Motivational Speaker

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Right now is no time to come up short. It's time to fight like hell for a democracy where minority rule cannot impose an extreme and cruel agenda, where facts matter, and where accountability at the polls and in the press has a fighting chance. We have our work cut out for us, and we still need to raise upwards of 400,000 by June 30 to give it everything we can. Please help:

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While he’s a master of old-time country blues, Alvin Youngblood Hart is no hard-core purist—the versatile guitarist plays everything from hillbilly laments to ’70s soul to cerebral jams. On the irresistible Motivational Speaker, he embraces heavy rock, drenching the songs with big riffs and joyously flashy solos that never seem excessive. Hart uncorks a soaring instrumental reminiscent of Hendrix at his jazziest on “Shootout on I-55,” launches a blazing electric boogie on “Big Mama’s Door (Might Return),” and detours to Nashville for a twangy cover of country outlaw Johnny Paycheck’s “Meanest Jukebox in Town.” And the eerie “When Can I Change My Clothes” is a masterpiece, with Hart imitating a graveyard spirit, his gritty voice a mixture of anguish and determination.