(BBR) Nashville-based platinum recording artist Ron Pope has released a new single called "Things Jesus Didn't Say" via Brooklyn Basement Records. "The New Testament is pretty big on kindness," Pope says. "There's lots of talk about compassion and sharing. Throughout history, people have warped scripture to justify their own lack of empathy. I've always been revolted by that practice. I don't know why it happened on this particular day, but one morning very recently, the anti-empathy TikTok video that broke the camel's back appeared on my screen, and I said, 'Enough!' That's where 'Things Jesus Didn't Say' came from. I wrote it in our basement at 6 am (quietly, trying not to wake up my family) and by 9:30, I'd recorded a little live video in my backyard and released it."
The song's timely message instantly resonated with listeners; by lunchtime of the day he posted it, the video had gone viral and has now garnered over 1.9M views across his social media platforms. "I was worried that I would make people angry, but mostly, I've found lots of like-minded folks who believe in leading with compassion," he continues. "The fervor surrounding this tune before its official release has really raised my spirits and given me hope. What a strange time to be alive."
Pope's latest LP, American Man, American Music, which received accolades from NPR, No Depression, The Tennessean, Holler, The Bluegrass Situation, WMOT, Bandcamp Daily, Nashville Lifestyles, The Nashville Scene, Americana Highways, and many more, was released via Brooklyn Basement Records on February 14th.
For Pope, the road was his ticket to a different life. From the time he was a teenager, the New Jersey-born, Georgia-raised songwriter was on tour, playing some form of rock, country, or soul with his buddies. Pope has been doing that for more than half of his life, visiting every corner of this country (along with many others) in the process. That experience defines how he views the world: the man he's become, the musical community he's built, the unforgiving passage of time, and the complicated truths at the heart of American life.
"I never really felt at home anywhere growing up," Pope recalls. "For a long time, living on the road felt tailor-made for someone like me. And then I found love, grew up, and developed a sense of home centered around that love. But America is a character in my personal story in a way that it might not be for other people." It's a long road to that state of contentment, though. American Man, American Music reaches back to a time of humiliating gigs in Georgia bars and long stretches of making trouble with friends before the complexities of adult life started to kick in. Then Pope falls in love, gets dealt some crushing losses, and begins to take a closer look at the struggles of his community, like swaths of blue-collar areas decimated by opioid addictions.
Through it all, his empathy comes through in the album's open-hearted messages: we all deserve to have a place to call home, we all deserve to have a shot at building a life, and we all have a family, whether blood or chosen. "This is an ode to the life I'm living now," Pope says, "the journey it took me to get here and all the people I've known and loved along the way."
Earlier this year, Pope completed his "Neon and Glass World Tour" - 28 dates spanning the UK, EU, and the US, and in May, he made his Grand Ole Opry debut.
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