Singer/songwriter Sam Hodgson turns Texas politics into folk songs—and hopes they start conversations.
At the very least, Sam Hodgson thought his songs about politics would be entertaining.
For more than a year now, the Austin singer-songwriter has used his music to weigh in on political issues in Texas and across the country.
Armed with a guitar and a folk sound reminiscent of a modern-day Woody Guthrie, Hodgson writes what he calls social commentaries. And while indeed entertaining, the 25-year-old has discovered his music is helping to foster important conversations online; his following has grown to more than 200,000 people on Instagram and TikTok.
That’s especially relevant right now as Texans cast their ballots for the midterm election. Hodgson isn’t trying to tell his followers how to vote. He wants his songs to encourage deeper thinking around issues and aid people in investigating their own values.
His first political song, “ Talking World War III Blues” was released last summer, inspired by President Donald Trump’s war with Iran. Afterward, Hodgson’s followers began asking him for his musical take every time a new shocking headline hit the news cycle.
But constantly chasing the news cycle quickly started to feel wrong.
“ I just found myself hoping for some news that was not good that I could write about..and I just hated that feeling,” he said. “That wasn’t the reason I wrote the first song.”
So Hodgson changed his approach. The Texas A&M graduate who studied legal philosophy and how complex systems function in society began to focus less on reacting to a specific incident and more on the biggest ideas behind them.
Take his song “The Coup,” for example.
“Well if I was gonna stage a coup in an upcoming election / what exactly would I do to safeguard my protection? / I think I’d build myself a great big room and some strategic placement / And I’d put guided missiles on the roof and data centers in the basement.
…
If I were gonna stage a coup in 2028 / I’d set up a crypto coin through my family’s estate / I’d take billions in contributions from foreign heads of state / I’d take Qatari jets and make 3000 inside trades.”
It’s “ just exposing the confluence of events that’s put us where we are now and the threat that it may pose come 2028 [during the next presidential election],” Hodgson said. “That was a conversation that I was having with my friends, and I just figured that’s something that I can say honestly.”
While Hodgson’s music is likely to strike a nerve with some, he said he doesn’t get a lot of negative messages. He’s actually heard from many conservatives who say they’ve never voted Democrat, but will this election for James Talarico or Gina Hinojosa.
In Hodgson’s political music, his style is to approach the topic from the view of the thinking he’s criticizing. That indirect framing leaves his work up for interpretation, and he likes it like that.
“ It’s funny to see what people take from it and what they don’t,” he said. “And it’s always different from what maybe you intended, but, that’s the thing about art: Once you put it out, it’s not yours anymore.”
Lyrics inspired by Texas
What do weed, immigration, Ken Paxton, and transgender rights have in common? They are all topics mentioned in Hodgson’s music.
The San Antonio native has plenty of material to draw from in his home state, and he doesn’t mince words about where he stands.. (Hear some of it in his latest song “Texas Justice at Work.”) He’s called the state’s criminalization of marijuana and abortion “barbaric” and “BS laws.” He’s referenced censorship and favoritism in the court system. And he finds the demonization of LGBTQ+ folks bizarre and views it as one side effect of the conservative co-opting of Christianity.
That’s one reason he’s been paying close attention to the US Senate race in Texas.
“ The only thing that a Christian must do is love their neighbor and, if you have any money, give it away and help the poor and care for the immigrant and feed the sick,” Hodgson said. “I think that Talarico’s doing a really good job of re-coopting Christianity into a loving thing rather than a fear-mongering thing, a nationalist thing.”
Immigration enforcement is another recurring subject for the songwriter. Hodgson said he’s deeply disturbed with how ICE detention centers have become normalized, calling the system an extension of the prison industrial complex. He considers such facilities “concentration camps” where immigrants and US citizens alike are “ being held without due process and shipped around like chattel.”
In “Talkin’ WWIII Blues,” Hodgson turns that anger into a verse about an encounter with an ICE agent:
“If you’re coming home from your vacation, stepping off of your flight / And you see a man approaching covering all but his eyes / You better hope you caught him in a happy mood or you’re white / Cause next he’ll take your kids and cuff your hands and he won’t read you your rights / And he loves Jesus Christ, the man from ICE.”
For all the issues he finds troubling, Hodgson remains hopeful about Texas’ future. And the change he wants goes beyond flipping deep-red districts. He’d rather see a state where every Texan feels represented.
“ We need to recognize that it’s not really a left versus right issue,” he said. “It’s a wealth imbalance that is kind of plaguing us right now. It’s a top versus bottom problem.”
And like his songs encourage, Hodgson wants more people to be open to having conversations with those with opposing viewpoints.
“It’s how revolutions start,” he said. “It’s how changes are made. I think that the idea that talking politics is taboo is not helpful.”
Hodgson doesn’t plan to stop talking politics anytime soon. He hopes to eventually release an EP of political songs. For now, he’s taking his long list of concerns to the ballot box, probably bumping tunes from great political songwriters he admires, such as Carsey Blanton and Jordan Smart.
His advice for Texans who may be approaching this political moment feeling overwhelmed or confused: Start with empathy.
“That’s pretty much my M.O.,”: Hodgson said. “Try to empathize with the people that are being pushed as the problem to you and try to figure out if that’s where the real problem lies.”
Hodgson’s next Texas performance is Nov. 20 at ACL Live in Austin, where he’ll perform with country singer Bryan Andrews.
