Photo by Jason Thrasher


To prep for the Aug. 21 release of his new album The Beautiful Madness, Jerry Joseph has shared the eerily timely track “Dead Confederate,” featuring Jason Isbell on guitar.

Joseph enlisted longtime friend Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers to produce The Beautiful Madness, and much of the backing tracks were performed by the Truckers themselves.

Explains Hood of the new track, “Let there be no misunderstanding, this song comes down hard against the evils of bigotry and hate but does so by telling its story in the defiant voice of a confederate statue that is being torn down. It tells of its horrors from a point of view that challenges our own preconceived perceptions (from an unsympathetic narrator).”

Adds Joseph,  “To be crystal clear, I think every one of the confederate statues should be pulled down and ground into dust. Not because I’m afraid of history or antiquity, but because I believe most of those statues were put up during the Jim Crow era. I think they were all put there for hate.”

To pre-order The Beautiful Madness click here.

Listen to “Dead Confederate” below: