photo credit: Ryan Pettibone

***

The Reverend Shawn Amos & The Brotherhood are releasing a new single today in honor of Martin Luther King Day weekend. The group explains that “Weight of the World” is “a song about strong Black women—the ones we know, the ones unknown, the ones taken from us, and the ones forgotten like Ida B. Wells.”  Wells was a tireless advocate for civil rights in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. She founded organizations such as the National Association of Colored Women and also helped raise awareness of lynching through publications such as The Red Record. Wells passed away in 1931 but in 2020 received a Pulitzer Prize special citation acknowledging “her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynching.”

The Reverend Shawn Amos is the host of a new podcast series The Cause of It All, which welcomes musicians to explore issues surrounding race, legacy and the blues.  Season one features conversations with Alex Dixon (grandson of Willie Dixon), Zakiya Hooker (daughter of John Lee Hooker), Vaneese Thomas (daughter of Rufus Thomas), and John Hammond. Last spring Amos released The Cause of It All an album of blues classics created during quarantine with guitarist Chris “Doctor” Roberts.

The Reverend Shawn Amos & The Brotherhood will appear this Saturday, January 15 in Santa Rosa Beach, FL at the 30A Songwriters Festival.