Much of the album contains themes that deal with recent American controversies . Regarding his general style , Parks said , " I think it is safe to say that my work can be branded Americana , but I think it 's also safe to say it can be branded ' anti-Americana ' and ' an inconvenient truth ' as well . … There is very little ' divergent music ' made in America . I go to ' worldbeat ' to get out of the box . I think those influences show in my perspective . " He continues , " I 'm not troubled by variety ; I like that in a show . I think it 's okay to have that kind of a diet , and that confuses people who want an album all wrapped up , lassoed like a branded cow . They want it all to somehow be '' tightly '' connected , but I ca n't do that . " Parks named his cover of Billy Edd Wheeler 's " Sassafrass " as " outlaw chamber music , " elaborating , " I did something heretical in taking his simple song and having my way with it — and deconstructing it intentionally as an ' inquiry ' into the song — and hopefully to still celebrate the charm of its author . " The songs about real-life tragedies were written almost immediately after the events occurred . Parks chose not to record and release them for many years out of respect to the victims , whom he did not want to capitalize on . " Black Gold " was written and recorded shortly after the 2002 Prestige oil spill and has lyrics dealing with a fantasized version of the events . " Wall Street " was written as a response to the September 11 attacks , and " Money Is King " is described by Parks as " picking up where it left off , " illustrating greed in post-9 / 11 corporate America . Parks elected to write additional lyrics for " Money Is King , " the original author of which is Trinidadian calypsonian Growling Tiger . The American bombing of Baghdad is also explored in the lyrics to " Dreaming of Paris " . " Missin ' Missippi " was written about the Hurricane Katrina disaster , which devastated New Orleans in 2005
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Songs Cycled