Well, that was fast. Twenty-four hours after Americana sensation Oliver Anthony blew up the internet with "Rich Men North of Richmond," Whiskey Riff is reporting it has already hit #1 on the iTunes charts.

Another song of Anthony's, "Aint Gotta Dollar," is at #9 as well.

Oliver shared a story about what "Rich Men..." is about on his YouTube page. The ginger singer, who admits he may not have a soul because he's a ginger (lol), says his music comes from his life and the lives of his friend and coworkers he meets along the way:

"I met a lot of good people working third shift, twelve hours six days a week, and now I spend a lot of time on job sites. I meet people from all across the country and the universal thing I see is that it's like no matter how hard they push and how much effort they put into whatever it is they're doing, they just can't quite get ahead because the dollar is not worth enough. It's being overtaxed."

Being overtaxed by the....rich men north of Richmond. Besides the obvious blue-collar struggles, the song touches on two things. One is about suicide. Coming out of the pandemic, many of us found ourselves struggling with some form of depression or the other.

"The song touches on suicide rates and on mental health and depression. There's no reason why young men or women in this country should be committing suicide. There's a bigger universal problem and a lot of people know that. It's common sense but we don't talk about it enough. And maybe that is the problem."

The other part of the song has to do with the lyrics "I wish politicians would look out for miners, and not just minors on an island somewhere." And why I said corporate journalismers have no doubt been dispatched to find a mean thing he wrote as a Facebook comment ten years ago. Or worse... a meme he liked.

"I think one of the worst things that a human being can do is take advantage of a child and I can't begin to conceptualize what has to happen to someone in order for them to think that's okay. I think I drew the line on being quiet when I started to see that becoming normalized and I'll leave that at that."

It's a pleasure to meet youyoutu.be

When people talk about X (formally known as Twitter), they tend to use the word "godforsaken" as a descriptor. The app isn't all sh*tposting, trolling, and spreading lies about the presidential candidate you don't like. Occasionally, you find someone like Oliver Anthony.

I haven't been moved by someone's music like this in a really long time.

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Brodigan is Grand Poobah of this here website and when he isn't writing words about things enjoys day drinking, pro-wrestling, and country music. You can find him on the Twitter too.

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