Dan Pallotta is a public figure in American philanthropy and an unknown figure in American
music. After creating the AIDSRides, the Breast Cancer 3-Day walks, and the Out of the Darkness Suicide Prevention walks, which had 182,000 participants and raised $600 million in nine years, Pollatta is returning to music at 61 years old. He writes stories from the perspective of characters who yearn to fulfill their true potential.
On “Keith Smerage”, Pallotta takes on a dark period in the history of America’s higher education the best way a folk singer can; with a finger-picked guitar and engaging storytelling. Pallotta’s ability to bring Smerage back to life through a humanizing telling of his plans and hopes in the face of hatred and tragedy make for a poignant example of the bigotry that’s still being fought to this day.
“My new single, “Keith Smerage,” was inspired by a horrific secret court established by Harvard University in 1920 to purge the campus of homosexuals. Thirty-two students who were suspected of being gay were questioned. Fourteen of them were ‘convicted’ and expelled from Harvard for being gay. Three of them took their own lives. One of the boys, Keith Smerage, is buried in the Pine Grove Cemetery in my hometown of Topsfield, Massachusetts,” says Pallotta.
“This song is sorrowful and contemplative, yet I also find its existence to be very hopeful.
Imagine if this kid, who thought he was forgotten, who believed his life never amounted to anything, could know that a hundred years later people all over the world, including many 21st century students at Harvard, would be hearing his story and building him a new legacy and that his legacy would be helping to build a more just society,” adds Pallotta.
