Phil Ochs, the humanist troubadour who had a special incisiveness and edge to his creations, was a vital creative voice of the protest era and one of my artistic heroes. He fell into depression and ultimately suicide in the 1970s, in part from an inherited condition, mixed with alcoholism, a declining career and the pressure of reactionary forces in American society. During the Trump era I think often of how Phil was affected by how hard it is to be a concerned artist and feel despair by how ineffectual whatever our methods are for dealing with forces beyond our control. As much as Phil is a hero, he’s also a human being and I didn’t want to ignore the lessons we could take from the tragedy of his legend.