An obscure country singer is making waves after his song criticizing the political establishment went instantly viral.
Oliver Anthony, of rural Farmville, Virginia, has been propelled to country music stardom with his hit song “Rich Men North of Richmond,” which condemns politicians and laments the plight of working Americans. While the song has struck a chord with many, it has also faced critique, with some saying Anthony blames the wrong people for the suffering of blue-collar workers in his lyrics.
Those lyrics include criticism of those who Anthony says are “milkin’ welfare,” and others which make reference to conspiracy theories about the political elite.
On Aug. 8, 2023, Anthony, whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford, released the song, which debuted on Radiowv, a music platform showcasing musicians in West Virginia and the surrounding Appalachian region. Anthony had posted other songs on Spotify prior to his viral hit, including “Ain’t Gotta Dollar” and “Doggonit,” but neither received major national attention.
“Rich Men North of Richmond” changed all of that, making Anthony the only artist in musical history to have a song in the top 10 Charts without previously having one appear in the top 100.
Anthony’s personal life also changed drastically around the time his song became viral. Anthony, who was forced to quit his manufacturing job after a traumatic brain injury on the job in 2013, said he struggled for years with depression and drug abuse–issues he partly attributes to his injury.
Anthony compares his struggles with the hardship facing many rural blue-collar Americans.
In 2023 he made a rediscovery of his faith, though, and promised God that he would become sober if it allowed him to pursue his musical talents. This was the change, Anthony says, that helped cause his musical success.
“I quit worrying about me and I started worrying about what it is that I’m supposed to do,” Anthony said while appearing on the controversial podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
Anthony makes references to his experiences with depression and his subsequent discovery of faith in “Rich Men North of Richmond,” opening the song with the verse, “I’ve been selling my soul, working all day / So I can sit out here and waste my life away / Drag back home and drown my troubles away.”
The song’s chorus is perhaps most central to the political message of the song, in which Anthony references taxation and government surveillance.
“These rich men north of Richmond / Lord knows they all just wanna have total control / Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do / And they don’t think you know, but I know that you do ‘Cause your dollar ain’t s**t and it’s taxed to no end / ‘Cause of rich men north of Richmond.”
While the political tone of the song has struck a chord with many, others have been most impressed with the talent and musicality of Anthony’s performances.
Christopher Doubleday, a Williston junior, was drawn to the song because of Anthony’s singing and guitar playing.
“I like it because it’s a song with good lyrics, and [Anthony] is a good guitar player and he sings his lyrics very well,” he said.
Christopher also likes the political message about government apathy, which he believes many people can connect with.
“A lot of people are fed up with the way things have been going in this country recently, and they’re fed up with the way the government’s been acting,” he said. “That’s why they can connect to the song.”
Christopher is hopeful that Anthony’s music can bring attention to the issues facing some Americans.
“If we can bring more attention to the fact that our government isn’t looking out for the best interests of people, then changes will start to occur because people will become aware of that,” he said.
Steve Waksman, an author and a Professor of Music at Smith College, believes Anthony’s relatability, rather than his music alone, draws people to his performances.
“Musically speaking, it’s not the greatest song I’ve ever heard, but I can see why people would find it compelling,” Waksman explained. “He sounds worked up about some issues that are widely relatable, in the sense of speaking out on behalf of working people who are disenfranchised or disempowered.”
Some are not inspired by the message of the song, and instead see it as a promoter of dangerous conspiracy theories.
In one verse of the song, Anthony sings, “I wish politicians would look out for miners / And not just minors on an island somewhere,” a reference to Jeffrey Epstein’s island, a property owned by the disgraced financier with a history of pedophilic abuse. Some have used the history of the island to implicate the nation’s so-called “elite” class in pedophilic behavior.
Another verse criticizes “the obese milkin’ welfare,” a trope often used by Republicans like Ronald Reagan, who used the term “welfare queens” to describe those who supposedly exploit the social safety net.
David Cantwell, a music and culture critic for TIME magazine, believes criticism of so-called “welfare queens” is a distraction from the real issue.
“After all, slamming ‘the obese [who are] milkin’ welfare,” as Oliver does, reaches all the way back to ‘welfare queen’ stereotypes of the Reagan era, complete with their ugly racial implications,” Cantwell said. “But if you’re angry about low pay and the high-cost of living, and then point a finger at welfare recipients, you’ve been fooled by a distraction, turning the oppressed against one another instead of fighting together what holds them both down.”
While Anthony has faced criticism for economic and social commentary that some have called right-wing, he has made it clear that he is not a fan of Republican politicians either.
An excerpt of “Rich Men North of Richmond” was played at the first Republican Presidential debate on Aug. 23, with candidates asked to explain the song’s significance for working Americans.
Anthony was not impressed by the candidates’ responses, which he saw as overly political.
“The one thing that has bothered me is seeing people wrap politics up into this,” Anthony said in a video posted following the debate. “It’s aggravating seeing people on conservative news try to identify with me, like we’re fighting the same struggle here. We’re [not] trying to present the same message.”
Anthony even went so far as to say that the elite class the song criticizes include the Republican politicians on the debate stage that night, rebuking some claims that Anthony’s song is a primarily right-wing anthem.
Despite Anthony’s attempts to distance himself from conservative media, Waksman still attributes the song’s popularity to its conservative undertones.
“While he definitively seems to be playing both sides of the fence, there is no question that the song’s popularity is because it is registering with a conservative strand of politics,” Waksman said.
Where Oliver’s political message will take him, Waksman told The Willistonian, remains to be seen.
“He clearly doesn’t want to be pinned down to conservative politics, and I don’t know if it’s because his beliefs aren’t clearly in that direction, or if it’s just because he’s trying to make his audience broader,” Waksman said. “Time will tell as far as that goes.”