Artist Interview: Daniel Redwood

Featured on The Compassion Project: Songs for Animals, Humans, and Earth Justice A powerful voice in musical activism for decades, Daniel Redwood draws from folk traditions and deep moral conviction to create songs that spark compassion and justice. His work has appeared in Grammy-nominated collections and on national stages, from labor union halls to animal rights conferences. Redwood’s songs “Vegan Heart” and “Sanctuary Song,” featured on The Compassion Project, continue his legacy of truth-telling through music — honoring the lives of animals, advocating for systemic change, and calling listeners into a more awakened, compassionate state of being.

Was there something or someone who was the "catalyst" for you to go into music?What catalyzed it for me was being deeply moved by musical performances of great songs that conveyed compassion and a desire for fairness and justice for all, grounded in nonviolence and a recognition of the dignity of every individual. I saw Joan Baez and Bob Dylan in concert when I was 14. I was at a summer camp and they brought a few dozen of us older campers in a yellow bus to a big college gym a couple of hours away. I heard Dylan sing “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall,” that magnificent epic, and felt deep in my bones a kind of energy that was new to me. I can still hear Joan’s voice soaring into a different dimension on “We Shall Overcome” as we all sang along, thousands strong. That concert opened a door for me that I feel like I’m still walking through. The next year, my parents surprised me with a nylon-string guitar for my birthday. I started playing it and within a year or so, I had switched over to a steel-string guitar and I’ve kept on playing one of those ever since.

The songs I wanted to sing, the kind that I started to write a few years later and continue to create, are songs about the quest for freedom and justice, and resistance to injustice, oppression and war. Over time, the songs I consider my best songs are ones I’ve written and sung for the causes I believe in: for peace, the environment, workers’ rights, and animal rights.

What has been the highlight of your music path? One of my songs, “La Lucha Continuará (The Struggle Goes On)” was included in the Smithsonian Institution’s Grammy-nominated 5-CD collection, Best of Broadside: Anthems of the American Underground, 1962-1988, alongside songs by many of my singer-songwriter heroes: Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Malvina Reynolds among them. "La Lucha" tells the story of Nan “Morning Glory” Freeman, a young college student killed while on a picket line supporting sugar workers in Belle Glade, Florida. A few months after writing that song, I was invited to visit the United Farmworkers Union headquarters in the mountains outside Bakersfield, California, to meet with union cofounder César Chávez in his office, which is now preserved as part of the César E. Chávez National Monument, dedicated in 2012 by President Obama. Along with a wide-ranging conversation with Cesar late into the evening, the highlight for me during that visit was singing “La Lucha Continuará” and several other songs in a room with César and several dozen Mexican-American farmworker union organizers. Singing “Nosotros Venceremos (We Shall Overcome)” in Spanish and English that day, with everyone joining in and the room absolutely ringing with all those voices and my 12-string Martin guitar, remains one of the great highlights not just of my music path but of my life. I visited that room again 44 years later and was filmed singing and being interviewed for the Teach with Movies educational film, Cesar Chavez: Respect for All.

How do you approach songwriting or what is your creative process like? I want my songs to tell stories based as much as possible on direct experience. There’s a great quote from Woody Guthrie about this, “All you can write is what you see.” I want my animal rights songs to express why justice for all beings matters so much to me. To a great extent, my animal rights songs have been inspired by meeting rescued animals in sanctuaries, getting to know them, appreciating their unique personalities and their openness to people despite their past suffering at the hands of other people.

As for the actual process of my songwriting, almost always the music comes before the words. It starts with guitar chord changes and a melody. I’ll strum it and pick it and sing it for a while, just humming and oohing for the vocals, looking to catch a glimpse of what the song should be about. When inspiration strikes, maybe a short phrase flows in, or even a single word. And if that resonates deeply enough for me as the songwriter, it’s like the song now has a solid anchor. An anchor lyric, imbued with meaning. That initial lyric might turn out to be the first words of the song, or maybe it won’t appear until later when more of the story has been developed. Those moments when that first lyric emerges have a magic to them; they’re some of my most satisfying experiences as a songwriter.

