Remember when country music was about people who, like, lived in the country? On “Taking My Power Back,” Trunzo literally asserts the right to power — electrical power, that is. The song’s lyrics were inspired by citizen testimony from the May 2021 LD 1708 hearings regarding whether Maine should pursue a consumer-owned utility. Question 3 on the November 7th ballot is an updated version of the proposed legislation.
“Many years of organizing around food access and hunger relief led me to begin volunteering for the Yes on Question 3 campaign, because this model offers the possibility of changing a system that influences quality of life for working households. Stories from Mainers struggling with the cost, transparency, service, and climate impacts of the current utility have been moving to hear,” said Trunzo, “and the purpose of country songs is to elevate rural people’s stories.”
The song, Taking My Power Back, was produced and mixed by Rachael Moore, a Nashville producer who has worked with T Bone Burnett, Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, and recently produced and music supervised for Showtime’s George & Tammy. The music video was written, filmed, and edited by filmmaker Phoebe Parker, stars actor Leslie Stein, and includes animations by visual artist Calla King-Clements– all Maine artists.
Trunzo is an independent singer-songwriter, community organizer (co-founder of Veggies For All and Waldo County Bounty), and creator and host of “Country & Northeastern” on WERU Community Radio.Lonesome Highway said her last record, Cabin Fever Dream, was “loaded with truly touching lyrics and provide[s] a glimpse of an unquestionably talented artist.” Trunzo has collaborated with Darrell Scott and Mary Gauthier, shared stages with the likes of Suzy Bogguss and Carlene Carter, played venues such as The Bluebird, Rockwood Music Hall, and Club Passim. She has been a Joseph A. Fiore fellow, a Music to Life juried artist, and has received honors from Maine Songwriters Association, International Acoustic Music Awards, New England Songwriting Competition, and Tennessee Songwriters Week Competition.
This isn’t Trunzo’s first rodeo. She used her guitar to advocate for funding for food banks on “Food and Medicine.”