Stream: Jessica Childress, ‘Enemy’

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Jessica Childress

Just two weeks after the release of “Oh Mother,” her powerful collaboration with composer Kan Wakan, soul singer Jessica Childress is back with a tune that again turns her songwriting gaze toward the fight for racial justice.

“Enemy,” out today, is Childress’ first solo single since last fall’s EP, “I’m Learning.” It’s a restrained but poignant and questioning song, posed in the singer’s supple vocals against a backdrop of “broken hearts are beating while the city burns.”

“​I wrote ‘Enemy’ in 2016 after I’d watched yet another police shooting of an unarmed black person,” Childress says. “I watched as white ‘friends’ took to social media twisting themselves into pretzels to try to justify these killings. I felt so betrayed and confused. Why does this need to be OK? Why aren’t we ALL outraged and saddened? They were fighting for the structures that justify the killing of unarmed black people. They were fighting for blue lives. They weren’t fighting for me. Sadly, this song is just as fresh and timely as the day I wrote it.”

||| Stream: “Enemy”

||| Previously: Kan Wakan’s “Oh Mother,” Quarantunes (October 2020), “Walk With Me,” Live at the Troubadour, Tarfest 2015, Live at Lobsterfest 2014, “I Quit”