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Today is Pioneer Day, and I thought a lot about our country and the state of Utah.  I don’t think that I’m able to adequately describe what my feelings about the direction that our nation is taking, so instead I want to post a few of my favorite songs about America that do a pretty good job of describing my feelings.

The first is called “American Prayer,” written by Bono and performed by Bono and Beyoncé at the 46664 concert a few years ago.  I watched them perform it that night on TV, and fell in love with this song.

The next one is Paul Simon’s “American Tune.”  Simon and Garfunkel had broken up before Paul wrote this song, but they performed it together on their “Old Friends” tour.  When I saw them in Salt Lake, Art introduced this song by saying that it was amazing how a song written 30 years ago was so current that it could have been written last week.  Art was right, and the song is better with his airy tenor added to the mix.

The next song is Sara Thomsen’s “Is It For Freedom?”.  An absolutely fantastic song that asks if our wars around the world are for freedom or for “comfort and convenience.”

One of my favorite modern-day song writers is Jack Johnson, who takes on the ridiculously bad, sensationalized American media in “Good People.”

And, finally what is probably the greatest protest song ever written, Bob Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind.”

Enjoy!