Luke Tuchscherer
Living Through History
(Clubhouse Records)
★★★★★

LIVING THROUGH HISTORY is the sixth album by Bedford singer-songwriter Luke Tuchscherer. Produced by his long-term collaborator David Banks, it is a hard-rocking collection of songs with a distinctly anti-capitalist message.

Although now living back in Bedford, most of the songs were written while living in New York, yet the powerful sounds of protest on the album do not confine themselves to a liberal critique of Trump-style politics, but extend to an indictment of capitalism in Britain, the United States and elsewhere.

The title track opening the album is a powerful call for workers to throw off their chains and this theme continues in the next song Gonna Be A Reckoning. Those who use racism and culture wars to try and divide the working-class are the targets in You Should Be Ashamed, and Whose Side Are You On gives a clear message that the boss, banker and hedge-fund man will never be your friend and the wealth will never trickle down.

There is an Americana feel to the album and there are non-political songs like Goodbye, Bergan Street a reminiscence of the positive times spent while living in Brooklyn. 

However, of particular interest to Morning Star readers is the hidden track at the end containing a recording of a 1919 speech by VI Lenin on how working-people can be saved from the oppression of landowners and capitalists for ever. Guardian readers might want to pause their CD player at that point.

So definitely a protest album but with a somewhat harder edge than many in that genre. But also, an enjoyable listening experience musically.

Living Through History is available to download on bandcamp.