The first time I heard Luke Concannon sing “Stick Together,” I thought, “Wow, that’s the song for the multi-faceted crisis moment we’re in.” The song juxtaposes the rising authoritarianism and climate disruption with an uplifting chorus:

We could take this so much higher

If we just stick together and stay together

Your tonic to toxic politics today is to listen to the song and sing along to the chorus!  You can listen here and see the newly released video, with Darian Christian and a great group of backup singers.

I’m fortunate to know Luke now as a neighbor in a small Vermont town where he and his wife Stephanie and newborn baby live off-the-grid in a yurt down the road from me. He’s a humble and thoughtful songwriter, and most neighbors don’t know he was a real pop star in England before moving to the U.S.

In 2005, Concannon was part of the folk duo, Nizlopi. In their UK and Ireland chart-smashing number one song ‘JCB,’ Luke recounts getting a childhood ride home from school on his father’s road digger, a JCB (the UK version of a John Deere).  A young future musician, Ed Sheeran, was Nizlopi’s guitar technician, and he celebrates Luke as a major influence on his musical development.

I asked Luke a few questions about this new song, “Stick Together.”

Chuck: What inspired this song?  

Luke: I was sitting outside our yurt in Southern Vermont in the wild woods one March morning.  There was a cold crisp light, fresh wind, dawn waking, and I was listening to the trees and heard this song coming through…

I heard the riff then: “We’ve got one hundred years and then fires.” My sense was that the trees were saying, “Would you humans please wake up and change course or we’re all screwed?”  The verses are a kind of litany of grief for our warming and violent world, so cut off from the wholeness we hunger for. And then that presence in nature calling us to grow to the light, to go for the heights of our potential, and how we can do that if we stick together and stay together. It’s the embodiment of the Margaret Mead saying, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Chuck: The chorus is positively uplifting—it seems like a phrase that could be an anthem for the warriors for Gaia. What does it mean to be a warrior for Gaia? What are your hopes for the song?

Luke: Well, the song needed some balance! It’s interesting that going to the darkest places as I do in the verses of the song, calls us to the lightest places in the chorus. There is extraordinary potential in this moment and in communities, when things are in such crisis. We can make that an opportunity. Here in Guilford, Vermont, we are together gathering, sharing food and perspectives, growing community care, making music, telling stories, and sharing insights.

How much do we want liberation, justice, and healing? Evidently not enough yet, but I believe in us and our potential to do anything worthwhile. Sometimes things may have to get worse before they get better: how good can we stand it and how committed can we be to making a positive difference for our children? What are you willing to sacrifice? What are you most passionate about? For me, it’s art and liberation and being grateful. Being happy is a major act of peace work if you can share it out.

Chuck:  You set up at the beginning by talking about our moment: “A hundred years and then fires, humans are burning in the mire.” Yet we are “suckling on TV like vampires.” What do you see in this moment?

Luke:  In 2009, I went on a pilgrimage to Palestine. I returned feeling so much passion, commitment, and idealism that I wrote an album, “Give It All.”  It was about the inspiration I felt hitchhiking around the region and doing service work on the West Bank, the possibilities for making a better world.

That intensity led me to some burnout, followed by my getting captured by YouTube and the internet. For some months, I was literally stuck on YouTube until 4 or 5 am. We all need play, fun, nourishment, and rest. But the technologies that have come online since 2006 (Facebook, YouTube, etc.) have hacked our attention, needs, and weaknesses. Most everyone I know has some degree of struggle with internet addiction and screen time. The antidote is community and nature, healing ourselves and the world. It may be that our survival depends on our dedication to waking up together, and one major thing blocking that is our vulnerability to becoming kind of androids attached to these screens.

Chuck:  You sing, “Aaron Bushnell is wearing a crown.” What caught your attention about Aaron Bushnell? Is he a warrior for Gaia? 

Luke: I think Aaron Bushnell, who self-immolated in February 2024, could not stand by and watch the suffering in Gaza. I think he’s a warrior for Gaia.

Chuck, I really enjoyed your novel, Altar to an Erupting Sun (what a title!). The human guiding lights in that story are so committed to a better world that they are willing to make huge sacrifices for it. The stories include the history of the Vietnamese monks who self-immolated to protest the war in their country. And the Quaker activist Norman Morrison who self-immolated outside the Pentagon, also in protest of the war in Vietnam. I’m deeply moved by people who are willing to give something as precious as their lives for the greater good, for peace, for oppressed peoples. I suppose you’d need to feel some clarity that that act would have more weight than say, giving your life to serving your community and being a happy person.

Chuck:  One of your lyrics goes: “Starving children getting sick of the sound of white people laughing as they are put in the ground.”  It’s pretty harsh and jarring—and particularly the image of white people as laughing at genocide.  What moved you to write those lyrics?

Luke: Oh, this shows me a weakness in some of my writing. My mind is moving across the horrors of our current world quickly without helping the listener understand exactly what I mean. I’m moving from Gaza in my mind to the millions of children who die globally of malnutrition each year, all while the dominant global media projects images on TV and in advertising that are often of happy, healthy, laughing white people. Just the cognitive dissonance of this—it’s a wonder we don’t go mad in a world this crazy.

Luke’s song underscores the power of music and art at this moment. I know it helps me personally to stay grounded and sane as we face the topsy-turvy days we are living through. I’m lucky to live in a community with artists and other creative souls like Luke who offer resistance and inspiration through their art.

Teaser image credit: Author supplied.