Dylan and Springsteen Sidemen Shaped Original 1992 Recording

PAUL METSA – “THE OTHER GREAT FOLKSINGER FROM MINNESOTA’S MESABI IRON RANGE” – Huffington Post

PAUL META REISSUES WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD DELUXE ANNIVERSARY EDITION, COMPLETE WITH A NEW 2020 VERSE FOR HIS TIMELESS “SLOW JUSTICE” PROTEST SONG
AND SEVERAL NEWER BONUS TRACKS ON ROCK THE CAUSE
RECORDS 10/23/20.

50% of All Sales Thru End of Year to Benefit “Save Our Stages”,

A landmark album made in 1992 by eight-time Minnesota Music Award winner, folk-rocker, author, raconteur, and radio and TV host, Paul Metsa,* is finding new life in the tumultuous year of 2020.

The aptly titled WhistlingPast the Graveyard Deluxe Anniversary Edition was produced by the late Bucky Baxter who played in Bob Dylan’s band from 1992-1999, and features bassist Garry Talent from
Bruce Springsteen’s legendary E Street Band.

Fans may purchase Whistling Past the Graveyard Deluxe Anniversary Edition on Bandcamp, with 50% of all net purchases being directed to Save Our Stages through December 31, 2020, and administrated by Rock the Cause Records. **

Among the 11 songs on the album is Metsa’s powerful, timeless protest song, “Slow Justice” – written initially in 1984 for the protracted Hormel worker’s strike in Austin, Minnesota. The freshly revamped version contains a timely new verse to reflect the social justice turmoil that was ignited with the death of George Floyd and other people of color in 2020:

"The people's house in DC is whiter than before. There's a bunker in the basement and gold locks on the door. The ghosts of slaves are marching bleeding red and white and blue from the Streets of Minneapolis to Pennsylvania Avenue.”

New Bonus Tracks Include Guest Artists Wee Willie Walker and the Sounds of Blackness – Plus a New Hip-Hop Version of “Ain't Gonna Whistle Dixie Anymore”

Bonus tracks on the new package include the folk-rock version of “Ain't Gonna Whistle Dixie Anymore” with the late international blues singer, Wee Willie Walker, and the Grammy Award-winning voices of The Sounds of Blackness.

A new hip-hop version of “Dixie” is performed by rappers Royals Smith and Deonte Jones (aka Teflore). Both are 2018 graduates of St. Paul's High School for Recording Arts. The young rappers add an urgent social justice narrative about what life is like for Black and POC youth living in America today.

Another bonus track, “Walking in a Woman’s World,” was written and debuted at the Guthrie Theater in '1992 (video available).

Metsa has been called “the other great folksinger from Minnesota Mesabi Iron Range” (Huffington Post), while CMJ Magazine raved, "Metsa is the most poetic protest singer of our time."

The original release of Graveyard garnered great reviews from around the country in media like Billboard and Spin and here at home: “This record should elevate Metsa to the Springsteen’s and Mellencamp’s of the world," noted the Austin Chronicle, while the Utne Reader said, ""Think of Paul as Bruce with a Midwestern twang." And At the Opera, NPR, chimed in, "Metsa is America's answer to Billy Bragg."

Chance Meeting with Bucky Baxter Led to Graveyard Sessions in a Nashville Studio Co-owned with Garry Talent.

Metsa says he’s thrilled with the Deluxe Edition and hopes fans and newbies will be, too. And he looks fondly back on the serendipitous ways the first version of the album came together:

“Bucky Baxter was in town and on the tip from a cabdriver ‘to hear the best music in town,’ the cabbie dropped him off at my Tuesday night residency at the 5 Corners. He obviously liked what he heard,” the affable folk-rocker laughed: “He offered to produce a 4-song demo at his Nashville studio he owned with Garry Talent, the long-time E Street Band bassist. Garry played on all the band tracks, and Bucky played pedal steel and lap steel on several tunes.”

“That was the Fall of '92. The 4 songs went so well, I went down a month later and recorded 4 more tunes and later released it on my own label Raven Records.” Fast forward to 2020: "As a songwriter who has lived in Minneapolis since 1978, I felt it my duty to address the tragic death of George Floyd with an updated verse in ‘Slow Justice’ – a song that sadly seems never to be out of touch with our times, no matter what the era."

For more information – or to interview Paul Metsa about Whistling Past the Graveyard Deluxe Anniversary Edition – or to have him perform live via Zoom or in studio – please contact Martin Keller, Media Savant Communications, 612-729-8585, mkeller@mediasavantcom.com
*About Paul Metsa

Pau Metsa has performed his politically-charged songs at Farm Aid V in Dallas, Texas in 1992, the Tribute to Woody Guthrie at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 – where he had to teach The Boss the chords to a Guthrie tune -- The Million Mom March in Washington, DC in 1999, and more benefits in Minnesota than there are lakes.

Born on the Iron Range, Metsa has been based in Minneapolis since 1978. In his three decades-plus career he has shared the stage with the likes of Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen and more and won eight Minnesota Music Awards, including the 2005 Americana Artist of the Year. His diverse and hip radio show, “The Wall of Power Radio Hour” on AM 950 has been on air since 2014 and boasts over 200 original radio shows. His companion TV show, “Wall of Power TV,” is in its 7th season with over 100 shows in the can.

Metsa’s critically acclaimed memoir, Blue Guitar Highway, (2011) was greeted with resounding reviews across the country, chronicling the musician’s journey through the entertainment business. “The roads Paul Metsa has traveled are so fabled you might think, opening his book, would be a book of footnotes — the record of other people’s footsteps,” wrote noted critic Greil Marcus. “But Metsa brings every myth the roads carry down to earth, rewriting their stories in real time, returning the roads to real life, opening them up again to both past and future.”
Since his first show at the Skyway Lounge in 1979, he’s played over 6,000 gigs. His 30th anniversary show was appropriately called “Skyway to Hell.”