ALLISON RUSSELL: It’s such an honor to be here in the Democracy Now! studios. It’s our first time here. I’m Allison Russell. This is Ganessa James. We are two members of the Rainbow Coalition. And, Amy Goodman, I want to thank you for all of your enlightenment that you’ve been sharing with the world all these many years, and we’re so grateful. We’re going to play you a selection of songs from a few different albums, one album called The Returner and another one called In the Hour of Chaos, which is our new record. This song won us our first Grammy, and it’s a song that’s been kind of growing and changing, I think, as we do.

ALLISON RUSSELL and GANESSA JAMES: [performing “Eve Was Black”]

No matter our lineages, our perceived differences, our genders, our abilities, our orientations, our identities, our ethnicities, our geographies, our finances, no matter any of these, if you chase that double-helix rainbow of every single one of our DNA back far enough, what you find is that mitochondria does not lie. We are one human family equally. We share a mother. She first stood strong, proud, tall, resilient, creative, communal, curious, imaginative, cooperative, on two strong feet, on the continent we now call Africa, the cradle of humanity. We share a mother. All children are our children, no exceptions, not least our inner children. And we must and we can do better by all of them, by all of us, in the name of our mother, Mitochondrial Eve.

Eve was Black, haven’t you heard?
The mother of all was dark and good
Eve was Black, didn’t you know?
Is that why you hate my black skin so?
Is that why you hate my black skin so, Daddy?

One family, one human family
Equal, indivisible
Precious, irreplaceable
Amen, amen, amen.

ALLISON RUSSELL: So, we have had the blessing of the friendship of many brilliant women in this industry, women like Rhiannon Giddens, who I know was just on the show. And we have a band together called Our Native Daughters with Amythyst Kiah and Leyla McCalla, Rhiannon and I. And we all got to play Hollywood Bowl. Was that last summer? That was so fun. Oh, no, it was Juneteenth. It was last Juneteenth. And it was amazing.

And also Brandi Carlile. I have to shout her out, because she is the reason that I’ve been able to have a career under my own name. It was her advocacy, her championing of my music. And she invited me into the circle of the Joni Jam, so I now play clarinet and sing backups in Joni Mitchell’s band, which is just, like, for this Canadian girl born and raised in Montreal, whose mom is from Saskatoon, it’s a big deal.

And at the Joni Jam at the Gorge in 2023, I had the honor of meeting Sarah McLachlan and Annie Lennox, and they’ve each become big sisters and mentors to us. And they’ve been uplifting us in many, many ways, including Annie Lennox recorded this next song with us. And she’s not here today but we’ll do our best, even without her.

And again, I’ve been regrounding in our teachers, even the ones that have returned to the stars and to eternity, teachers like Audre Lorde, teachers like James Baldwin. And any time I’m scared or feel like I don’t know what to say, I reground in their teachings. And one simple thing that James Baldwin taught us, that I believe we can all agree on, is that all children are our children, and there are no exceptions to that. And any time someone is preaching a narrative that is an exception to that, you know that it’s a lie. That’s the way to know.

And this song is kind of an embodiment of that, that principle, that all children are our children, no exceptions. OK. It’s called “Superlover.” My partner JT Nero wrote the original song, and we’ve added to it over the years. It’s a song that keeps growing.

ALLISON RUSSELL and GANESSA JAMES: [performing “Superlover”]

Tears of rage, tears of grief
Palestine, Israel to Tennessee
Tears of rage, tears of grief
Sudan, Congo to Haiti
We need a super love
Need a super lover
Double Dutch and hula hoops
All our fears in loops and loops
We need a super love
Are you a super lover?

Tears of rage, tears of grief
Palestine, Israel to Tennessee
Tears of rage, tears of grief
Sudan, Congo to Haiti
Tears of rage, tears of grief
Iran, Paris to D.C.
We need a super love
We can be super lovers

ALLISON RUSSELL: This is the amazing Ganessa James, also known as Daddy G, and who also has a wonderful project with her twin sister Tiffany. They have a project called the Onliest. And Ganessa also plays in Cyndi Lauper’s band and plays with Toshi Reagon. So you can find Ganessa a lot of different places, not just — not just playing with me. And really, that’s what the Rainbow Coalition is all about, that we are — we are greater than the sum of our parts, and we’re stronger together always.

And I don’t know if this is going out before the big vote, but please do, if you have that sacred — as our eternal Representative John Lewis would say, if you have that “sacred” power to vote in this country, please do vote. It makes such a huge difference for millions and millions and millions of us, and really the world, because our American dollars go everywhere and fund a lot of harm everywhere currently. And I know that we can change that. And I know that we have the critical mass collective will to change that. I know that we do. And I’m so grateful to Democracy Now! for sharing truth unflinchingly always. Very, very grateful.

And this is a new one from the new album. On the album, our beautiful sister Norah Jones joins us on the record. And here in the studio, it’s my beautiful sister Ganessa James. This song is called “Really Real.” Thanks to Amy Goodman for being a really, really real one.

ALLISON RUSSELL and GANESSA JAMES: [performing “Really Real”]

Well, you’ve seen me in my power,
And you’ve seen me black and blue
You been there the whole ride
Been through all the lows and highs
And you never spoke nothin’ but the truth

Where’s your way-back-true-fact-really-real-one?
Who’s gonna be your shelter from the storm? From the storm?
Don’t forget one day they gonna need some
They gonna need a little shelter of their own
They gonna need a little shelter of their own.