Coming off like a modern Twin Cities version of "We Are the World" with a DFL-sponsored mission to get-out-the-vote in next week's midterm elections, a new music video hit the web Monday featuring a who's who of local musicians singing Jeremy Messersmith's Paul Wellstone-invoking ditty "We All Do Better."
Among the participants in the short, two-minute, ultra-feel-good singalong clip are Dessa, Sean Tillmann (Har Mar Superstar), veteran piano man Cornbread Harris, Lori Barbero (Babes in Toyland), Justin Courtney Pierre (Motion City Soundtrack), Craig Minowa (Cloud Cult), Charlie Parr, Sophia Eris, Maggie Morrison, Mark Mallman, Sean Anonymous, Sims and Lazerbeak of Doomtree, gospel singers the Hurst Family Experience and Messersmith himself.
The video was paid for by the Minnesota DFL Party and spearheaded by local filmmakers Shane Nelson, Bill Prouty and Omni-Fusion Production, with help on the music end from producer Grant Cutler. It does not tout any political candidates but does include a link to the voter registration page on the DFL's website.
A Facebook page was created around the song that explains its purpose this way:
"'We All Do Better' is a Minnesota anthem for the common good featuring some of our state's leading recording artists, inspired by the memory of the late Paul Wellstone. It calls on all of us to choose LOVE over fear, EMPATHY over apathy, JUSTICE over oppression, and UNITY over division—and use our collective power to VOTE by Nov 6th, 2018"
Messersmith's song was taken from late Wellstone's oft-quoted line, "We all do better when we all do better." It was first featured among the Minneapolis singer/songwriter's "11 Obscenely Optimistic Tunes for Ukulele" collection from 2017 – issued first as a song book, then an album – and includes such similar come-together lines as, "All genders and colors just love one another we'll have so much fun."
Here's the full list of the "We All Do Better" participants for the local musicheads who want to ID them all: Dessa, Justin Courtney Pierre, Lori Barbero (Babes in Toyland), Craig Minowa (Cloud Cult), Abisha Uhl (Sick of Sarah), Charlie Parr, Sean Tillmann (Har Mar Superstar), Nooky Jones, Sims, Reina del Cid, Gabriel Douglas (The 4onthefloor), Lazerbeak, Mark Mallman, Sean Anonymous, Sophia Eris, Sarah Morris, Mina Moore, Maggie Morrison, Meghan Kreidler (Kiss the Tiger), the Hurst Family Experience, Iron Boy, Jason Douglas (Lake Avenue), Cornbread Harris, John Richardson, Jana Nyberg (The Jana Nyberg Group), and Dustin Tessier (Timbre Ghost).
