Illinois Entertainer January 2018 | Page 8

Billy Five years ago, when he released his staunch anti-Rupert Murdoch tune “Never Buy the Sun” in the wake of that paper’s blatant hacking of celebrity cell- phones, British protest singer Billy Bragg learned a valuable lesson – in the future, he would always have to strike while the days, having just turned 60, Bragg delights in doing the unexpected, like his 2016 Field Recordings collaboration with Joe Henry, or his latest book – Roots, Radical & Rockers – How Skiffle Changed the World. Naturally, outside of his shrewd material, he has quite a lot to say about our current Idiocracy prescient political climate. ILLINOIS ENTERTAINER: So what – in your opinion – is going on out there in this crazy world r