Wiser Time — There’s A Change A Comin’

Wisertimemusic.com

Protest music first took hold in the early ‘60s. It feels as though Wiser Time is still carrying on that tradition some 65 years into the struggle. Wiser Time is the nom de Rock of New Jersey‑based singer‑songwriter Carmen Sclafani. His first album, There And Back Again arrived in 2006.

In the two decades since, he’s issued new music every couple of years — All For One in 2008, Beggars And Thieves in 2010, XII in 2012, Within in 2017, the World’s Collide EP, and All Fired Up in 2024. It’s as though he’s just dropping in to see what condition the world’s condition is in.

His latest, There’s A Change A Comin’, opens with the stinging rebuke of “Barabbas.” Flinty acoustics are matched by lyrics that speak to these craven times: “Pardon traitors and liars, use and abuse for desire, live free to wallow in the mire, while the streets are on fire and temperatures are getting higher, who among us would free Barabbas?”

The record successfully toggles between the political and the personal. The bruised, bottleneck blues of “Cold Hard World” is juxtaposed by the more contemplative “1963.” On that song, Wiser pays homage to the architects of change: “To Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Bobby D., to dear Dr. King and Mr. Kennedy.”

His mordant humor is on full display on the ramshackle “Billionaire’s Blues.” Conversely, there’s a tenderness to “If You Never See Me Again,” as well as “Divided,” which belies tough‑minded lyrics.

Other interesting and deeply topical tracks include the roughneck grace of “Even,” whose lyrics manage to pillory the treacherous perfidies from Fox News. “The People’s House” deftly excoriates crybaby insurrectionists from January 6th. Finally, the record closes out with the poignant farewell of “I Will Walk You Home.”

As the Bard of Hibbing once remarked, “You don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” Clearly, Wiser Time continues to heed that truism.