Kirby Lyle - Change is Hard
Kirby Lyle gives us the musical punch and kick required to fight for our rights on Change is Hard, writes Bee Delores.
"Truth passes onward, even if you won't," sings Kirby Lyle in the title track to his new solo EP, Change is Hard. Those seven words speak directly to the United States in this moment. If we (read: white people) won't put ourselves on the front lines, there's no saving this country, democracy, and freedom. That sentiment feeds into the rest of the project like venom pumping in the veins, and there's only one absolute: you'll die if you don't fight back.
Lyle enlists a host of top-tier players to bring the musical punch and kick required for such a fiery collection of protest songs. Those are: Kyle Tuttle (banjo), Alex Genova (banjo), Maya de Vitry (vocals, fiddle), John Mailander (violin), Ethan Jodziewicz (bass), Sav Madigan (vocals, mandolin on “Equal"), Erika Nalow (saxophone), and Nick Rapley (drums). There's a resilience echoed from the lyrics into the arrangements, as though the musicians understand their obligation to move the needle forward.
"All people should be equal," Lyle rallies in "Equal," with Madigan's voice falling like droplets of nectar. Their words are both an alarming cry into the night and covered in the hope that one day, even if decades from now, this statement will actually come true. "We all have the right to exist, to be who we are, so we must resist," the pair encourages the listener. As the oppressor tightens his grip, all we really have is community to drive us ahead into the smoke, literally and metaphorically.
Lyle bookends the project with the stormy-eyed "Wind Chimes." With the sax's sweet, yet mournful, tone sliding in and out of the mix, there's a decidedly torturous and haunted production wrapped tightly around lyrics about genocide. Instruments crunch and distort in the cold wind that blows throughout the composition. It's a warning that the darkness is already twisting the wind chimes on the porch. It's only a matter of time before evil forces come barging in.
Kirby Lyle's Change is Hard EP, which is not all doom and gloom (as found with the jubilant "Joy") and actually presses the listener to hear and enjoy the beauty in the world around them, arrives as an unapologetically earnest and torchy declaration. In 2026, art remains a vital piece of protest. In whatever form (film, music, painting, etc.), there's no better mode of expressing collective angst, unrest, rebellion, and truth-seeking than the art we make. We couldn't get by without it.
