Dana Lyons is an American

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

and

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

musician, who wrote and performed the 1996 comedic folk song "Cows With Guns".

Life

Lyons was born in

Kingston, New York Kingston is the only Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in, and the county seat of, Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany, New York, Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grou ...

, grew up in

Niskayuna, New York Niskayuna is a town in Schenectady County, New York, United States. The population was 23,278 at the 2020 census. The town is located in the southeast part of the county, east of the city of Schenectady, and is the easternmost town in the county. ...

, and graduated from

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...

in 1982. His

environmentalist Environmentalism is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of Green politics, g ...

song "Our State Is a Dumpsite", became the subject of a proposal in the

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

legislature during the 1980s to be made the official state song. He went on to perform music for the environmental group

Earth First! Earth First! is a radical environmentalism, radical Environmental movement, environmental advocacy group that originated in the Southwestern United States. It was founded in 1980 by Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, Bart Koehler, and Ron K ...

and to record an album of children's music, ''At Night They Howl at the Moon'' before releasing the song "Cows With Guns," on the album of the same title, in 1996. Lyons is the author of the children's book ''The Tree'' (2002).

Jane Goodall Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall; 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English zoologist, Primatology, primatologist and Anthropology, anthropologist. She is considered the world's foremo ...

penned the foreword and David Danioth provided the illustrations. Lyons currently resides in

Bellingham, Washington Bellingham ( ) is the county seat of Whatcom County, Washington, Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It lies south of the Canada–United States border, U.S.–Canada border, between Vancouver, British Columbia, ...

Career

Lyons has toured in 46 of the 50 American states, around the East Coast of Australia and across Ireland, England, New Zealand, Mexico, Kazakhstan and Siberia. Lyons has performed at

Farm Aid Farm Aid is an annual benefit concert held for American farmers. History On July 13, 1985, before performing "When The Ship Comes In" with Keith Richards and Ron Wood at the Live Aid benefit concert for the 1983–1985 Ethiopian famine, B ...

and the Harley Davidson Festival in

Sturgis, South Dakota Sturgis is a city in Meade County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 7,020 as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It is the county seat of Meade County and is named after Samuel D. Sturgis, a Union Army, Union general dur ...

. Two of Lyons’s songs have been made into illustrated books: ''Cows With Guns'', published by Penguin, and ''The Tree'', published by Illumination Arts.

Discography

*''Our State is a Dumpsite'' (1985) *''Animal'' (1988) *''I'd Go Anywhere to Fight for Oil to Lubricate the Red, White and Blue'' (1991) *''Turn of the Wrench'' (1992) *''At Night They Howl at the Moon: Environmental Songs for Kids'' with John Seed (1993) *''Cows with Guns'' (1997) – No. 32 album Australia * ''WTO Disco'' (2002) *''Ride the Lawn'' (2004) *''Circle the World'', songs and stories with

(2004) *''Three Legged Coyote'' (2009) *''The Great

Salish Sea The Salish Sea ( ) is a List of seas on Earth #Terminology, marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean located in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia and the States of the United States , U.S. state of Washingto ...

'' (2014) * ''Adani Convoy'' (parody of Convoy) (2019) * ''Give Me An Easy Morning'' (2020)

Bibliography

*''Cows with Guns'' illustrated by Jeff Sinclair, 1998 *''The Tree'' illustrated by David Danioth, 2002

References

External links

Official site

Dana Lyons on Myspace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyons, Dana People from Bellingham, Washington Swarthmore College alumni Living people Musicians from Kingston, New York Year of birth missing (living people)