Good song. Listen at the link.

ROCK 'N' ROLL HALL OF FAMER ISSUES 'WAKE-UP CALL'

New song calls for hope amid 'polarization,' 'desperation'

Published: 2 days ago
BOB UNRUH


Buffalo Springfield included Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, Dewey Martin and Richie Furay
“There’s somethin’ happenin’ here.”

That’s the opening line to the 1967 monster hit from the legendary rock band Buffalo Springfield, titled “For What It’s Worth.”
Today, Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer Richie Furay, a veteran of Buffalo Springfield, Poco and other successful bands, has released a new song he describes as a “wake-up call” to America.

In “Don’t Tread on Me,” he urges hope amid the “polarization” and “desperation” he sees engulfing the United States.
In an interview with WND, Furay, who has been a pastor for three decades at Calvary Chapel in Broomfield, Colorado, said he sees the “polarization of the right and left, just tearing us apart.”

He said the lyrics just started to “come to mind,” and he realized he was trying to tell the story of the “sadness, disappointment, anger, that so many feel over the progressive ideology in this great nation.”

The lyrics are unabashedly patriotic.

Richie Furay

“I just can’t understand how we lost our way,” he sings, but he’s not “ashamed to say, born in the U.S.A.”

The chorus: “We’re the home of the brave, we’re the land of the free. We’ve got a heart of gold. Don’t tread on me.

“With our head held high, for the world to see, we’re the home of the brave, don’t tread on me.”

Furay told WND his message is “love this country.”

“Some people have really given up. I want to believe there is hope.”

He continued: “We are a great nation. … We really need to honor and be respectful of hope in our country.”

Furay’s biggest hits as a songwriter were “Kind Woman,” “Pickin’ Up the Pieces” and “A Good Feelin’ to Know.”

After his successful career with Buffalo Springfield and Poco, he produced Christian albums. But his new song is not intended to proselytize.

“I see so many people. They just seem to be hopeless,” he said. “Being a Christian and being a pastor, the ultimate hope is in Jesus.”

The song, he said, is part of a trilogy, along with “Wind of Change” and “Someday,” that soon will be out on a new album, “Hand In Hand.”

He said the song initially appeared on YouTube, receiving a wide range of responses, from “You’re not one of those tea-party guys” to “Right on, Richie.”

Check out Furay’s website to see his albums, concert dates and more.

He said the varied responses encourage him, since that’s what America is about: not necessarily agreeing all the time but being respectful of another’s opinion.

Hear “Don’t Tread on Me”:
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Furay told WND he’s been blessed to have a career doing exactly what he loves.

He writes on his website that it seems like only yesterday he left Yellow Springs, Ohio, to become a folksinger in New York.
That was 1964.

“When I arrived in NYC, I met Stephen Stills, and together we would become a part of a folk group in Greenwich Village called the Au Go Go Singers, named after a famous folk club in the city. The Au Go Go Singers recorded one album together before breaking up and going their separate ways,” he explains on his site.

He later moved West, creating Buffalo Springfield with Stills, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin.

Buffalo Springfield, whose early protest anthem, “For What It’s Worth,” with its famous opening line, “There’s somethin’ happenin’ here,” broke up in the 1960s, but its members went on to form other highly influential and popular bands. Stills went on to form Crosby, Stills & Nash with David Crosby of The Byrds and Graham Nash of The Hollies in 1968. Young launched a solo career, but in 1969 also reunited with Stills in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Furay and Jim Messina were founding members of Poco. Furay later joined J.D. Souther and Chris Hillman to form the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, and Messina teamed with Kenny Loggins in Loggins & Messina.

Furay now performs with family and friends at well-known secular venues as well as churches across the country.

Even though he had seen albums go gold, he became a full-time pastor in 1982. But the music hasn’t stopped.

“Truthfully, I thought my music days were behind me although the church worship leader, Scott Sellen, and I began performing as a duo and writing songs together,” he writes.

“In 1996 this turned into an opportunity to record a CD of worship songs – ‘In My Father’s House’ – for the Calvary Chapel label at that time. This opened the doors for live performances, most of which were church-oriented until a friend of mine, Kenny Weisberg, encouraged us to perform at a venue he promoted in southern California. I accepted the invitation and it became an annual event for us until just a couple of years ago.”

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame inducted Furay in 1997.


Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/09/rock-and-...fm7MAiLzrYM.99