To make ‘In Times Like These’, noted activist, author, documentary filmmaker and theologian Rev. Osagyefo Sekou went back to his Southern home searching for his family’s musical roots in the deep Arkansas blues and gospel traditions. Produced by six-time Grammy nominated Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars, featuring Luther’s brother Cody Dickinson, Rev. Sekou’s album is a new vision for what Southern blues and rock can mean today. In Times Like These is drenched with the sweat and tears of the Mississippi River, the great tributary that ties so much of the South together. The album’s sonic landscape captures the toil of Southern field hands, the guttural cry of chain gangs, the vibrancy of contemporary street protest, backwoods juke joints, and shotgun churches—all saturated with Pentecostal sacred steel and soul legacy. Rev. Sekou’s blues lineage runs deep. Rev. Sekou’s biological grandfather, Richard Braselman played with legends like Louis Jordan, Albert King, and B.B. King. The grandfather, Rev. James Thomas, who raised Sekou, was an ordained Elder in the Church of God in Christ and a railroad union organizer.

In Times Like These is an intense blend of late North Mississippi Hill Country Music, Arkansas Delta Blues, 1960s Rock and Roll, Memphis Soul, Chuck Berry St Louis vibes, and Pentecostal steel guitar. Written in the shadow of the divisive 2016 election, the album is testament to the enduring power of protest music and a call-to-arms for a new generation looking to resist. Previous musical project – In January 2016, Rev. Sekou and the Holy Ghost released the critically acclaimed album, The Revolution Has Come. The single—“We Comin’”—was named the new anthem for the modern Civil Rights movement by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Resist,” opens with a rousing speech given by Rev. Sekou at a rally in Ferguson, Missouri, protesting the shooting of Michael Brown.