Forty artists across have come together across two CDs with one goal: fundraising to support opposition to the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). “It’s been quite a ride,” says Warren Parker, founder of WarHen Records, “and it’s snowballed very quickly.”
Titled “STOP MVP: Artists from WV, VA & NC Against the Mountain Valley Pipeline” and slated for release on Friday, Dec. 1, the album will be the Charlottesville label’s first compilation. And it all started with a cold call, placed this past summer, to Virginian multi-instrumentalist and climate activist Daniel Bachman. After making a name for himself in the mid-2010s crafting patient and pensive guitar solo and drone pieces, Bachman started fusing his passions for music and environmentalism — to especially vivid effect on his 2022 aural portrait of climate catastrophe, “Almanac Behind.”
“There’s a lot of other people out there that feel the way that I do,” Bachman says, “and feel similarly frustrated about how to get involved using our art, so when Warren called me, I think we were both reaching for the same place, and it just clicked.”
A resident of Madison County, Bachman first reached out to locals before widening the search for sonic contributions to like-minded artists in the region whose studios and homes are affected by the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Upon its scheduled completion in 2024, the natural gas pipeline would traverse more than 300 miles from West Virginia to southern Virginia.
“It’s really been a wide net that we have cast,” Bachman says, listing indie rock, country, folk, hip-hop and free jazz among the genres represented. Protest songs adjoin wordless laments, and WarHen regulars like Dogwood Tales and Mink’s Miracle Medicine mingle with notable newcomers like ascendent guitar hero, Yasmin Williams, and Richmond’s own Høly River. Enthusiasm for the cause made for quick procurement. “People started from scratch and got it done in a month,” Bachman notes. “It’s very cool to see that happen.”
- Aldona Dye
- Daniel Bachman, a Virginian multi-instrumentalist and climate activist.
For Bachman, it’s personal — and familial. Bachman contributed a track himself, layering a take on Hobart Smith’s “Last Chance” with environmental recordings. His sister, Sarah Bachman, provided lettering for the artwork, and his father, Jon Bachman, turned in an impassioned rendition of Billy Edd Wheeler’s “The Coal Tattoo,” which refers to distinctive blue scarring found on the skin of mine collapse survivors.
“My own family has a disastrous history in anthracite coal mining, and my own ancestor had a coal tattoo from a mine explosion that he was trapped in,” Bachman says. “To have my family members contribute on [“STOP MVP”] gives me extra motivation.”
The first voice you hear upon pressing play and the image that graces the album’s cover belong to another motivated advocate, Joshua Vana. An artist and musician who lives south of Charlottesville, Vana has logged seven years resisting the pipeline’s construction. He’s seen how art can help sustain a movement over the long haul.
“Music is the language that hits us in special ways that other languages cannot,” Vana says. “Being in the sixth year of construction in MVP’s case, a lot of folks down on the front lines are up against it every day, and when an artist shows up to devote a little piece of their heart to a bigger cause, it makes those folks feel seen and heard.”
Vana duets with Roanoke-based organizer Benradette “BJ” Lark on a live version of a song that was developed in conjunction with the SUN SiNG collective, a 2019 residency that aimed to write and record a new anti-pipeline anthem. The result, “To the River,” projects sober but determined hope: “We got the river running through us / And no river runs in vain.”
- Aldona Dye
- Daniel Bachman says his “own family has a disastrous history in anthracite coal mining,” with one ancestor having “a coal tattoo from a mine explosion that he was trapped in.”
Working on the compilation has been its own source of hope for Daniel Bachman, who could look out his windows at home and see the wildfire that started on Doubletop Mountain and scorched parts of Shenandoah National Park during October and November. The wait for rain was agonizing, mirroring the despair that can set in when documenting climate-related extremes. “Action really feels like it helps me,” Bachman says. “Maybe it could work for other people, too.”
“Building this community of artists against new fossil fuel infrastructure in the Middle Appalachians, it pumped me up,” he adds.
- Warren Parker, founder of WarHen Records in Charlottesville.
Warren Parker has already seen how the compilation has generated strength in numbers. “The people were clearly ready to rally,” he says. “I kind of deem it a success already, because the people who are involved wanted to do it.” He’s crossing his fingers that sales stack up as well, resulting in a more sizable donation to the Appalachian Legal Defense Fund.
Joshua Vana is looking even further down the road, knowing that this is unlikely to be the last fossil fuel infrastructure project he’ll oppose, and wondering how the artists on “STOP MVP” might collaborate in the future. “These 40 artists on two discs — it’s a bunch of seeds going out there, and who knows what might take root.”
“STOP MVP: Artists from WV, VA & NC Against the Mountain Valley Pipeline” will be released via WarHen Records on Friday, Dec. 1. To hear the compilation and purchase digital and CD editions, visit warhenrecords.bandcamp.com.
