Humbird rails against white supremacy in her powerful psych-folk song “Child of Violence.” As I’ve said in the past, what makes a song anti-racist is not the message that “racism is bad” so much as acknowledging one’s complicity in it — and modeling how to resist. “Child of Violence” does just that with its refrain:“I could be a break in the chain / I could be a break in the chain / I could be a piece of the change / When I talk about it, I’ll call it by its name.” It’s a theme carried on from her 2021 album Still Life, which was written in the wake of George Floyd’s murder near Humbird’s neighborhood in South Minneapolis.
Humbird specializes in narrative folk music that focuses on our embodiment in th eplanet. Her debut album Pharmakon (2019) is a careful look at that which can both cure and wound us: love, ambition, winter, and seashells, to name a few lyrical topics. The record received critical acclaim from tastemakers such as Folk Alley and 89.3 The Current. Her sophomore album, 2021’s Still Life, focuses on small domestic moments in the context of global events. It is an album that cultivates soundscapes and intentional lyrics that tell braided stories while carving out reflective, fertile space to process current events.
In between the two releases, Humbird and friends took to backyard campfires, forests, and planetariums (in over 100 pop-up locations) to perform acoustic ballads and fairytales with original improvised scores for micro audiences, adapting to the moment forced upon us by the global pandemic. Since returning to the road, Humbird and her bandmates have toured full-time across the US, UK and Ireland. “Child of Violence” is the second single off her upcoming album.