Pokey LaFarge's new single, "Riot in the Streets," takes its inspiration from the unrest in Ferguson that followed the 2014 shooting of eighteen-year-old Michael Brown by then-Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.
The song, which was released on Wednesday, is the first from LaFarge's forthcoming album Manic Revelations, due May 19 on Rounder Records. It includes references to tear gas, "the gun that takes away a mother's son" and even West Florissant Avenue, the Ferguson road where much of 2014's unrest was situated.
"It is a tough thing to write about, but as a citizen of St. Louis and as an artist, I had to say something.…