in our homes.
“‘Fortunate Son’ was written in a time of unrest in our country. John Fogerty’s observation on the landscape of his country gave voice to a class needing to be heard. A protest for their beliefs. As I recorded this song almost 50 years later, I would be remiss to not find similarities in our times. My protest does not lay on party lines but on a desire to see…again an age of decency, compromise and compassion. We deserve that.
“So here I am, just a songwriter with a guitar and stories filled with hope gathered from around our beautiful country. That’s it. So, no matter what is going on in our world today, I know ‘it ain’t me’ and it ain’t us.”
– Ryan Kinder
