by Kerry Dougherty
Move over, Jason Aldean, there’s a new country singer on the move.
Meet Oliver Anthony of Farmville, Va., a former factory worker whose plaintive, working-class anthem, “Rich Men North Of Richmond,” went viral in just two days, catapulting this unknown country Virginia singer from obscurity into a viral sensation. It went to #1 on the iTunes chart last week, moving faster than Aldean’s, “Try That In A Small Town.”
I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day
Overtime hours for bullshit pay
So I can sit out here and waste my life away
Drag back home and drown my troubles away
It’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is
Livin’ in the new world
With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond, Lord knows they all
Just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And they don’t think you know, but I know that you do
‘Cause your dollar ain’t shit and it’s taxed to no end
‘Cause of rich men north of Richmond
I suspect that prior to the release of the song last Monday, it would have been easy to get an interview with Mr. Anthony if you could find him.
Now? We’ll see.
On Sunday afternoon, just as the bearded singer — who Tweets as @AintGottaDollar — was taking the stage for a free concert at the Morris Farm Market in Currituck, I was emailing Anthony, begging him to come on the “Kerry and Mike Show” this week.
@AintGottaDollar performs “Rich Men North of Richmond” at Morris Farm Market in North Carolina.
He stated prior to singing that he played this same venue for 20 people back in June. Now, he plays for thousands. pic.twitter.com/VhllaqD5XN
— Wid Lyman (@Wid_Lyman) August 13, 2023
Will he come? Fingers crossed. We may not be Jesse Watters or Clay and Buck or Matt Walsh, but dammit we’re Virginia broadcasters. Hope he gets our message.
During his one week of fame, the resonator guitar-playing singer has been the subject of news stories everywhere from Billboard, Fox News, The Daily Mail and New York Post to Rolling Stone, which sneered — of course they did — “Right-Wing Influencers Just Found Their Favorite New Country Song.”
I’m not sure just how right-wing this song really is. Sounds to me as if the singer views all of Washington’s power brokers as cut from the same imperial cloth. That’s the beauty of it.
Information about Anthony is sparse. He lives in Farmville with his three dogs. He recorded a YouTube video explaining himself and in it Anthony said he “wasted a lot of nights getting high and getting drunk.” He sobered up and began seriously songwriting in 2021.
He opened his performance in Currituck yesterday by pulling out his Bible and reading part of Psalm 37. That’s sure to send lefties into orbit.
If that doesn’t do it, the second verse of his now-famous song will:
I wish politicians would look out for miners
And not just minors on an island somewhere
Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothin’ to eat
And the obese milkin’ welfare
Well, God, if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds
Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds
Young men are puttin’ themselves six feet in the ground
‘Cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin’ them down
Lord, it’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is
Livin’ in the new world
With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And they don’t think you know, but I know that you do
‘Cause your dollar ain’t shit and it’s taxed to no end
‘Cause of rich men north of Richmond.
Oliver Anthony clearly struck a chord with his raw song about the hopeless plight of the working man in America. Lots of ordinary people are loving it. Question is, are the rich men north of Richmond listening?
Republished with permission from Kerry: Unemployed and Unedited.
