Steve Mednick performing Thursday in the WNHH FM studio.
Steve Mednick played a song from a new album as well as from his next album — while waiting to see how both the track, and country’s political future, play out.
It was all one song. And it’s not finished yet.
Mednick — a veteran municipal government lawyer and former elected official who launched a side career as a prolific singer-songwriter in 2006 at age 50 — played the evolving song during an appearance on WNHH FM’s “Acoustic Thursday @ Studio 51” tiniest-of-all-tiny-desks program.
The song is called “Winds of Freedom Part I.” It appears on a CD Mednick released Wednesday (his 24th) called Demosarethese Vol. X‑X11.
“I want the winds of freedom for both of us, me and you,” Mednick sang over a strummed Martin D‑41 acoustic guitar. “I want the winds of freedom to push or pull us through.”
He went on to sing verses that don’t appear on the CD track — because he has continued working on the song. The general theme of freedom to pursue one’s destiny proceeded to a declaration that may sound familiar in this final stretch of a presidential campaign: “We ain’t going back.”
Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is using a version of that pronouncement — as well as branding a pro-abortion rights and pro-LGBT rights agenda as a “freedom” agenda — as central messaging.
Mednick, who has woven politics into much of his music, began consciously exploring those themes with a similar outlook in his latest music before Harris’s sudden entrance into the race. (“They’re not stealing that word from me,” he declared of right-wing Republican “freedom” branding.)
The fuller version of the “Winds of Freedom” song, with more instrumental back-up, is scheduled for including in yet another album Mednick is finishing up. Titled “Flight of Freedom,” it is in final stages of production. It more specifically focuses on the current state of American politics. On “Acoustic Thursday,” he played a track from that album as well, entitled, “We Won’t Go Back.”
Mednick planned to time the release of the new album for the final weeks of the campaign.
Then he remembered 2016. He raced to release a similar album to mine that year’s presidential race and the political zeitgeist. Like many political observers, Mednick believed the polls in 2016. He counted on Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump. The album came out right before the upset that shook the world — and the tracks needed tweaking.
Mednick said he’s confident again about a Democratic victory over Trump this fall. But he’s learning from the past: He’s leaning toward waiting until right after the election to release the album, including with any needed last-minute changes.
Will he keep the song he played Thursday on the album if (gulp) the presidential race again doesn’t turn out the way Mednick expects?
“Absolutely,” he replied. “Because we absolutely won’t go back.”
Steve Mednick performs on WNHH FM's "Acoustic Thursday @ Studio 51."
Click on the above video to watch Steve Mednick perform unplugged on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program
Previous “Acoustic Thursday @ Studio 51” performances:
• Brandt Taylor & Chris DePino
• Shellye Valauskas and Dean Falcone
• Brian Ember
• Ceschi
• Wally
• Sketch Tha Cataclysm
• MJ Bones
• Johnathan Moore
• Charlie Widmer
• Sam Carlson