Ken Tizzard is a Newfoundland-based singer-songwriter and bassist for The Watchmen.
When radio station 97.5 KROCK aired a Springsteen special featuring tributes from local artists, Tizzard contributed a song that meant a lot to him.
“Devils & Dust” captured Tizzard’s imagination not because he could identify with it, but because he couldn’t–until he heard Bruce sing it.
“I have never been to war,” he wrote on his web site. “I have never had to make the choices that people have had to make in war. I have never killed another person, or watch my friends be killed in battle. I cannot understand the fear, sadness, and the emotional weight of such an event. Sometimes a songwriter, through their own experience or through something they’ve gleaned from a trusted first hand source, will tap into one of these unimaginable events. Through their words I can catch a glimpse of something I would never truly understand.”
Tizzard’s cover is a deeply empathic one and a great example of how music helps us understand a world much bigger than our own place in it.