Pianist/composer Conrad Tao's third Warner Classics album, entitled 'American Rage', traces the roots of rebellion from the 1930s Harlan County labor disputes, through the trauma of 9/11, to the deep divisions of the present day. Bookended by two expansive works by Frederic Rzewski, 'Which Side Are You On', based on Florence Reece's 1931 protest song, and 'Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues', an industrial folk song that reflects the unjust factory working conditions. The album centres on Julia Wolfe's 'Compassion', written in the wake of 9/11, and Aaron Copland's elegiac 'Piano Sonata'.
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