(NASHVILLE, TN) - Sometimes Nashville rocker Rich Lynch pens timely political songs (like his recent "You Can't Push Over A Standing Rock" single) and sometimes he's a bit ahead of the curve (as with his 2016 song "Patriot's Day") which saluted the annual New England holiday - a day that will get a boost of exposure with the new Mark Wahlberg film.
"Several years back I was on the phone with my mom who lived in Cape Cod at the time," says the musician about the day he got the spark of an idea for this song. "On this day in Boston they run the Marathon in the city and the Red Sox usually have an early home game as well to commemorate Patriots' Day."
It turns out there's much more to this April rite of passage than the undertaking of sporting events.
"It's marks the 'Shot Heard Around the World' and the start of the Revolutionary War and the midnight ride of Paul Revere," Lynch added. "It's really about the birth of our nation even more so than the Fourth of July. This was the actual day the revolutionaries had to put up or shut up to defend what they believed in."
The four-minute and ten second track explodes through the speakers with a gunshot to indicate the start of a race and then accelerates on Lynch's now patented brand of peppy and punky crunch rock that contains a musical message of being ever vigilant where liberty is concerned.
"What I really didn't know at the start of this process is that the actual date on the calendar of April 19 has been a rather strange and unique one in the history of world events," Lynch revealed about the day that inspired his latest song. "Especially as far as it relates to fighting tyrants and government oppression and it just keeps happening. I'll let the lyrics speak for themselves, fans can Google the day and be amazed at what they'll find. But, that's why I sing 'the past is prologue on Patriots Day' - strange events keep popping up surrounding this day over time."
This is the third of a trio of tracks that Lynch co-produced in his former hometown of Ringwood, New Jersey and was recorded just prior to his departure for Nashville. He enlisted the help of rock legend Steve Brown of Trixter and Def Leppard fame to create a powerful song with just the right mix of power and pop.
"Steve did another amazing job with this one," Lynch remarked about the controversial tune the pair worked on in New Jersey. "When I get back east we plan on producing some more music together. Until then, I will continue recording my back catalogue of songs here in Music City."
Patriots' Day remains one of the lesser-known yet most patriotic holidays in the nation's history. However, the concept behind it will definitely get a big Hollywood boost in 2017 when Mark Wahlberg's Patriots Day movie is released on January 13. The film directed by Peter Berg will focus on the police investigation into the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013 and there are already whispers of Oscar nominations galore for the bio-pic.
"For me, the take away from that tragic day remains the same. An iconic event in an historic city came under attack," said Lynch seriously recalling the events of that memorable week in Massachusetts. "The aftermath was armed troops going door to door in search of the terrorist in a manner that appeared to violate the fourth amendment. So, not only was our cherished freedom in jeopardy on that day our valued Constitutional rights were also unfortunately diminished at the same time. I’ll be very interested to see how that aspect of the episode is represented on the big screen."
Patriot's Day is available on Amazon, iTunes, and CD Baby.
