Album Notes

"No Tea for Me" is the latest and perhaps most significant topical political protest song from Mike Skliar. In addition to his varied song material about relationships, love, history, famous people, life and death , etc , contained on his two albums to date "Mike Skliar" (2005) and "Ship of State"(2009), Mike continues to write, record and perform topical songs documenting the current political and social climate here in the United States. Many of these songs have not been officially released but have been played on Pacifica Radio, specifically WBAI's "Monthly Laughing Nightmare" or "Christmas Coup Comedy Players" show which appear on WBAI radio every month.

The trick to doing topical and/or political material effectively, and not making it overly didactic or 'preachy', Mike feels, is in injecting a healthy dose of humor into the proceedings. Thus, the sometimes outrageous rhymes, the disarming conversational tone, and the barbed and satiric nature of the song all ideally works as entertainment as well as putting forth a point of view.

Now perhaps more then ever, in these fractured and rancorous political times, there needs to be songs to inspire, to sum up the arguments and state the issues clearly and effectively, while keeping the enjoyment and entertainment level high.

The song was recorded using a resonator guitar, bass, harmonica (all played by singer/composer Mike Skliar) with drums by Paul "Hoopshank" Turrell. It's got a modified bluesy structure, with an added bridge (not usually found in blues songs) and there's probably more words crammed in there then the average four minute song, but there's alot to say on the subject!

Listeners who have heard the song liken it to "a musical Huffington Post", and there's been great interest in getting the song out there to the wider public, especially right after it was written (in the spring of 2010, to be exact).