If you haven't been affected by the country's economic collapse, you are one of the lucky few.
Government budgets and workers are buckling under the weight of applications from the unemployed and working poor; lines at the Department of Economic Security are seeing more professionals with college degrees seeking to survive by way of unemployment checks, health coverage and food stamps.
For those of us who have faced lay-offs, depleting savings accounts and tough monetary decisions - do I pay my rent/mortgage or my health insurance? How will I cover food and electricity and my other bills? - Nancy McCallion's newest release will definitely strike a chord.
The native Tucsonan, who has been making music for over two decades as a singer/songwriter (The Mollys, The Last Call Girls) and also plays the guitar, mandolin and penny whistle, says her new album was inspired by a photography exhibit that hung at the UA's Student Union a few years ago.
Take a Picture of Me to Show I Was Here found its roots with the show "Unseen America," a traveling, national documentary exhibit program of the Bread and Roses Cultural Projects - featuring photos and essays by the working poor, McCallion explained to me in a letter.
"After seeing the exhibit, I went home and wrote Take a Picture of Me, the title track of the CD. I stewed on the idea for two years. It wasn't until I was laid off from my teaching job last summer that my personal angst inspired me to finish the rest of the songs for the project."
It's not a cry-in-yer-beer album - but it does poignantly and aptly present the hard facts of hard times in 12 tracks that include rock, folk and honky-tonk tunes.
Track two, Good Old Days, is an upbeat two-stepping country rock dandy with wry lyrics - My investments have all left me in the cold/They were supposed to bring me comfort when I'm old/Seems I have to find my comfort on my own/I'm tired and broke and all alone/Ain't no such thing as the good old days, but I miss them anyway.
The title track, Take a Picture of Me, is a heartbreaking tune done in the style of traditional American folk - telling the story of happy memories lost to time. Music from a phonograph/Bought with cash in hand/Played while Mama danced and sang/Before we lost the land/Records from a phonograph in boxes on the lawn/Mama's bank can have it all/Tonight I'm moving on.
More than worth the local sale price of $15, one dollar from every disk sold will go to Tucson's Primavera Foundation, an organization whose services "provide a full range of opportunities to help people transition from poverty to greater well-being and security."
Preview songs from Nancy's website, www.NancyMcCallion. The album can also be purchased from CD Baby at Nancy's CD Baby page.Also visit Southwest Center for Economic Integrity - photos printed on Nancy's CD are from the organization's book "People Around Us."
