Folk rock duo HuDost has the medicine against anger on single “Acting Out the Outrage”

Righteous outrage is society’s most perfect perpetual motion machine: once it gets going, it has little trouble generating its own energy and heat. Lowering that temperature is the goal of “Acting Out the Outrage,” the new single from eclectic, electric rock/folk duo HuDost that urges us to at least reduce the simmering culture wars.

Melody partners Moksha Sommer and Jemal Wade Hines have made a call for empathy and tolerance that still manages to sound measured and sensible, without lapsing into a knee-jerk approach to either side or victim blaming.

A little rain removes static electricity
Free our eyes from all panic
Take a breather from all that manic
Little room for our mistakes

In keeping with the message of “chill out,” the song starts off as a light, slow jam that fully exposes the beautiful richness of Sommer’s voice. But just past the halfway point, just when you start to wonder whether HuDost really thinks a lullaby is the best remedy for social injustice, it degenerates into a double rave-up that fully justifies the duo’s reputation as passionate activists.

The anti-hero, the prophet and the sage, they are
Portraying the indignation
Portraying the indignation
The CEO, the politician on a crusade
To portray the outrage, to portray the outrage

Sommer and Hines say they were prompted to write and release the song by Tennessee’s ban on drag performances, which clearly struck a chord with the Kentucky-by-way-of-Quebec outfit. The context is made clear by the accompanying music video, which features a breathtaking transformation of Canada’s Queen KIARA into a full-fledged Pride parade. But the song’s breadth and deliberate ambiguity reflect HuDost’s belief that performative upheaval distorts and delegitimizes a host of other important issues, including women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, faith, race, education, and politics at large.

“We live in a time of challenges,” the group says. “On social media, debates rage on every topic, with little attention paid to those who influence those debates. What if we heard the perspectives of people whose lives are truly being affected? What if we shared the stage instead of stealing the spotlight?”

When it comes to their own music, HuDost are certainly willing to share the spotlight. They co-wrote the new track with Jars of Clay’s Dan Haseltine, and the recording itself finds them joined by a host of friendly collaborators. In addition to the core contributions of Sommer (on vocals, keys, and harmonium) and Hines (guitars, vocals, production), the track features Hasletine’s bandmate Charlie Lowell on keys, as well as Chris Powell (Brandi Carlile) on drums, Dan Walters on bass, and Kai Welch (Kacey Musgraves) on horns. The “gang” backing vocals were provided by Liza Holbrook (SHEL), Rachael Davis, Matthew Odmark, Bethany Bordeaux, and “Charlie” (with Sommer and Hines joining in to flex even more muscle).

This loose, collaborative approach is typical of the way HuDost works. Sometimes they are a duo; sometimes they are a full-fledged band, with guest musicians with different sensibilities and backgrounds. Often they broaden their focus even further by involving dancers in their stage presence. The instrumentation makes room for vocals, harmonium (the Indian pump organ), live looping and beats, NORD Keys, guitars, Dulcinet, percussion and a range of sonic ambient effects. The result is a unique mix of pop, rock and more exotic elements, ranging from traditional Sufi music to the folk sounds of Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia and other faraway places.

Cultural curiosity serves this couple well. They met when Sommer was just a teenager, on an impulsive trip from her home in Montreal to a Rumi Festival organized by Turkish Sufis in North Carolina. Hines played frame drums there, and their encounter blossomed into a partnership in every sense of the word: a band, a marriage, and a life together as activists fighting the good fight. Throughout their personal and professional relationship, they have been steadfast supporters of initiatives like ONE, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty.

Their journey together took a bumpy turn in 2008, when Sommer underwent painful brain surgery to remove a tumor. Afterward, she had to relearn her language skills, cope with the temporary loss of her normal vision, and endure a series of nasty seizures. But despite the many challenges, the couple emerged with two healthy children: son Kaleb, born in 2013, and baby Sylvan, due in 2022.

Meanwhile, they’ve continued to flourish artistically. Their albums have received critical acclaim—writer Kristi Wooten called HuDost’s music “as holy as a church service, but without the identifiers that can divide and shame nonbelievers”—while also making a big splash on the charts, reaching #4 on the Canadian National Folk/Roots/Blues Chart, #9 on the US Folk Radio Charts, and #24 on the Billboard Folk/Americana chart. In the process, they’ve won an Independent Music Award for Social Action Song, and in 2020 they were honored to receive two “Best of Nashville” awards.

Now that the new single is out, HuDost has a busy second half of 2024 planned, with live shows booked across the United States. The dates are as follows:

July 27-28 – Trails & Vistas, Tahoe, CA
July 31 – Oregon Shakespeare Fest, Ashland, OR
August 1 – New World Concerts, Corvallis, OR
August 3 – Water Sines Studio, Seattle, WA
August 9 – BlueMoon, Vancouver, BC
August 31 – Floyd Yoga Jam, Floyd, VA
September 13 – Allerton Park Concerts, Monticello, IL
September 20-22 – Earthwork Harvest Gathering, Lake City, MI
November 2 – The Pittsburgh Witches Ball, Pittsburgh, PA
November 7 – The Ringling, Sarasota, FL
November 8-9 – Gainesville, FL (location TBA)

After all that activity has died down, 2025 will bring a new HuDost album, of which “Acting Out the Outrage” is just a tantalizing glimpse. And who knows? Maybe by then the world will have learned to stop producing drama and just live and let live. Okay, probably not. But spend some time with this crew and see if you don’t come away with the feeling that anything is possible.