Do you have a new release? I’m very happy that two of my songs, “Sanctuary Song” and “Vegan Heart,” were chosen for a collection called The Compassion Project: Songs for Animals, Humans, and Earth Justice, scheduled for release in September 2025.My most recent release of animal rights songs is the album, For the Animals, which includes “Vegan Heart,” with lyrics by my wife Beth Lily Redwood that I set to music. Also on that album is “Just Like Us,” an anthem about the depth of our relationship to all animals, especially the kinds that humans for far too long have used and abused as sources for food, clothing, entertainment, and medical experiments. The songs on For the Animals are a follow-up to my first animal rights album, Songs for Animals, People and the Earth, which was released in 2013. That album, which led to my performing for over 1000 attendees at the opening night of the National Animal Rights Conference that year, includes “Sanctuary Song” and seven others. I am grateful beyond words to my producer and sound engineer, Mark Thies of Markosa Studios, for the sound quality on all of these recordings.

If you could share the stage or a song session with an artist, who would it be? Joan Baez. I appeared on a stage with her once long ago, with a group of other musicians singing and playing “We Shall Overcome” together. This was in a California church that was offering sanctuary to several sailors who had decided that they couldn’t in good conscience participate any longer in the war our nation was waging in Vietnam.

For over 60 years, Joan has been an unwavering voice for peace, compassion, decency, justice, and nonviolent activism. I am deeply inspired by her continued commitment to doing this even now that she’s in her mid-80s.

For fans who have never heard your music, how would you describe your sound? In person, it’s basically me and my guitar, a solo acoustic singer-songwriter in the folk tradition. My guitar style is mainly fingerpicking, although some of the more rousing songs I sing definitely call for a flat pick. When I started learning the basics of fingerpicking long ago, it was in a style then (and probably still) known as Travis picking. There’s a ring and a rhythm to it that I’ve loved since the first time I heard it. As for my overall sound, I think the vocals are the central element, with the guitar and any other instruments playing supporting roles.

On my recordings, the sound broadens and deepens. I’m often accompanied by an electric bass, and sometimes with other instruments like a cello or piano, or harmony vocals.

What is your favorite part about being an artist? Is it songwriting, performing, producing...something else? Most of all, it's the songwriting, but I've also had some deeply satisfying experiences performing live.

When you are not doing music, what else do you enjoy doing? I enjoy hanging out with my wife and our cats, spending time in nature, growing organic fruits and vegetables, listening to music of many kinds, reading fiction and nonfiction books, and watching documentaries and dramas. As a vegan for 20 years, I love going to vegan restaurants with friends, preparing nutritious meals at home, visiting animal sanctuaries where my wife takes photos, attending local vegan gatherings, and giving talks in the community about plant-based nutrition. Another important part of my life is doing what I can to contribute to movements for social justice, democracy, and animal rights.

I have a “day job” I enjoy very much, which adds meaning to my life and gives me the chance to be helpful to others. I’m a professor and director of nutrition and functional medicine programs at the University of Western States. This includes teaching courses, supervising the faculty, keeping our academic programs running as smoothly as possible, and connecting with students from all over North America and many other parts of the world.

What is coming up in the future for you? I think it was Yogi Berra who said that the future isn’t what it used to be. There are so many unknowns. Most important of all, climate change is part of our collective future and increasingly of our present. Doing whatever we can to help avoid the most catastrophic climate change scenarios is the most important task facing humanity; it’s our foremost responsibility to future generations. Because animal agriculture has such devastating effects on our planet’s lands, waters, forests, and animals, going vegan or at a minimum taking major steps in that direction is something that needs to become far more common. My songs “Plant the Seeds,” “Choose a New Story,” and “Vegan Heart” are vegan environmental songs through which I’ve sought to express this.

Aside from reversing climate change, my most fervent wish for the future is that democracy and social justice prevail in my country and elsewhere. For me, serving these causes is the highest form of patriotism. I want to continue to contribute to these crucial movements in whatever ways I can, musically and otherwise.

About Daniel Redwood Daniel Redwood is a veteran singer-songwriter and activist known for his socially conscious folk music. He has released two acclaimed albums of animal rights songs: Songs for Animals, People and the Earth and For the Animals. His songs have been featured by the Smithsonian Institution and performed at major events, including the National Animal Rights Conference. A lifelong advocate for justice, Redwood’s music continues to uplift, inspire, and spark compassionate action.

Links:

• Website

• Spotify

  
  

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